A Mysterious Mansion and a generous Knight of the Realm

When you want to visit the nearby little market town near where I live there are two roads in.

One is through the forest of an eccentric earl .

The other way is via a really lovely country road, all hilly with meadows where you pass through a tiny village.
The village has a few lovely cottages ,a pub and a church.

It has a bench to rest your feet celebrating George the 5th his Jubilee.

And it has a huge mysterious manor which you can just about glimpse at the end of a long drive with a towering beech hedge.

You can imagine when we found out it was open for one day for charity  I really wanted to go.

Who-ah!

The grounds themselves were not really as spectacular as the building itself.

                                             picture credit here


I found the huge stretch of lawn at the back slightly dull. Maybe a huge majestic cedar would be the answer.

                                                               picture credit here

                                                              picture credit  here


And I wasn't really convinced by the colour schemes of the borders which were in sickly yellows and such.

 But this is where it got interesting.
This was one of their old green houses.

And this one was their latest most luxurious one.

I got talking to a really friendly New  Zealand girl in the green house.
It turned out she was the wife of the head gardener and knew a bit about the plants, the estate and the greenhouse.She was the housekeeper for the place.
The green house was so super clever, it would regulate the temperature and open windows when it was too hot, and water the whole kaboodle.You may well goggle.The girl and I found it both amazing.

The place was owned by a regular knighted feller, and the girl who worked for him thought him the bomb.
All the plants where dragged in the greenhouse when they looked peaky and looked after by the amazing greenhouse, till they looked a million dollars again- and then they were displayed, when Sir H. returned from one of his many houses or from abroad, in the entrance hall  or study or wherever.

The vegetable gardens were another stunner. 
And as His Lordship wasn't very much around apart from maybe Christmas and Easter, all the vegetables and whatever else was grown, so had dictated the Knight of the Realm, were for my new friend from New Zealand.
So every time I drive past this mysterious house and the towering hedge, I now know it's in good hands.

A generous owner, and a happy head gardener and his really nice wife.
Who cares he hasn't got a cedar tree on his lawn or if his borders have too much yellow in it.

Have a great rest of the week .

XOXO


Bea