Day 3 - a little gem!

Summers back and it’s been a glorious day. We dropped Jude at nursery and then I worried she should have had some sun screen so I rang them. Of course they already had Jude’s own sunscreen there so no worries. 

Back at the house we got a load of washing out, part ours and part the girls, all dry when we got back later in the afternoon.

We headed over to Bradford on Avon, somewhere we’ve visited several times and where we did a bit of ancestry investigation last year as Chris’s great grandfather was born there.

After a coffee and a wander along the shops on the Shambles, where there was a gold post box from the 2012 Olympics, we headed to the NT Tithe barn in the Barton Farm Country Park and on up to the Kennet and Avon canal. We’ve walked a stretch from here before but today we just walked along to the locks stopping for a drink at The Canal Tavern. Purchasing two pasties from a shop where they were queuing out of the door, always a good sign, we headed back to the riverside to sit and eat them for our lunch.

Our main purpose today though was to visit The Courts Garden, just a few miles away in Holt. Again a National Trust property but quite well hidden away. 
Created in the early 20th century on the site of an early 19th century woollen mill. The wool trade was strong in this area but went into decline at the end of the century so the site was bought for private use.
There are several formal garden ‘rooms’ in Arts abd Crafts style near the house leading to a Lily pond and a Dye pool with water rills running down from the house. Beyond is an arboretum full of interesting trees. We stopped at the tea hut for a cuppa here and the scent was amazing, we were told it was a Lime tree. I wondered if it was a Linden as I remember a strongly scented one in Spain some years ago.

I loved the plantings, soft and quite informal, in the four beds on the house lawn seen in the blip. Known as the Pillar Garden the sculptural pillars were originally joined by chains.
 It was a delightful place to visit on a near perfect day.

Extra - Jude was out playing football again with Boppa this morning before nursery. I took a few phone snaps to send to the parents, didn’t have my glasses on so wasn’t sure how good they were but was later impressed by this one of her taking a shot! Just had to add it!