time travel: part two

Better late than never.

So the other Friday while the gang were all sitting around catching up, Karen and I found ourselves both somewhat wistfully talking about being outside. Each of us was missing having a garden a little* and feeling the need for some time in the air, with plants, and probably getting our hands mucky. I'd been playing with the idea of making hanging baskets for the new flat and suggested a trip to a garden centre which Karen seized on and expanded into a day out visiting some place I'd never heard of called Dalkeith Country Park after which we'd find a big garden centre and splurge on plants to play with.

Saturday came, and with it some cracking early spring weather. By early afternoon we'd got our collective acts together and were in the car, roof open to enjoy the sunshine (in spite of the chill) and were headed to the outskirts of the city. The next few hours were spent ambling through an ever changing sequence of landscapes that makes up the old grounds of Dalkeith House.

There's something very odd about the place, which I think comes from it being largely a giant landscape gardening project that is now centuries old. Everything has long since mellowed out and settled and yet none of the various woodlands or pastures feels entirely as if it belongs where (and when) it is. On a sunny day with the right company it makes for a glee inducing afternoon.

I took some pictures and (since I've been threatening for about a year now to overhaul the pics section) uploaded a small selection of them as a trial of the new format photo albums I'm hoping to make a great many more of soon... though the fact that it's taken me over a week to have the time and energy to post this should give you an idea of what to expect in terms of realistic timeframe for that. Anyway here they are, the new album format is still a little rough around the edges but a huge improvement I think. And the photos are nice too :D

* Karen more lastingly than me - I like the idea of a garden but the reality is that I never really devote enough time to it when I have one