Monday 5 May 2008

Rain, gardens and folk music

This weekend the weather has been mild but wet in the Midlands. However, we weren't going to let the rain spoil the break for us. On Friday we celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary with an evening spent with friends at the local folk club. Our old friend Trevor performed(playing Mandolin and Banjo) with his band 'Nothing to Prove' and their set included traditional folk, music written by the band themselves and even some Seth Lakeman. Despite rain all morning on Sunday we did have a wonderful afternoon visiting the gardens at Morville Hall near Much Wenlock. Morville Hall is owned by the National Trust and at present is split into six dwellings and gardens (the largest of which is open to the public by appointment). However, Morville is really well known for the gardens belonging to the smaller Dower House. The garden was created by a lady called Katherine Swift and her book 'The Morville Hours' telling her story of the gardens is published today and Katherine herself is reading extracts as Book of the Week on Radio 4. (if you've missed it I thoroughly recommend catching up with the story on IPlayer) . Unusually, this weekend all six of the gardens were open to the public, all of them very different in size and style. I hope the photographs give you a flavour of their diversity and character.

No 1 The Gate House



No 2 The Gate House


The Dower House





The Cottage




Morville Hall



South Pavillion

4 comments:

Louise said...

I would really like to become a member of the National Trust, but my other half is not so keen on gardens as I am. I would like this one. I have a liking for old terracotta pots, I have lost a lot of mine this year to frost, and I can see a very nice auricula theatre there too, lovely. There are some inspirational ideas to take from your photos, thanks for blogging them. x

Pipany said...

Our Nat Trust membership has run out and we thought we'd leave it this year; of course we miss it dreadfully now! That is such a beautiful place though and looks so restful. Great pictures xx

Sal said...

I also have a thing about terracotta pots.And your photos are lovely! Sal;-)

Curlew Country said...

What fabulous gardens! I lived in Ironbridge for a while as a student and never realised they were so close! Must take a trip over there one day with my mum, she'd love it.
Thanks for popping by my blog. I am a huge Greengate fan too and whilst I do love lots of CK stuff, Greengate is my absolute favourite (and I live near the EB factory shop which is a dangerous thing!). I just can't really afford either but you can pick up Cath bargains on Ebay. Greengate seems much harder to come by. Have a smashing weekend.
Stephx