A couple of days ago my swan-follower reader sent me a picture of the family on Hampstead Pond 1. All present and correct. (Cygnet number 5 was making a break over at the edge of the pond.) But yesterday, on the Boating Pond, there were just the parents….. The buzz is that the cygnets are …
Another casualty…..
Do you remember this fine L-shaped tree? I noticed it some months ago and was so impressed by the perfect symmetry of its fall. Well, sadly, I fear that the upright of the L has fallen victim to the gales of the last ten days. I am not sure when it happened but the leaves …
And yet more music on the heath….
I headed home yesterday afternoon through the wood to a chorus – no a cacophony – of parakeets and crows. I am sure someone will berate me for being unappreciative but, oh where are the tuneful trills of spring?… Anyhow, emerging from the woods I thought I heard someone singing in the distance, so I …
So, on to Mapperton House – still in the rain!
Mapperton House is a hundred plus years younger than Cothay and was extensively ‘remodelled’ in the 1660s and then again in the 18th century but remains a stunningly beautiful building. Lots of great images on their website but the point of this blog is to show you the gardens in the rain… So, moving on…. …
Cothay Manor and Mapperton House – in the rain
It is such a truly awful day here in Highgate – charcoal grey skies, pouring with rain, thick-cardigan cold – that it seemed the right moment to report on my extremely soggy visits last week to the wonderful gardens at Cothay Manor and Mapperton House in Dorset. I was staying my my keen gardening friend, …
Queen’s Wood oaks win temporary reprieve
Back in July I wrote about the oaks in Queen Wood that were under threat because an insurance company doesn’t want to pay the costs of underpinning the property which they say is threatened by the trees. Well, according to their Change.org petition they have won a brief reprieve: