Holy Island adventure

Good morning!

Yesterday turned out to be a better day weather-wise than had been predicted so we headed down the road to Lindisfarne or Holy Island for a bit of fresh air and exercise. On the way there, the most exciting experience was a toss up between going on the causeway (which had an appropriate amount of sand and a little sea covering it still) and stopping at the level crossing to see a train go by.

After a pleasant lunch stop we started out for the castle which is about a mile from the village - quite a walk for very small legs. The castle itself is not very child friendly and a little on the dear side for Mum and my brother who aren't NT members, but entry to the garden is by donation so we went to look at that.

It is a Gertrude Jekyll garden with planting in very large blocks of colour. This is completely different to my garden which has plants shoved in here, there and everywhere with more concern for where there is a space than for planting combinations.

The GJ approach is very appealing but takes a certain amount of patience and planning. Not my strongest assets!

I also loved the paving. I am a bit of a sucker for a nice bit of paving and one day would like to replace all the concrete paths we inherited in our garden.

It seemed that we had picked exactly the right moment to visit with the garden at its peak. Everything seemed to be in full bloom.

Maybe that is because GJ is a better garden designer than me and we just didn't see the things that had gone over!

I liked all the little details too, like this old wheel barrow tucked into a corner behind the veggies,

and the large stone that is used to make the gate shut automatically. So simple and so clever!

Tall Girl liked this block of sedums surrounded by something lovely and furry which I have discovered is called stachys.

After the garden we popped onto the seashore for a bit of rock climbing.

There was a lovely view back to the village with the ruined priory.

Oh and if you ever wondered why we call him Giant Baby...

Have you had any lovely summer adventures? I do hope so.

xx