Norwich Break – back in the cyber world

Norwich is a very old city in Norfolk with a beautiful Cathedral, a castle and a lovely towncentre with a market.

We had a house close to the citycentre to our disposal and discovered Norwich by foot daily.

We found a beautiful little garden ‘Plantation Garden‘ also called the Secret garden which was built at the site of a Chalk Quarry. Henry Trevor shaped the garden in 1855. It is an oasis for tranquility, we loved it every day!

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Click on the individual picture to enlarge.

Norwich Cathedral

In the Cathedral there was Dippy, the famous skeleton of the Diplodocus which is usually in London in the Natural History Museum. He is on tour and currently in Norwich.

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It was very impressive.

Norwich has plenty of churches, we discovered though that many are not for worship. We found an art centre in a church, a bookshop with coffee shop and one was full of antiques for sale.

Norwich is a University city too, the – some cobbled- streets a lovely, the market beautiful and the little narrow lanes in between have old houses with quirky shops.

We have been in Norwich before (2017) and saw the Castle , blog post here

We bought some plants as a souvenir for the garden.

Let us find magic in all the little things in life. 

Outing in nature – part four – Rye

Our next stop was Rye a small English town by the coast in East Sussex. In the centre, cobbled lanes like Mermaid Street are lined with medieval, half-timbered houses. Mermaid Street is most famous where the Mermaid Inn is located which was used by smugglers. The historic houses date back from 15th century – many are 500 and 600 years old. You find also a Castle and the Ypres Tower.

Ypres Tower

Castle

Many of the old houses in the centre have lovely names above the door:

The house with two doors

The house with the seat

The house oppsite

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  The house opposite

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  Mermaid Street

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  The Mermaid Inn, rebuilt 1420

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  The house with two front doors

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Every house is made up beautifully with flowers in the front. I can imagine they are rather quirky inside.

Outer beauty is what the eyes can see,
inner beauty can only be seen through the heart.
~ Cagla Bicer ~ 

Kew Gardens 13th Smile

The Waterlily house is open again, hurray, of course with limited amount of people going in at a time.

Some close ups:

The Rose Garden was amazing, all roses blooming and giving their wonderful scent to us.

I found some beautiful coloured flowers, which I thought need a bit of ironing…only joking 🙂 The crumbly look made them even more special, they were rather delicate in both colours.

A special playful large scale bench waited for us to simply sit, relax and smell the planted circle of rock roses in the middle and enjoy nature.

New growth coming form every tree, and plant. I always love to see growth.

Every time I visit I find different plants, flowers and enjoy nature more than ever. It pushes happiness button every time and makes me grateful to live in such a wonderful world.

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our head.

Outing in nature – part three – Bateman’s House

We went along to Bateman's, which was Rudyard Kipling's house for 34 years and were he died in 1936. It is a 17th century house, beautiful with vast land around as Rudyard Kipling bought more land during his time there.

Rudyard Kipling's most famous fiction is the Jungle book.

Rudyard Kipling was the most famous author in England,and was earning £5,000 per year; the cost of Bateman's, £9,300, was thus entirely affordable. ( A secretary earned around £80 a year). 
He wrote many stories in this house, his American wife made sure he would not be disturbed uncessessay. 

Bateman’s built 1634

Garden

Outer beauty is what the eyes can see,
inner beauty can only be seen through the heart.
~ Cagla Bicer ~ 

His rather large blue Rolls Royce from the 1920’s was displayed in the garage. He loved that car. It was behind glass and the picture did not come out.

Outings in nature – Part two – Scotney Castle

Next we went to see Scotney Castle with its vast garden and old Castle.

The old Castle is very picturesque, featuring the ruins of a medieval moated manor house – it is on an island on a small lake. The lake is surrounded by sloping gardens with a wonderful collection of Rhodoendrons, Azaleas, Wisterias and Roses.

I have never seen so many blooming Rhododendrons together, it was the perfect time to visit.

There is nothing quite like the pleasure you get from plants and flowers,
they certainly cheer you up.
~Charmain Hussey~

Kew Gardens 12th Smile

It has been a long time since visiting Kew Gardens.

Yesterday I visited it again during the day with glorious sunshine,

as it is open for the grounds only.

Everything is starting to bud and grow.

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  Enzian

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  Pagoda

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  Japanese Garden

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  Monkey Puzzle tree

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  Monkey Puzzle tree

The Monkey Puzzle tree is among the top ten species in need of conservation.

It is such a beautiful tree.

Kew Gardens never disappoints, a true oasis.

We had such a wonderful time walking the grounds.

Enjoy nature and smile with your whole being.

Snow

Many countries have had lots of snow and really cold arctic temperatures.

I have seen beautiful snow pictures from other bloggers.

Here in London,

we had it cold (as it seemed for us) but not bitter cold

and little snow like a dusting some days.

Here are my only impressions from the Winter.

On my walk to work, I liked these

It is lovely to see the little snow crystalls.

 

 

 

Growing, my joy!

My garden is my joy.

I love things growing and I take care of them.

I check how my plants grow.

We are lucky the weather is good and

I spend lots of time in the garden admiring my babies.

My Canna Lily, I received from a friend last year is coming again.

I check how my planted seeds grow.

I had Cornflower seeds,

they grow beautifully.

I tried seeds of radish,lettuce,

carrots and onions.

They are coming on fine.

It is such a success story.

Every little success is a feel good factor.

Don’t expect too much of yourself.

In the words of François and his yogi ladybird:

What is your success story for this week?

 

Take care my friends and stay safe.

 

 

Kew Garden at home

Kew Gardens is closed.

So I look around and

look:

I found my own ‘Kew’ Gardens right here:

When you enter you find beautiful colours and shapes:

Following through there is the palm garden with

3 different palm ‘trees’

Continuing the path you see different greens

Then we come to the Bonsai Trees Section, there is a Chestnut and a Maw Bonsai in the making.

chestnut

Maw

And finally to the Alpine house, where we find this:

I hope you enjoyed the tour through Ute’s Kew.

 

Wishing you a blessed Easter weekend!

Keep the distance and stay healthy!

All pictures taken by me in my garden.

Click on the individual pictures to enlarge.

Spring is coming

It is still early January,

the weather is mild

and it fools the bulbs into thinking it is Spring.

I planted Crocuses, Buttercups and Daffodils.

See how far they are already.

I love watching them come up.

Crocus

Buttercup

 

Let’s hope it doesn’t get too cold for them later.