White bucks at The White Buck

We’ve had quite a week, and quite honestly, where to start. For the first time in what seems like a long time we had a short break staying in a hotel (rather than self-catering) and one that wasn’t in the Midlands or the north of England. We bucked the trend (sorry!), our own trend that is and headed down to Hampshire with visits to Exbury Gardens and the Gardeners’ World Spring Fair at Beaulieu, and planning to fit in a walk in the New Forest at some point.

There was so much to see, and consequently so many photos to edit before sharing, and then back home a visit to Grand Designs Live over at Excel has just added to it all. So not really knowing where to start, I’m sharing our hotel - The White Buck at Burley - which was just what we needed. It was so nice to get away and have a complete break, and we had a great stay and spotted plenty of bucks in the decor.

A statue of a deer above the reception and an antler light

But done in a way that wasn’t kitsch. I mean who could resist a stag candlestick?

A candlestick in the bar with a stag

There were some great furnishings in the bar area too, a good reminder that patterns and plains can give a traditional style a modern twist.

A leather seat and patterned buttoned back curved seat in the bar area

The look and feel continued through to our room too, with the reclaimed wood and neutral palette with pops of colour. Here they came from the bedside tables and the scatter cushions, where the material was also used on the chairs.

The wall behind the large grey headboard was clad with textured wood, pops of colour from the bedside lights and the patterned throw cushions
A chair covered in black and white material with pops of colour for the butterflies

The artwork in our room was also stag based, and these two stags looked over us. The brown one (on the left) had a pattern of fir trees on its body, the right (the blue) was just a bit more random, but both worked in the room and actually gave me an idea for a future craft project - another one to add to the list!

Two pictures on the wall of not quite white bucks

I was also taken with the prismatic-type stags head artwork also in our room. So simple, but so effective, understated but impactful.

Artwork - a prismatic / geometric representation of a white buck's head

I’ll share more about our trip, and our visit to Exbury Gardens, the Spring Fair, a brief visit to the National Trust’s Mottisfont and our day at Grand Designs Live and more soon, I just need to get myself a plan as there’s lots to share!

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The Garden Year: May 2023

Welcome back to this month’s Garden Year linky - if you were here last month, it was great to see you. If you’re joining for the first time, you’re very welcome. The linky will stay open for the whole month, so I hope you’ll pop back during the month. I’m looking forward to reading about your garden projects and garden visits.

Happy bank holiday - the first of many this month. For me this is when our gardening really starts to hot up, unfortunately unlike the weather at the moment! It’s also the time of year when more of us visit gardens close by, getting inspiration for our own spaces as well as taking some time to enjoy a garden without feeling the need to just pluck that weed that’s out of place. I know when I visit gardens, it’s always such a relief to see that even the most primped gardens have at least a weed or two.

Advice, inspiration and places to visit

“TheGardenYear

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Post Comment Love 28 - 30 April

Hello there, and welcome back to this week’s #PoCoLo - a friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog post published in the last week, please remember this, posts which are older will be removed from the linky. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked and share some of that love. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here this week we’re pleased you’ve joined us.

The weather here is still, shall we say, changeable. When the sun’s out it’s lovely, but most of the time the sun isn’t out. We’ve been in the New Forest for a short break and the first day it was dry and the sun was trying to shine (but didn’t) as we walked around Exbury Gardens - a lovely place which I’ll share more about soon. Yesterday we weren’t as lucky, we headed down to Lymington to do a walk around the salt marshes and nature reserves, and while the first half was dry the second half was far from dry.

Never mind though, now that we’ve dried off I can say it was great to be outside in such beautiful surroundings and the pub we stopped off in for lunch - a healthy pint, french fries and chicken skins - was full of character, including this matchbox art. A simple but quirky idea, that not everywhere will be able to pull off that’s for sure!

Keep your fingers crossed for better weather today…

Many old matchboxes stuck on a board and displayed on the ceiling

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