if you’re reading this before all the other postings for today, you must click here:
to read all about Anne Wareham and Charles Hawes’ splendid garden tucked off in a corner of Wales.
at this point in the day, we’d been at Veddw for only about 45 minutes, going kind of crazy looking at all the beauty everywhere.
here’s a close-up of crocosmia, my new favorite flower.
i love this picture of kevin; it’s one of the few photos of our trip that i’ve managed to print out and hang on the wall so far.
here’s what anne writes on her site about this spot in the garden.
This seat and the surrounding hedge are on a slope – and it is not comfortable to sit on a sloping seat. Or, indeed, to look at one. We contemplated this problem when Chris Young, a friend and the editor of The Garden, visited. Between us we came up with this dramatic disguise of the slope. We levelled the seat by cutting its legs.
If you go to the site, there’s a nifty map of the garden, and you can click on the links to see photos of the different sections. or you can just keep looking at my pictures…
and this is what she writes about this lovely area.
The meadow has probably not been ploughed for over 200 years. Apart from a generous addition of bulbs for the spring we have left it as meadow, taking the grass off every year. The anemones, wild orchids, cowslips, ox eye daisies and wild grasses have multiplied and reassure us we are doing a good thing here.
there’s a giant arched shrub right behind this fountain, but i was so intent in getting a close-up of the fountain that i have no photo of the arch.
it’s called the hornbeam arch, and anne wrote about it on her blog here:
i must have been standing under the arch when i took this!
we walked all around and then back up to where we’d started.
if i lived there, i’d walk up and sit on that bench every day.
i finally had to stop taking pictures because it started to rain. i did get a little bit of video in the rain, though.
we’d been at the garden for about an hour, and then we sat in the greenhouse with anne and charles and had tea, which included some delicious chocolate sandwich cookies. i managed to remember the cookies even though i didn’t write it down, because of course i almost always remember food.
anne and charles are interesting and fun and kind, and it seemed too bad that we only had the chance to meet them and then dash away. we did buy multiple copies of anne’s book “the bad-tempered gardener,” and i gave one to my friend wanda, who is an avid gardener herself.
i took one last picture as we walked back up the hill to our car.
charles and kevin! a jolly good time was had by all. and now kevin has started writing on his own blog, and there’s a photo of me with charles! it’s funny to see photos that kevin has posted of our trip, because i haven’t seen any of them yet! it’s reassuring to know that i was actually there…
i’m pretty sure this is an old train car? on the back of their property. my plan is to renovate it and turn it into a little tea room, and kevin and i can run it for them.
whew, that’s most of sunday…but believe it or not, i still have a few more photos from our misadventures after leaving Veddw.
the end of the trip is so near!
ok then,
mrs. g. h.
Hi from Wales!
I’ve been reading through your posts about your visit to Wales. I’m glad you found the weather here normal! We have a saying that it never stops raining in Wales, it’s just that sometimes the rain is dry! I’m glad you liked Veddw. It’s a place that somehow always draws me back (even if Anne and Charles don’t always offer tea!). My first visit there was in the pouring rain. Charles was, I think, at work and Anne was ensconced happily in the conservatory hoping that hordes of visitors would suddenly appear. I had the garden to myself. Standing under the overgrowth (or sheltering in the garage when it got just that bit too wet), all I could hear was the sound of the rain and the odd brave bird chirping away. And it was as if the garden was singing. It’s a magical place. Come back soon!
thanks, john! and thanks for saying it’s a magical place – i felt like i was using that word way too often when describing it, but couldn’t think of anything more perfect. we’d really like to come back as soon as we can…
Did I ever thank you for this, Grace? Have a horrible feeling my intention got lost in life’s clutter. I can’t tell you how touching and sweet I find you and your responses to Wales, and Veddw. Come back soon! Xxxxxx
no worries, anne, thank YOU for being you! yesterday, kevin’s birthday, we actually started talking about another trip to wales!