puddleshark

Bright sunshine, even if the temperature never really got above freezing. Icy patches on my journey along the back lanes.

Kingston Lacy House (built 1663-5, of brick, but faced with white Caen & Portland stone during 19th century alterations).

A few snowdrops starting to think about flowering, sheltered from frost behind the high walls of the Fernery.

The Lime Walk.

Prunus subhirtella

The old kitchen gardens. For some reason they have recently been planted up with ornamental grasses and spurges. Architectural. But not really my cup of tea. Seems like a waste of a proper kitchen garden.

Pelargoniums in the Greenhouse, Kingston Lacy

In the greenhouse, the pelargoniums tucked up for the winter.

The gardeners' bothy.

Kingston Lacy is never a peaceful garden. Very popular with parents and grandparents taking tiny tots out to let off steam. And some of those tots let off steam pretty loudly. Less singing kettle and more great ocean liner. But I did find a quiet corner of the kitchen garden, and sat on a bench in the sunlight, drinking coffee from my thermos, and wishing I could feel my toes.

Not my favourite Dorset garden, Kingston Lacy. The park is nice, and the winter woods are lovely, and the snowdrops are spectacular come February: but it's not a garden I tend to visit in summer. They don't really have much in the way of flowerbeds.

But the new maple and bamboo groves that they have recently planted are going to be absolutely stunning one day, if they survive climate change.