Bluebell hunting in Castle Ward

On Bank Holiday Monday we took the camper van down to Castle Ward for a picnic and a spot of bluebell hunting.  It was a lovely sunny day but a bit breezy but we found a nice spot by a tree that was a bit sheltered and had a rather nice view of the lough in one direction...

And a view of the gothic side of the house in the other direction.

After a picnic of crusty bread, cheese and ham, George and his dad played a spot of football and we packed up the picnic things then headed off looking for some bluebells.

They weren't hard to find!  We used to come to Castle Ward when I was little and I always remember the seas of blue along the paths.  

Portaferry was looking lovely in the sunshine.

I really liked this little window, it turns out that it was where a person would stand to weigh things that were on the weighbridge.  They would have had the window open and inside there were a set of scales so they could determine the weight of whatever was on the weighbridge outside.

Having a look at the ducks.

And the goats.

Just before this shot a gust of wind blew George's sun hat into the duck pond.  Dee had to rescue it with a branch, and was cheered on by some other visitors!

A view of Audley's Castle from the end of Temple Water.  I love how they must have planned the view so the Castle was framed in the middle!

The wild garlic was amazing, it looks so pretty and smelled fantastic.  In fact after we got home we decided we really wanted some for our garden so I had a look on eBay and found a Scottish lady selling some from her garden so I just had to buy it, I've planted it at the back of our house so hopefully next spring we will have scenes like this in our garden!

More bluebells.

There were some gorgeous patches of daisies too.  I wish we had more daisies in our grass but we are just overrun with dandelions instead. :-(

There were some elegant swans swimming about on the water.

I liked these fancy gates.

When we were walking back to the camper van George fell asleep so we stopped on a bench in front of the house for a cup of tea and a bun.  The camper certainly stood out a bit amongst the cars!

Rowallane Gardens

Last week George and I took a trip to Rowallane Gardens in Saintfield, County Down.  I had rung my mum to see if she wanted to come with us but it turned out she was already there with her friend Oonagh doing some painting in the walled garden! What are the chances?

Anyway it was a cloudy but pretty warm day so perfect for walking about all the different areas of the garden.  It's a National Trust property but the house isn't open for house tours, I think it's actually used by the trust for their headquarters.  However there is a lovely shop and a tasty cafe inside the house as well.  The main attraction here is definitely the amazing gardens....

A lovely bench in the walled garden, you can just imagine the ladies in their long dresses taking a stroll round here and stopping to sit for a bit, maybe watch some croquet on the lawn....

Amazing patch of clover underneath a tree.

This tree looked like it had been dusted with blusher.

A sea of ferns that looked like a 1950s tropical pattern.

The spring garden

Post and gate inspiration.

The outside of the courtyard.

Rather cute glass house.

I think I definitely need some arches in my garden!

Ornamental herb bed

I don't know what this plant is but it was swarming with bees.

I thought these little fellas had cute faces looking up at me.

The lavender smelled amazing.

Cat mint, I've just bought some of this for my garden from rosy bee.

These looked like they had been spray painted the most bright purpley blue!

This is the house, rather modest in comparison to other nearby National Trust places like Castle Ward and Mount Stewart

Another nice spot for a bench.  Benches are the most important thing in a garden if you ask me - you need somewhere to sit back with a glass of pimm's to admire your hard work! 

Wildflowers

I have a bit of an obsession with wildflowers at the moment.  I spotted this patch down by the Lagan while on a walk one lunch time.  So cheerful.  Inspired, I bought some wildflower plug plants from rosybee and am working on filling my garden with as many wildflowers as possible!