Chartwell with a friend (Thursday)

I had a wonderful trip to Chartwell on Thursday with a lovely friend. Our visit was quite eventful. We were just sitting down at a table outside the cafe with drinks when thousands of bees descended onto the parasols, tables and chairs. We, and everyone else who has been enjoying refreshments in the sunshine, moved swiftly inside.

This photo was taken outside after we'd finished our drinks - from a distance!

 We left the bees and went for a lovely walk. What brilliant views!

The gunnera's are massive! 

The flowers are absolutely enormous. I've never seen them this big before.

A very big group of gorgeous sunlit ferns. 

A couple of people were looking up a tree at a little baby bird clinging to the bark and clambering slowly up towards a big nest box.

Looking a bit dishevelled. Such determination!

 Cascades of colour.

Inviting chair on the left. What a lovely place to sit and enjoy the view.

Kolomikta vine...I've seen one at Coombe Wood I've not seen flowers on it yet.

It's the one that looks as if the leaves have been dipped in white and pink paint.

The Kolomikta vine at Chartwell covers a big wall. 

Gorgeous wisteria with plump scented blooms. 

Clematis tumbling over the wall.

No idea what this is - beautiful deep raspberry buds and pale pink flowers

Plants growing from cracks in the walls.

We thought this was probably a smoke bush (cotinus) - but it had smaller leaves than either of us are familiar with. It looked lovely in the sunlight.

Big cheerful daisies.

Tiny pink roses "Climbing Pompom de Paris" (Helpful label nearby!)

 Wildflower areas - drifts of daisies. 

Speedwell

I don't know what this is but it has lovely curls. This pale colour was most common.

This darker one stood out among the rest. 

Red campion. (I didn't know all of these plant names - my friend is very knowlegeable about plants.)

Looking up towards the house. 

Solomon's Seal.

Lovely leafy textures and patterns. 

The alliums were beautiful. 

And these - so pretty. 

Rasberry coloured allium.

Peonies poised to open - these will look splendid! 

Artichokes.

Currants (black/red?)

My friend did tell me what these are but I've already forgotten.

Osteospernums.

 Attractive little blue stars with yellow middles.

 Bee on white allium.

My friend pointed out this lovely combination. I love the colour mix and the contrasting textures. I think this might make an appearance on one of my card designs in the near future.

From above. 

Markham's Pink Clematis - these are the seed heads after flowering - aren't they lovely. I've looked it up online - the flowers look lovely too. They are little pink bells and it says they do well in clay soil which is brilliant because our new garden has a lot of clay! This is defintely on my shopping list to use the garden centre voucher I had for my birthday.

What a view! 

These are lovely - so delicate. 

Surprises around each corner.

This cornus caught our attention. The flower (actually they are bracts not really flowers) was more complex than the ones I have seen before.

The tree was covered in them.

More wonderful slashes of colour. 

Rhododendrons peeping through here and there. 

I think this is the same as the one I saw in the Isabella plantation in Richmond Park a couple of years ago. It didn't have a label on and I wondered what it was. This one had a label - I was surprised to see that it's a magnolia! (Sieboldiana)

Lovely colours.

I couldn't work out what this was - had to use the camera and zoom in. It looked like a dog in the water.....if you half close your eyes you might see what I mean.

Duck with a long neck or swan with a short neck? 

Definitely not a swan - there's a swan. 

White ducks waddling up to see if we had any food for them. (No we hadn't.)

The long necked duck joined them. 

The beautiful black swans were swimming serenely. Their long necks are so slender  We went a little closer.

 They came a little nearer.

We admired the ducks and carried on talking about how attractive the black swans were.

The biggest one climbed out of the water....

....and approached me in quite an aggressive manner. I turned my back on him and he pecked me, grabbed my cardigan and hung onto it.

Fortunately my friend was very nifty with her walking pole and fended him off and we retreated to a safer distance. We watched as some other visitors went to feed the ducks and swans - no aggressive behaviour from the swan there. Perhaps the swan had been telling me off for not bringing food! 

We made our way to the cafe and had a lovely leisurely lunch (inside the cafe as the bees were still milling around, but by now they were mainly higher up near the eaves).

With thanks to my friend for a thoroughly enjoyable time.

Thank you for joining me.