Monday 11 August 2008

In the pink.....and the blue



On Sunday we decided to make use of our NT membership and went to Nymans Garden. It has a very varied selection of gardens and woodland walks to see, and makes a full day out.

We just caught the hydrangeas before they'd gone over and I couldn't resist the beautiful colour ranges going from blue through mauve to deep pink, they reminded me so much of space dyed cloth, complete with those rouge spots of red that always seem to find their way onto the blue sample as you're busy dying the red one!



As I'm not a gardener, I'm assuming this one is another variety, which I thought was even prettier with its delicate little flowers in the centre. It was very difficult taking flower shots as it was extremely windy, so most of my shots were blurred.



Here's a close up of the petals which I took in a brief moment of calm, my OH has a perfectly sharp version of this as you would expect but I can't wait for ever for him to process all his images from RAW!



Being a textile person and not a gardener I thought the dead version was superb, but then we're known to be an odd lot.



There's a house on the site as well, but unfortunately most of it was destroyed in a fire in 1947, leaving only this shell and the servant quarters, which were later made into a home for one of the original family. I thought the remains were enchanting, they had a fairy like quality, and it would have been wonderful to explore them but there was no admittance to this part.



Then of course there was the ever eager eye for those textural shots, and I found this lovely lacy plant, I've no idea what it is, but I thought it would make a great BG for something.



While we were exploring the wild garden, I nearly stepped on this baby grass snake. Not being a fan of snakes I must admit he did make me jump, I didn't manage to get a decent un-blurred shot of him even though he played dead several times. The truth was I didn't want to get too close! However the little video camera seemed to do abetter job than the still images.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lovely texture shots - as always:)
I adore Hydrangeas in that "starting to decay" stage.
Warm regards
K

Françoise said...

Gorgeous pictures!

Helen said...

arrrrrrrrrrrgh I love those hydrangeas. Isn't that lacy one amazing too.

Julie said...

Beautiful photos Sharon and I love the space dyed hydrangea! I've never seen a grass snake before. I didn't realise they were so small.

Shirley Anne Sherris said...

I agree with you - the dead flower head is far more interesting than the fresh one although I do like Hydrangeas especially when they are on the turn.
Did the wind stop for your OH and did he wait a long time for his shot?
Wind or rain or both is all we get these days. Hey-ho.
Cheers

annette emms said...

Hi Sharon, lovely pictures. I haven't been to Nymans Garden,you've made me want to go!
I'll wait until the weather improves though. . .

Val said...

Beautiful pix.Sharon and very inspiring as always. The big round hydrangeas are mopheads (of course) and the other one is the lacecap. The dead ones press really well....... (just thought you might like that useless info.!) Val

Aussie Jo said...

I love hydrangeas too. I had to shift mine to make way for a drain and only one survived the move (and the long hot summer that followed). The ruined building is fantastic, would make a great distressed transfer.

Susie Campbell (Sue Smith) said...

Oh, I love hydrangeas... brings back lovely memories of my Aunt's house. I have one hydrangea bush, I don't however have a green thumb, but it still blesses me with pretty blooms at times.

I'm off to see Olly in Perth tonight. He's had a tough week, but at this stage it looks like the chemo is working, so that is great.

Hope you have a lovely weekend. xo

Susie Campbell (Sue Smith) said...

Me again! Hi Sharon, just wanted to let you know that I've awarded you with the 'I Love Your Blog' award on my blog! Thanks for the inspiration!

Mermaid's Purse said...

Those Hydrangea pictures are so beautiful and hand dyed fabric would be just so perfect for them as you say!