In yesterday's post I concentrated on the trees at Marks Hall but they also have a fab walled garden where I managed to snap many more pictures than I could share in a single blog post.
But first some info on the walled garden...
The walled garden has five separate gardens, each with a great view of the Upper Lake. The garden starts with an earth sculpture representing the start of the year; a Mexican Orange Blossom hedge merges into the second garden, where it snakes and dips providing support for the delicate fronds of plants and disappears through a hedge into the third garden. There everything is strong and clear with long stone seats.
The line taken by the hedge is now a series of spheres, first clipped box and then stone. In the fourth garden the thread becomes an undulating stone wall and the planting is vivid with reds and oranges. Finally the slate thread dives into a block of hornbeam and back into the earth, through a deep slate pool marking the end of the cycle.
And if all that is too deep for you, then just sit back and enjoy the pictures...
I'm a big herb fan - the Sage here looks magnificent. But aren't the Lupins lovely? Mine are always eaten by slugs & snails unfortunately
MOH refers to all Euphorbias as "Dalek plants" - he has a point, but please don't let on! Instead let's concentrate on the glorious, glorious Santolini
I love this colour combination, of rusty browns and bright red poppies - so dramatic.
Time for some Peony love, but where's the other bud gone?
A secret path in the Hornbeam, and yes - we followed it!
I'd love to know the name of this plant, if you know please leave a comment - thanks!
Update: I discovered the name of this at Blackheath Open Gardens - it's a Cistus. Mystery solved.
And what a slate pool. And with that, we left the walled garden and headed off to explore the rest of the grounds of the arboretum. It is truly a fantastic place to visit!
Photo-journal: Visiting Marks Hall Arboretum in Essex
I've not been to an arboretum before and in case you're wondering it's all about the trees. Well, and the lovely walled garden they have at Marks Hall but more on that later. We popped over to Essex - a beautiful and often maligned county - on the last Bank Holiday Monday. Life's been a bit hectic since then with birthdays (mine), wedding anniversaries (our 7th) and a holiday to Portugal so that's why I'm only just sharing this with you now.
Anyway, it wasn't the nicest of days and as luck would have it, it started to rain just as we paid to go in. Entrance fees were only a fiver, which seems pretty reasonable to me given the space you have available to roam around.
Thankfully the Bank Holiday rain wasn't up to much so we soon set off across the bridge and up towards the Lower Lake and walled garden.
On the way we encountered plenty of new geese families out for a wander, with the goslings varying in sizes, ages and fluffiness!
In this post I'm going to focus on the trees, so I'll leave our walk around the walled garden until tomorrow. (Update: here's the walled garden post)
Next, we headed up to the Memorial site which was up near the top boundary of the estate. On the way we wandered past some old tree stumps, and broad fairways lined with - as you'd expect - trees.
We reached the memorial site, which is in memory of all those who served at Marks Hall and Earls Colne Airfield during the Second World War - we are all truly grateful.
Heading back towards the Upper Lake and the Asia geographical section of the arboretum and along the Birkett Long Millennium Walk we saw these three Acers leaning towards a smaller pond. Their colour was amazing.
Next up were the handkerchief trees, whose flowers really do look like handkerchiefs; we saw a green-white a white-white and a pink variety.
There were also ferns, which continue to attract me and shout "photograph me" as I walk past!
And then there was this beautiful white barked tree. MOH and I immediately both said Silver Birch but the label read Betula so we thought not. Having checked it on Google it's an Himalayan Birch so is related to the Silver Birch. So we weren't too far off!
The bark was so soft though, we both briefly became tree-huggers, or at least tree-strokers (I'm not sure which is worse!).
There was also an area with beautiful foxgloves
And I hadn't realised they were so hairy before!
I thought the foxgloves were beautiful, then we saw this and I was smitten. I thought I'd made a note of its name, but having checked I'd got the name of something different.
So while I'd love to tell you what this is I can't - do you know what it is?
The rhododendrons (or rosey-dendrons as MOH insists on calling them) were out and were looking fabulous. The bee in the second picture thought so too!
We were back at the lake and our plan was to head towards the Honywood Oak. Our route took us past more geese, some friendly and others a little angrier and more protective of their young - see the uplifted beak in the second photo below.
We passed the protective goose and were soon at the Honywood Oak which is thought to be over 800 years old. That's some age.
Did you know?
A single oak tree can host up to 500 different species of wildlife. That's quite a lot and stats like this always make me wonder who counted...
Not far from the Honywood Oak there's the Screaming Oak, so called because the decaying and contorted trunk of this ancient oak led it to being compared to Edvard Munch's famous "Scream" painting. I can see a resemblance.
Unbelievably the weather was now looking as if it might improve. Just as we were closer to the exit and Visitors Centre, but first we admired this magnificent Willow.
And being the large kids we are, we headed over these stepping stones which I have to say I felt a lot more secure on than the ones in Dovedale in Derbyshire (read about our visit earlier in May).
The bulrushes and moss made for some interesting photos too.
With those photos taken, we were soon heading back over a bridge towards the visitor centre and tea and cake!
All in all a great afternoon out, despite the weather. There's also a garden centre close by the visitor centre, we didn't get too long a look around though as it started raining again.
Did I mention it was a Bank Holiday?
A boost of a walk through a sunny Greenwich
After two days of staying indoors I was starting to go a little stir-crazy. I'm not sure why as two days isn't long at all. The weather hadn't been great, but it hadn't been as bad as earlier in the year either, so it couldn't be that. Maybe it was just because I've got used to being out and about.
So as luck would have it, it was a beautiful day and far too nice to stay indoors...
I decided a walk into Greenwich would be just the thing I needed to give myself a boost. And I wasn't disappointed as the colours on show in the Flower Garden were fantastic.
The many squirrels were scampering about too, and they're not shy about approaching
people. I found myself telling them I didn't have any food for them and to hurry out of my way, at one point they had me surrounded but my sternest voice showed them I meant business and they let me pass. I laughed as I thought of the newspaper headlines "Woman ambushed by gang of squirrels" and went on my way towards the Royal Observatory and General Wolfe.
Both were looking great against the very blue sky.
I headed down the steep path from the Observatory skipping past the groups of tourists walking at "tourist pace" (as I do when I'm a tourist) and onto the National Maritime Museum.
Pausing here for a while to admire the anchors and take in quite a lot of people-spotting. Then it was over the Trafalgar Road and its traffic, past this fountain for a glimpse of the river all the while hearing the organised but still chaotic rehearsals of the music students nearby.
I'd made it to the river, so it seemed rude not to take a peek at yet another of Greenwich's landmarks. And there she was looking resplendent on her "glass wave" - the Cutty Sark.
Feeling energised once more I headed towards Greenwich Park and home. Instead of walking my usual route through the park I paused for a short while in the "secret" Observatory Gardens (I'm sure many locals aren't aware it's there at all) before taking the deserted path back to General Wolfe and the noise of the visitors.
It was amazing, for that short while I was in the most tranquil of places, far from the hub bub of everyday life, it was pure bliss.
My walk had definitely done me good, but I couldn't finish this post without sharing another colourful photo, the new growth on the rhododendrons really was this vibrant and lush.
What a great way to recharge my batteries. It takes a special kind of outdoors to do that. And for me, this was that special place.