Wednesday, July 16, 2014

A Day at Wrest Park - Luton

 
 Andrew took the day off and delivered us to this oasis of calm.  Perfect day and wonder of wonders - no hordes!  Do click on pics.
 Our first peek.  Lot of oohs and aahs from me.
 For 600 years home to the de Greys
 

 One of the few remaining formal gardens of the early 18th-century.

 Terrace and French parterre

 The Duke kept a bucket of plaster of Paris to hand so he could enhance any curves he found wanting.










 Sadly the fountain wasn't working

 The Bath house
 Lots of cool secret gardens to chill in.
 Inside the bath house.
 Great views whilst one is performing one's ablutions
 Maybe a little draughty?
 American Garden and below which I found a little disappointing.  Perhaps a work in progress..

 

 Inside the Bowling Green House.  Reminded me of Wedgewood
We spent a while watching Mum and the ducklings .  There were seven.

The Long water.

 We gave the geese a pretty wide berth

A bit of tree lopping going to the left.  There's heaps more but we just slowly absorbed the peace and beauty.  We had a reasonable lunch there but the luscious looking cake was dry.  My second disappointment. 
 Andrew bought me a book on Wrest Park.  Jenny very sweetly offered to carry it so I could continue shooting.  I had to laugh when Andrew told me Jenny said:
"Andrew gets the kiss and I get to carry the book."
There have to be some perks to getting old:)
 
P.S.  It's great I can down load so many but I still haven't got it so I can edit them first.  One day...


20 comments:

Pearl said...

The Bowling Green house looks like candy. Or a piece of dollhouse furniture. How beautiful!

Pearl

Anonymous said...

Lovely pics, but a bit too formal for me!

Rog said...

Are you CERTAIN this was Luton Pat? Looks lovely!

Mage said...

What wonderful gardens those are. Yes, formal but still imaginative. Imagine how much it would cost now to live that way.

Pat said...

Pearl: there was lots of variety. My photos tend to concentrate on the formality but I'm not totally in control of what appears on the page.

John: I know what you mean. I should have shown more of the wild wooded parts.

Mage: the imagination boggles. I can't imagine further than the life of a scullery maid. Poor girls.

Rog: if its not I'll eat my hat.
I must admit though they keep it quite in the literature.

Exile on Pain Street said...

Thanks for the vacation, Pat. As close as I'm likely to get in a very long time. But one day...

Ms Scarlet said...

I don't know... first the rock hard doughnut and now the less than luscious cake! If I visit Luton I will remember to take a picnic.
Sx

OldLady Of The Hills said...

What a very Beautiful place Pat.....I LOVE all the pictures---you have become a wizard at the pictures. This wonderful place is truly dreamy.....I LOVE the Formal Gardens---though they would be really hard to keep up.....lol!
I can see how you might spend many afternoons here, there is so much to see---including the adorable Birds.

Anonymous said...

That looks like a lovely place.

Z said...

How lovely - and you had a fine day, too. I've never heard of the place, I'm so ignorant!

sablonneuse said...

Not all the photos downloaded but the ones I saw looked lovely.
Belated congratulations to Alice!

angryparsnip said...

Goodness treats aside... the photos were fabulous !

cheers, parsnip

Pat said...

Exile: let me know when:)

Scarlet: Never mind Luton what about Minehead?

Naomi: I think I've been starved of that kind of formal beauty so I lapped it up.

Helen: don't tell me I have found somewhere you haven't been?

Sablonneuse: sorry abou tthat but you know I am a bit haphazard. Thanks for Alice - she now has her degree.

Parsnip: they would be better if only they allowed me to do a Picasa fiddle.

Pat said...

Z: you ignorant? I think not :)

OldLady Of The Hills said...

Pat, dear,when I go to your most recent post with that Beautiful quotation, it says "Sorry, this Blog doesn't exist."....I hope this is a mistake,but I'm not sure what to do about it....Has anyone else had this problem??
I did copy the quote and when I put it into My Pictures,I was able to read it.....It is truly profound and very moving. A really wonderful thing to read and re-read. I don't know what you said though....

Is this a Blogger problem or just something on my end??

Pat said...

Naomi: I'm glad you saw the quotation. I tried to share it - it worked on Face Book but not on my blog and I had to delete the bit that was there as it didn't make sense. Don't worry - it wasn't your problem. I should have just typed it out but I've been busy preparing for a visit.

Granny Annie said...

Lots of oohs and aahs from me too:)

LL Cool Joe said...

Wow it all looks beautiful, and the weather was great too. Many of your photos look like postcards!

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

I once wrote an article in our newspaper about the purpose of beauty, and why we need it.

This place is absolute proof...

Pat said...

Granny Annie: appreciated:)

Joey: the weather certainly helps.
Isn't it fantastic?

GG: I'm glad you can see it:)