Days that involve flowers, and patchy sunshine, and afternoon cake, and day trips to places that fall under the ‘RHS’ umbrella- don’t they just feel so quintessentially British?
A couple of days back I took a trip over to Royal Horticultural Society Garden Wisley, to spend a few happy hours taking photos of flowers and bees on flowers and flowers next to flowers. It’s the sort of activity that probably about five or so years ago, I would’ve avoided like the plague. Walking round a giant garden all day? ‘Ugh. No thank you.’ I’d have said. But now that there’s the appeal of being able to take endless photos and be creative and fiddle about with exposure and macro and focus on my camera, I’m all over it! My Aunt, Mum and I headed over to Wisley mid-morning, and spent most of the day alternating between cooing over the beautiful gardens, sniffing roses, and stopping for coffee-and-cake breaks. It was just about the loveliest way to spend a late summer day you could imagine.
There are so many different gardens that make up Wisley, that it’s pretty much impossible to get bored. There are huge vegetable patches, orchards, rose gardens, wildflower borders, and a glasshouse full of tropical plants. The vegetable patch was my favourite- rows and rows of onions and savoy cabbages the size of watermelons and beetroots and lettuces, all ready to be harvested and taken over to the kitchens. It’s done nothing to curb my dreams of living somewhere more rural…
^^ Dahlias for days. Isn’t that apricot colour so beautiful? The whole of Wisley was a riot of colour, even though the peak season for most flowers is over. ^^
^^ These roses smelled divine, and brought back happy memories of making rose petal perfume with my Mum when I was little, from the roses the grew outside my childhood home. ^^
^^ Lemon & thyme chicken with harissa yoghurt and tabbouleh. Delicious, and so fresh tasting! ^^
^^ Kind of glad that fence was there to stop me reaching out and picking a raspberry. They looked too tempting! ;) ^^
After a stop for lunch (& coffee and cake, of course) we headed in the direction of the beautiful Glasshouse. Isn’t it impressive? Apparently they hold a butterfly exhibition in the Glasshouse once a year, where they fill the space with all kinds of beautiful butterflies and you can walk amongst them all! Doesn’t that sound incredible? My Mum signed up to become an RHS member whilst we were there, so we’ll most definitely head back next time there’s an exhibition on.
I’d highly recommend it as a day out, if you’re into all things horticultural! Oh, and just a little FYI- Queen Mary Berry herself is going to be signing copies of her new recipe book on the first day of the Wisley Flower Show on the 2nd of September…