April in a Walled Garden

[puddleshark]

Dawn Redwood.



I went to the Walled Garden at Moreton, forgetting that the school Easter Holidays have begun. There was an Easter Egg hunt taking place (cardboard pictures of brightly painted eggs, rather than the real thing), and I had to choose my paths carefully to avoid the crowds.

Not a peaceful morning in the garden, but the tiny child who pointed excitedly and exclaimed "A egg! A egg!" made up for all the children who were running around and shrieking.

Along the woodland walk, the camellias are in flower. As always with camellias, more flowers littering the ground than on the bushes.






I don't know what this is, but the leaves are lovely.




Grape Hyacinth.


Double daffodil.


Marsh Marigold in the bog garden.



Most of my photos came out blurred - too windy for macro photograph today. I thought it would be sheltered in the Walled Garden, but it wasn't. The north wind shaking down the blossom. By the time I came back, my hands were aching with the cold. But wrapping them round a mug of tea soon sorted that.

Comments

[mallorys_camera]

Your photos are lovely.

I love walled gardens! 😀

[puddleshark]

Thank you!

Same here - always something mysterious and secretive about walled gardens. (Except possibly during the school holidays, when they are full of hordes of children...)

[kaishin108]

Ohh, those are called Grape Hyacinth. We have those in our front garden but I thought they were called Dwarf, H. Thank you!

I love to see those photos of the Camellias. We had a project years ago in a plant class where we propagated a ton of them. I wish they grew here, so beautiful.

How cute the sweet child getting excited over the egg!

Happy day!

[puddleshark]

I do like camellias, in other peoples' gardens. :) But the flowers fall off so quickly, and make sure a mess. Not sure I'd want one in my garden.

Incredibly cute child! I love the way tiny children use language...

[kaishin108]

I think it is a fungus or a disease they get that makes them drop their blossoms. Trying to remember...

Kind of messy, yes!

[asakiyume]

I agree about leaves--the way they glow!

It's said that samurai never grew camellias because the fallen flowers looked like they'd been beheaded--bad omen. (I don't know if that's true, though.)

Why do you suppose the Easter egg hunt used cardboard eggs instead of real ones? ... I guess cardboard are preferable to plastic, but real are best of all.

[puddleshark]

Whether or not it's true, I love the idea of samurai warily eyeing the camellias... Thank you!

Rather than a proper Easter egg hunt (which would have needed a lot of eggs), the owners of the garden had hidden cardboard pictures of eggs all round the garden. The children had to find them and answer a question that was hidden with them. More of a treasure hunt really, but the children seemed to be enjoying it.

[asakiyume]

That sounds like a very sweet treasure-hunt/egg-hunt! (And yes: for that type of event, it makes sense not to use real eggs)