The first thing I do, once we have unpacked our car, which has been groaning with all the stuff we need for a week's stay in the holiday cottage, is head for the outer gardens of Colonsay House. It is a place of wonder for me! I particularly love the leaves of the giant rhododendrons. There are many different varieties, all planted in the early 1930s. The outer gardens are generally overgrown, having had little tending over the decades. That makes them even more magical! The old woodmill falls apart a little more every year, but that's fine by me because I love corrugated iron and especially if it's rusted! And of course the bees. Colonsay's beekeeper, Andrew Abrahams, has one of his apiaries on the edge of the pine wood. So lovely - the hum of busy bees and the heady smell of the pines. We are here - finally! Delayed by four months by the wretched virus, but now I am on holiday! Hooray!
Beech are my favourite trees, I love their zingy green leaves in spring and they definitely steal the show in autumn. I just hope they last a bit longer so that I can get some more woodland walks in. Have a great weekend, Antonia x
ReplyDeleteThey are my favourite tree too! I always reckon I grew up under a beech tree. We had a massive copper beech in our garden when I was a child. We had a swing which took us way up into its branches. We threw ourselves in the piles of ginger-biscuit leaves swept up by my father in the autumn, and it was a big and beautiful presence in my young life! Very sadly, long after our family moved from the house, one of the big storms blew it down, and now it's just a memory :o( A good one though! Love your messages. Thank you, and hope you have a good weekend too! A x
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