Friday Bliss # 47, The Walled Garden, library, my reading

This week I went to the library in the park ....

....then took a walk through the walled garden to get to the woodland area. (Below) At the entrance gate, down the path ahead is the turquoise/green door of the original gardeners' rooms built into the wall, still in use.  I went in there once when our local history group were doing a study of the old house and estate. Across to the left is the back entrance of the walled garden set into the wall that's painted orangey red.

Through the arch of greenery is the rose garden.

 The kitchen garden - espaliered fruit trees grow along the wall.

 herbs in flower

dianthus and trailing pelargoniums

 in the old wheelbarrow

rambling roses climb on the walls

lilies grow along the path by the wall

plumbago in one of the greenhouses

 dahlias in a raised flower bed

grasses and palm area - a palm in fruit

lavender bushes

and campanulas

just a few of the flowers in the walled garden seen last Monday

Lately I've been engrossed in books about Tudor court life. Watch the Lady is an historical novel about Penelope Devereux, a daughter of Lettice Knollys.  I used the non fiction book about Lettice Knollys, Elizabeth's Rival, a lot as a reference book.  It's very detailed and helpful with several family trees. I'm fascinated by the Knollys family because of the connection with my Berkshire home town.  The Girl in the Glass Tower is an historical novel about Arbella Stuart, a pawn in the ambitions of nobility at the Tudor court of Elizabeth I. Her grandmother was 'Bess of Hardwick' so there's a connection with Hardwick Hall and Chatsworth House and Estate in Derbyshire.  I shall be reading Tombland, a Matthew Shardlake Tudor mystery during August.  I've been waiting ages for my turn on the reserve list at the library.  It's some 700 pages plus historical notes researched and written by the author so that should keep me occupied for the next week or two.

 Joining Riitta's Friday Bliss linkup

Have a good weekend!

A walk in the park

My visits to the library in the park give me the opportunity to walk through the walled garden and into the woodland area.  During the Springtime a lot of work was being done by the park rangers and volunteers to make it an even more attractive place for visitors and school groups who come to learn more about what can be found in a woodland environment. 

On Monday afternoon I walked that way as I knew that there had been work done on the area around the pond and the stumpery. It also means that I pass the herbaceous border which I knew would be full of plants that attract insects and butterflies. 

the notice says 'Welcome to our pond'

the Stumpery

Some new paths have been cleared, which adds to the interest.

School children have decorated the old tree trunk in the Stumpery

with wool pom poms that they've made.

Looking back towards the herbaceous flower borders and the gardeners' 

outhouses and rest room.  Berries for the birds on the tree trunk bird table.

the herbaceous border

a huge bumble bee

The living willow 'house' construction loved by children

- sweet peas have been planted and are growing up into the branches.

The Gardeners' Rooms and an entrance into the Walled Garden.

Yesterday we had storms and heavy rain. I've heard that North Yorkshire around beautiful Swaledale was hit by flash floods as the becks/streams broke their banks, ran down into roads causing landslips and small bridges to collapse which meant that villages were cut off. Today the weather is calmer here in South Yorkshire and I hope that life gets back to normal for those who live further north of our region.