Open garden

We went out this morning to visit a local open garden.  We had not, of course, done any research in advance, we just saw the notification on the National Garden Scheme website, and thought we should go, as it was so local.

We were a bit pressed for time, but it was dry first thing, and how long can it take to visit a garden?  "We'll take an hour at most, then come back and press on with the stuff needed around the house to be ready for our decorator tomorrow".  So we drove down to the road mentioned in the address - no sign.  Turned left at the end to go back into Framingham.  Round in circles whilst looking it up on the scheme website - if we'd turned right at the end of Spur Lane we'd have found it immediately!

Anyway, by the time we found it, it was unfortunately raining.  And the garden wasn't a little local garden, it was a huge great arboretum!  It was lovely, but we weren't able to give it the time and attention it deserved.  Mycroftw was there as well - I could have posted an almost identical photo!  Oh well, now we know about it, we'll look out for further opportunities to visit.

The Framingham Arboretum was developed by Sir Timothy Colman (from the mustard family), in the grounds of Framingham Hall (latterly called The Chase, and now demolished).  Many of the trees were planted originally by Dr Edward Rigby (10th name down on the left hand column), who bought the estate in 1786.  The Hall (which was built in the mid C19th) was demolished in 1973, leaving some of the outbuildings still occupied - though not, it would seem, by Sir Timothy himself - he lives just down the road in Bixley manor.  The remnant in the blip is apparently part of the north balustrade of the original hall.

There is more information, and lots of photos, on this blog.

Having galloped around and taken some photos, we retired home to dry off, and make an effort to be ready for Jane in the morning.  W continued attaching skirting board, I did the ironing and then moved the clutter from the hall.  We moved the smaller furniture into the study, but Jane will have to work around the piano and the dining table.

Having not had any lunch, we were pretty hungry, so we ordered an Indian takeaway as soon as they were open.  Then we went into Norwich to seen St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra at the Theatre Royal.  An excellent concert - Prokofiev Classical Symphony, Rachmaninov 4th piano concerto (with Peter Donahoe) and Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherzade.