Highfield Garden Centre and Beyond

Highfield @ Whiteleaf is our favourite garden centre but until recently we hadn't ventured beyond into the village. There is to be found a, very well camouflaged, church

Walks through fields of gold, green and brown

Also came across this oddity, an overgrown pill box from wartime days, presumably standing sentry against a German invasion up the Sharpness Canal.








The run-off canal is now disused

 but it's amazing to see how nature has reclaimed the banks

On the Trail of Shaun the Sheep

Ever making the most of being home to Aardman Animations Bristol currently has a number of Shaun the Sheep trails to add fun n frivolity to the city scape and raise money for a good cause.

It also gets you to parts of Bristol you may not have visited before. The City is home to an array of amazing architecture. Some of its Regency stock could match Cheltenham and possibly Bath. This interspersed with many differing styles.

Our first trail ran through Clifton and spanned the famous suspension bridge. Close up this really is a marvel of modern engineering. Well worth popping into the Visitor Centre which explains the construction of the bridge and the amazing construction wokers who put it in place.

Isombaaard :)

can you spot the climbers?

One Shaun can be found in the foyer of the Museum and Art Gallery. In the giant atrium, hung from the ceiling, is a model Bristol Boxkite:

but search as we may we couldn't find the one in Brandon Hill Park/ Cabot Tower - but it did provide a pleasant stroll:

Offenham Gardens

Offenham is a picturesque village in the heart of the Vale of Evesham situated on the opposite bank of the Avon to Evesham itself.

 

 with thatched cottages and a very impressive traditional maypole at its main crossroads.

Three gardens were open of diverse interests from woodland and wildlife to topiary, herbaceous and exotic. The colour choice and planting really was impressive.

It was then over the river for a circular tour of Evesham Country Park. Entered through a country style shopping area, past the Evesham Light Railway you can meander wild meadow paths, collect loadsa brambles and wild apples from a defunct but prodigious old orchard.

Evesham water front

for Marion - 'The Tin Whistle

Surprising Stourport on Severn

Stourport-on-Severn is unique amongst Britains towns being the only town in Britain built solely as a consequence of the coming of the canals. Popular myth has it that James Brindley chose Stourport rather than Bewdley for his canal because the citizens of Bewdley did not want his ‘stinking ditch’ passing through their town. The reality is that Stourport made far more sens. A canal joining the River Severn at Bewdley would have needed to cross several hills. Joining the Severn at Stourport it could follow the Stour valley and this obviously made construction much cheaper.

The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal linked the River Severn with the Trent and Mersey and as a result, after Birmingham, Stourport became the busiest inland port in the Midlands. The canal opened to Stourport in 1771 and by 1812 five canal basins had been built. In 1775 the first Stourport Bridge across the Severn was built by the Canal Company.

The town rapidly expanded and by the 1780’s there were brass and iron foundries, a vinegar works, tan yards, worsted spinning mills, carpet mills, barge and boat building yards, warehouses, shops, houses and inns. But the coming of the railway  in 1862 posed a major challenge to the canal.

They certainly know how to make the most of their waterfront - 

Regattas:

Steam boats:

Carnival n Ice Cream:

Then onto a remarkable NGS garden at Worralls Mill in Abberley. Once a water mill with a mill race the brook now runs through garden enabling, amongst other features, a bog garden. This many faceted garden contains oak, ash, shrubs and a number of bridges, including the red bridge at the front of house.To the rear of the house there lies terracing, a hot bed, mixed borders, pergola to 'jungle', bamboo and fatsia.

yes we have no bananas!

Colourful Weekend

Gloucester Park again hosted a summer fair and events in July, a tradition started after the war to entertain families who could not afford to go away for the summer holiday season, and continues today. It culminates in a Saturday night firework display which this year was organised by those behind the 2012 Olympic display - so well spectacular.

This was followed on Sunday by 53rd celebration of Jamaican independence. The park was filled with Jamaican cooking smells, kites and the sounds of Bob Marley.



Rounded off, on a hot summers day, by a return to Highnam Court and Gardens:

the willow gazebo in full leaf 

 Tree carvings of Boar and Kelpies