Woodland walks
Oct. 10th, 2010 10:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustWe honestly did not know, when we decided this morning to go to Gibside, that they were holding a book sale today. I admit that once we had agreed that Gibside would be a good place to walk we checked the web site for events (we once chose the day of an Easter Egg hunt to visit, and have been more careful ever since), so we were forewarned, and took bags to carry home any purchases we might make - but we'd been thinking pleasant woodland walk, possible autumn foliage, sheltered picnic site in the stables courtyard. The book sale was a bonus. (And it was: you get a better class of book sale at the National Trust. What it lacked in interesting genre fiction, it made up in Folio Society editions).
We were at Gibside a little later in October last year, and before that one April, and each time there are small changes. Work continues on the grounds and the varous buildings around them, so despite the natural tendency of things to fall apart (a landslip had closed one path we might have taken) there is more to see each time.
Today was mild and misty. We followed the perimeter walk through woodland, hoping for autumn colours, and seeing a muted range from green through yellow to russet. Much of the current work in progress seems to involve tree felling and planting, and perhaps that's why on a couple of occasions we saw views up to the Monument to British Liberty which I hadn't noticed before.
But the main developments were at the very end of our circuit. The Victorian shrubbery has been replanted, and is full of tiny labelled plants which will in time grow bushy and Victorian, and the walled garden is full of apples trees and vegetables, with the odd decorative plant blooming cheerfully for no apparent reason. It's a little odd, in these grounds which have so little of the floral garden about them, suddenly to be presented with random flowers in the vegetable beds. One or two of the resultant photographs have come out quite well...
We were at Gibside a little later in October last year, and before that one April, and each time there are small changes. Work continues on the grounds and the varous buildings around them, so despite the natural tendency of things to fall apart (a landslip had closed one path we might have taken) there is more to see each time.Today was mild and misty. We followed the perimeter walk through woodland, hoping for autumn colours, and seeing a muted range from green through yellow to russet. Much of the current work in progress seems to involve tree felling and planting, and perhaps that's why on a couple of occasions we saw views up to the Monument to British Liberty which I hadn't noticed before.
But the main developments were at the very end of our circuit. The Victorian shrubbery has been replanted, and is full of tiny labelled plants which will in time grow bushy and Victorian, and the walled garden is full of apples trees and vegetables, with the odd decorative plant blooming cheerfully for no apparent reason. It's a little odd, in these grounds which have so little of the floral garden about them, suddenly to be presented with random flowers in the vegetable beds. One or two of the resultant photographs have come out quite well...
