It's A Doddle To Adore Doddington

I woke up this morning feeling very stiff and, it must be said, rather grumpy so when my brother suggested a trip out I wasn't exactly jumping out of bed at the prospect.
It was forecast to be another unseasonably warm day but even that hadn't lifted my curmudgeonliness. I'm not the greatest traveller at the best of times, struggling on occasions even with the thought of a micro trip, especially as I'm the only driver in our household and frankly relying on public transport to get anywhere is a complete lottery but once I've been persuaded, usually by my brother, I nearly always enjoy the destination and, somewhat idiosyncratically, love the journey home again.
On this occasion my brother suggested a visit to Doddington Place Gardens which we have passed a sign for on many occasions but never actually frequented. Taking into account that they are only 40 minutes away from home at the most, and despite having to negotiate some very turning and twisting country roads, this seems like a quite an oversight on our part.
What a revelation they turned out to be - they must be one of the most beguiling and beautiful gardens that we've ever been to! There were formal gardens, a sunken garden (my main image is a view from there back towards the Gardens' Victorian mansion), monumental hedge based topiary (which I hope I have given some sense of scale to in my first extra), manicured lawns, ponds, statues, sculptures and a Folly walk (as can be seen my second extra) with glorious planting including towering azaleas and rhododendrons, which were all topped off by today's blue skies and glorious sunshine. I would have included more colour images but the architectural feel to a lot of the planting seemed to lend itself more towards a mono treatment.
The gardens weren't thronged with too many people either so we felt even more privileged to be able to stroll around in such magnificent surroundings. To gild the lilly (to use a horticultural term) even further there is an onsite tea room so of course before we left just 'had' to indulge in a pot of coffee and a large slice of cake each. It really is a doddle to adore Doddington!