Wednesday 27 July 2011

B is for Batsford Arboretum...


I originally posted this last August but it was such a great one for ABC Wednesday that I thought I'd recycle it!
Batsford Arboretum is set in the beautiful Cotswolds (we were there last Sunday at a lavender farm - more of which in a later post).  It is such a wonderfully relaxing place, originally part of the estate of Batsford Hall, home to the Mitfords.  It's quite oriental in feel, with a Japanese bridge, statues of a Foo Dog and Buddha, and a Japanese Rest House, as well as Japanese Maples at every turn.  We'll be going back later in the year to see the trees in their autumn colours.  Funniest moment was visiting the Hermit's Cave, which actually appeared to have a hermit in it playing a drum - very pythonesque...









... and just to show I did put some work into this post, 
here's a new photo I took on Sunday, it's the view from 
the rather spiffing new cafe at Batsford.

For more participants visit ABC Wednesday...

17 comments:

Linnea said...

What a gorgeous setting. I love your shots, especially the ones of the statues.

jabblog said...

It looks beautiful - but where in the Cotswolds doesn't? The colours are wonderful and I can imagine the autumn trees are stunning.

Laloofah said...

Oh, these are sublime! We LOVED our visit to the Cotswolds - it and the west country (though we only made it as far as Dartmoor) were our favorite parts of England. We loved the Cotswold's golden-hued buildings, the lovely, gentle countryside, and the sweet villages.

I had a feeling a Buddha would make it into your B post, I just figured it would be Pepper's Buddha! Wonder what she'd make of this one? He looks huge... bet even Charlie would take heed. :-)

The Batsford Arboretum is just beautiful (can't wait to see your lavender pics, too!) I had to look at the photos twice before I noticed the spider on the red berries and the two bees on the flower!

Did you notice how many B photos you have in your Batsford Collection? Did you do that on purpose? I'm betting you did (clever you!) I count: Bug, Bridge, Ball (& Foo Dog), Buddha, Berries, Bees on Buds, and Balcony Bistro. I'm still working on coming up with a B word for the Japanese Maples. :-) Well done!!

LOL about the Pythonesque drumming hermit in the Hermit Cave!

Barbara said...

Laloofah: Ahem, any B words in this apart from Batsford are entirely accidental! And that is one big Buddha - unfortunately I did Buddha last time around so didn't want to overdo it :O) The Cotswolds are indeed lovely - it's about an hour from where I live (actually a lot of places are about an hour from where I live, the good thing about living in the centre of England!).

Rune Eide said...

You did right in recycling this one. It must be yet another place to put on my list if ever I get another chance to tour Britain by car.

PS As "ever" :-) - thank you for your comment!

Ashley Sisk said...

i LOVE that first shot!

Roger Owen Green said...

These are great shots for sure.
ROG, ABC Wednesday team

Lisa Gordon said...

These are beautiful photographs Barbara!
I especially love the first one.

Kathy said...

What an amazing place!

Anonymous said...

This looks live a gorgeous place to visit and, of course, it is prefectly captured by your wondferful photos! I know it's just his/her markings, but doesn't that ladybird have a baleful expression? :o)

Like Laloofah, I wondered what Pepper would make of that enormous statue of the Buddha! I think she'd be quite in awe...

Penny

Anonymous said...

Oh, no! For once I didn't proofread! John spoke to me and...

live = like
prefectly = perfectly
wondferful = wonderful

See how appalling my typing is?

Penny

Laloofah said...

Penny, you are so cute, you crack me up! :-) xoxo

Barbara, you ARE well-located! Lucky you! And lucky us that you have such great photography skills and a blog so we can tag along on your adventures.

I do have a hard time believing that all those B pictures (and I don't mean dodgy cinema) were accidental! Surely your subconscious, at least, knew exactly what it was doing!

Ellen Whyte said...

MOL, wonder if they had ancestors who loved the Prince Regent???

Barbara said...

Au and Target: Doesn't everybody?!? ;O)
Penny: I didn't even notice the spelling mistakes, not sure what that says about me! I do wonder how the heck they got that Buddha up the hill in the middle of all those trees, it's quite a climb. I'm sure Pepper would like to have it in our garden... not that we'd get anything else in our garden if we had that but still...
Laloofah: I suffered heat and tropical humidity yesterday in the name of photography! The sweat was dripping into my eyes and even my camera stopped working in the end... all will be revealed for (possibly) Camera Critters on Saturday.

Barbara said...

Laloofah: Almost forgot! I can't take credit for the B photos, honest! If my subconscious did it then it didn't let me in on it (which is the point of being subconscious I guess - doh!).

Laloofah said...

LOL - maybe it was even your sub-subconscious! :-)

Waiting eagerly for the revelations from your photo shoot in heat and humidity so tropical it made your camera stop working! Goodness! (By the way, honey, haven't you heard? Women don't sweat. Horses sweat. Men perspire. Women glow) (<-- read that in a languid Southern accent, darlin'.) ;-)

Barbara said...

LOL! Well the 'glow' was running into my eyes then!

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