i keep thinking about how  fortunate anne and charles are to wake up to this breathtaking garden every morning.

but on the other hand i bet sometimes anne wakes up and looks at it and thinks WHAT ONE MILLION THINGS DO I HAVE TO DO TODAY?

and sometimes charles is hiking around in other parts of the country or maybe in spain or something.

we arrived at Veddw at a little before four o’clock, and just kept running all around looking at all the beauty everywhere.

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not to mention that it’s sitting on such a perfect piece of land, with the rolling hills in the background.  we can’t move to wales, because kevin can’t get good care for his diabetes there.  plus i wouldn’t want to be that far from my family.  but they could move with us!  but not enough diabetes doctors…

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this is called Charles’ wood.  Charles bought it from the Forestry Commission a few years after they arrived at Veddw.

I realize that there is a lot more detail about the garden in one of Anne’s books.  “the Bad Tempered Gardener” is a delightful book, about her garden and gardening and life in general.  i highly recommend it.  you can buy it on amazon, but i was lucky to buy a signed copy from the author.

The Bad Tempered Gardener

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here’s the interesting bit that anne wrote on her site about this sign.

I want to include the people who worked this land in the past in the garden, to remember them and to try to imagine a little of what their world was like.

This gate displays some quotations about the people who lived here in the 19th century, written in the first half of the nineteenth century on one side.

On the other is an extract from the Survey of the Manor of Chepstow August 15th 1687, identifying the Veddw at that time as ‘Waste’, which was similar to a Common.

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she has so much crocosmia, the beautiful flower that i saw for the first time in ireland at Powerscourt Gardens.  I just looked it up, and crocosmia are deer-resistant.  i actually found a listing of a bunch of lovely flowers that theoretically the deer won’t eat, and i’m printing it out now.  so next spring, lots more new flowers!  but our yard could never look spectacular like this one.

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this is a delightful little covered bench, which we sat on because it started to rain a bit.

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sheep in the field just beyond the garden.

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i love all the giant thistles.

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so much loving care goes into this garden!  i have just a few more photos…

ok then,

mrs. 4th of july hughes, on what should be a day of celebrating but it’s cold and dreary and i have a wretched cold.