It was a treat to go down to see Wendy in her new home in Stroud today. It is a very popular, pleasant ride down by train to Stroud. Very rural farming countryside with wheat and corn crops are colouring up and not far from harvest time.
I caught the 11.38 train to Stroud and arrived about 1.05 to be met by Wendy. It was lovely to see her and we walked back to her new home by the canal. Lucy her daughter was there hanging pictures for her so we had a nice lunch sitting outside on her deck. She has all her landscaping done for her as it was the show home for the development,even hanging baskets in place.
The house is brand new and built over three levels,with lots of insulation and double glazing so it will be nice and warm in the winter. Wendy said it was quite noisy but once the development is done it will be much quieter. She is overlooking the canal so there is lots of greenery to look out onto and it seems to get plenty of sun. The canal is being restored too so in time it will be a very attractive asset. We walked along the tow path after tea for about an hour and it was lovely,very peaceful and we saw Llama grazing.
Wendy has lots of pictures still to hang but she has all he favourite things there and the house I'd decorated in a neutral tone which shows the paintings to advantage so she is feeling really good about the move to Stroud.
It was a lovely catch up although I got food poisoning from my Cotswold venison meat pie at the hotel where we had our meal. Nasty night to follow😣😣😣😣😣
Friday morning I met up with my gardening group. Wendy took me to the station to meet the tour. Janine and Annie arrived by train but they had delays along the way so I was on board the bus when they arrived.
Our first stop was to Througham Court which has a long history,four hundred years old for parts of the original house but the most recent addition is an Arts and Craft wing with a garden designed to complement it.
The current owner is a scientist who has retrained as a landscape designer and she has maintained the style of the garden but added her own ideas into the structure. She reads scientific books for inspiration rather than gardening books and brings mathematical ideas to her garden as well. Evidence of this was seen in the garden gates she designed and had crafted. Her vegetable garden has a fibonicci number sequence running round the metal edging. The Rose pillars are topped by symbols celebrating the top scientific discoveries of the world, such as splitting the atom.
She had maintained the art and crafts features very carefully with boxed beds,topiary, garden walks,pleached avenues of hornbeams and formal borders. The garden was spread over four levels sloping away from the house with lovely views out to the countryside.
She also maintained a large vegetable garden, a shade house and potting areas to maintain plus large areas of hedging to be trimmed yearly.
She had introduced a wilderness area at the bottom of the garden,featuring a wide moon path painted with a white edging strip leading your eye to the far edges of the garden. She is planting iris's and bulbs through the pasture for impact in the spring as well as displaying banners made by a local artist which adds some movement to the area.
She has also introduced colourful borders of perennials on the third level which were like the trend at Hampton Court. She is a step ahead of the rest but they did look great although she said they were very labour intensive and took a long time to weed.
The most unusual addition was the courtyard space she designed around mathematical principals to mask a difficult site. The shapes were arranged in a colourful pattern with a reflective pool I the centre.
There were lots of lovely plantings here,special trees and she even had created a maze of bamboo tied together with red cord to stop the snow flattening it.
It was a place to challenge your thinking and see how ideas can be taken from many sources and used to transform or enhance a garden. I could have spent more time here but we were on a timetable.
Rodmarton Manor was our afternoon stop and we had some trouble finding our way there or the bus driver did. Apparently the villages upset the sat maps because the post code system here does not recognise some of the country places which is why we were circling around narrow country roads for an extra half hour.
We eventually arrived at Rodmarton where lunch was served first. I approached that cautiously after my night with food poisoning antics.
After lunch we went for a tour of the house with a guide who told us about the history of the house and the family who live there. The home is still in the same family who built it in 1909. The Biddulph family built it to showcase the best of local craftsmanship and to provide employment for the villagers. The timber was milled on the property and cut for timber by two men using a handsaw and pit on the lawn. The saw is still hanging in the library.
The furniture was hand crafted by local craftsmen,no machines were used and the women also contributed to the soft furnishings and are seen in the wall hangings and tapestries.
The piano was beautifully decorated as were the dolls house and rocking horses for the children.
After the tour we were let loose on the garden which was also designed in the arts and crafts mode with lots of topiary,walks,vistas, borders and tennis courts. The garden was not as well maintained as the previous one but it was authentic ,quite sculptural and it looks like work is underway to bring back areas of the garden.
We had to leave by 4.20 pm to catch our train back to London so we were on our way promptly as it was Friday and rush hour but we made it.
I was knackered by the time I climbed the steps to Lou's place but it was a great day out
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