Didsbury Open Gardens
Sunday was Didsbury Open Gardens day. I managed nine of the 30 gardens open to the public; if I'd started more promptly and been more systematic I might have managed double that, but over the years I've got round a lot of them, and we were going for a slight bias to sites we hadn't visited before combined with old favourites governed by convenient geographical clusters. (They're scattered across quite a wide area, and I think a car or bicycle might be necessary to fit the lot in.)
I remembered to take some photos this year. I didn't photograph all of them - at a few I forgot to take out my camera, and there were some I liked very much but couldn't see a shot that conveyed what was so impressive about them. About halfway through I got sidetracked by touring a college building, which I hadn't got inside before though I had visited the gardens. And my camera battery gave out just before the last one, which I think remains my favourite of all the gardens I've visited, though a lot of the fascination lies in the way you keep walking round a clumb of shrubs and discovering a whole new area you hadn't expected. But here is a small sample.
I started off at a garden round the corner from my house.
It opens out into a big lawn, nicely mown.
The entry to a cottage garden ascending the hillside.
This doesn't quite convey the drama of the ascent through the rock garden to a wooden dragon...
One of my favourite gardens, belonging to someone I know through the Labour Party plus someone I know through LJ, isn't particularly spectacular to look at, but is amazing in the variety of edible content in a small space - hence the TARDIS tag!
I liked this notice, too.
This is the Nazarene Theological College, originally a private house built in 1914; after years of just missing the house tour, I got in this time. Our guide was a former tutor, but originally a student in the 1960s, where they had to get up at 6.30 and polish the fittings before breakfast.
This was the music room (apparently there was going to be an organ on the wall at the far end, but they didn't get round to it). Currently being used for exams.
I was taken with the plaster ceiling in the hall.
Here's the owl in detail.
And back to a private house garden.
This one came with added string quartet.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.
I remembered to take some photos this year. I didn't photograph all of them - at a few I forgot to take out my camera, and there were some I liked very much but couldn't see a shot that conveyed what was so impressive about them. About halfway through I got sidetracked by touring a college building, which I hadn't got inside before though I had visited the gardens. And my camera battery gave out just before the last one, which I think remains my favourite of all the gardens I've visited, though a lot of the fascination lies in the way you keep walking round a clumb of shrubs and discovering a whole new area you hadn't expected. But here is a small sample.
I started off at a garden round the corner from my house.
It opens out into a big lawn, nicely mown.
The entry to a cottage garden ascending the hillside.
This doesn't quite convey the drama of the ascent through the rock garden to a wooden dragon...
One of my favourite gardens, belonging to someone I know through the Labour Party plus someone I know through LJ, isn't particularly spectacular to look at, but is amazing in the variety of edible content in a small space - hence the TARDIS tag!
I liked this notice, too.
This is the Nazarene Theological College, originally a private house built in 1914; after years of just missing the house tour, I got in this time. Our guide was a former tutor, but originally a student in the 1960s, where they had to get up at 6.30 and polish the fittings before breakfast.
This was the music room (apparently there was going to be an organ on the wall at the far end, but they didn't get round to it). Currently being used for exams.
I was taken with the plaster ceiling in the hall.
Here's the owl in detail.
And back to a private house garden.
This one came with added string quartet.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.