Alnwick Garden part two...

The Grand Cascade

Part one happened roughly four years ago but it feels longer.  Hours were spent getting around all the different 'rooms', having never seen them before.

This time, I didn't take anything in for the first half hour as there were lots of people = hectic movement and noise.  My brain can't quite cope with this, triggering the fight or flight response.

I bail out to the toilets, incredibly there's no one in there so for a while I just watch the glass sinks changing colour.  This is not hallucination, they really do - moving seamlessly from blue to green to yellow beautifully.  By the time they hit purple I'm good to go.

It's very hot in a muggy, sticky kind of way and I'm having a thermostat malfunction, which basically means I feel like a pig on a spit.

inside the labyrinth

The Bamboo Labyrinth

A new feature of the garden is a bamboo labyrinth, better than a maze of hedges 'cos it is enclosed - a tunnel of welcome dark green shade that smells strongly of peat.  Bliss

There are two very tall tunnels of hornbeam running either side of the Grand Cascade.  Rooms made from trees are just genius.  I want one.

The Hornbeam tunnel

A lot of the walkways are covered with structures supporting honeysuckle, clematis, climbing roses, providing perfume and shade.  Ending in a little round room with a bench so you can just sit and look.  Fair play to the garden designers.

Rose Garden walkway

 

The Alnwick Rose

 

The Roots & Shoots Garden

This is a whole new area for growing fruit, vegetables and flowers as companion plants.  It is also used as an open classroom for local school children, who have their own beds complete with homemade scarecrows.  If it rains there is a full-size tepee with scatter cushions for them to retreat to. 

Right now the tepee is surrounded by a huge amount of dahlias.  It gave me a rush to see them (how sad am I?).  Some were as big as dinner plates, with so many different types and in-your-face colours I can't help but love these darlings.

A football-sized lemon yellow dahlia

The Bishop of Dover - a more sober character altogether. 

The pinwheel perfection that is Honka Surprise

The best bit of the Roots & Shoots area for me are the two hives and the hundreds of honey bees.  They are in a sort of enclosure planted with the nectar-rich things bees adore.  The hum of activity and purpose is mesmerising.

I have a new found familiarity and admiration for bees now so many of them come into my garden, all different types. I often weed or prune with them buzzing loudly in my face or ears and we get along fine.

The Alnwick bees have access to a shed via a plastic tube, some live in there permanently in honeycombs between glass so us humans can see them at work.  This is great.  Hundreds of small brown bodies, drones and workers, all crammed together doing their particular job.

 

 

it really is the case that you can learn something every day.  Here's what I learned that day:

Bees have lived on earth for over 30 million years

Bees have 5 eyes and see the world in different colours so that they can spot flowers easily

Bees have two stomachs, one to digest food and another to carry nectar back to the hive

The Queen Bee can lay up to 2,000 eggs a day and can choose whether she lays male or female eggs 

More later, ta-ta for now :)

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