At Last! The Japanese Garden Post

 A friend of mine in Stirling has occasionally posted pictures of a beautiful Japanese garden that she visits, especially in Spring, and with our free day in Glasgow before the Loire holiday (ha!) I suggested we go. 

It's beautiful and we had a really lovely time; arrived in the morning looked at the gardens, had lunch in the tearoom then did a small part of their woodland walk. Here's the website if you're curious about it and its history, which is fascinating, and here are some of the many photos I took. 

we walked across this. It's fairly wide and the water is shallow but it's still incredibly difficult to negotiate - obviously a function of the 90 degree angles. It's a bridge that represents life and the way we have to accommodate the unexpected. (I should have known that was an omen perhaps?)

gravel garden

cherry blossom - obvs!

a part of the woodland walk where all the tree stumps have little doors, windows, porch roofs etc. Enchanting. 

and azaleas - such a beautiful colour. I expect it's a lovely place to visit at most times of the year, but I think spring is probably the best one. 

Early warning - I'm going away shortly - well on Monday, and I'll be away for three weeks, variously in Nottingham, Glasgow and then, barring the unforeseen, Finland. So radio silence here for a while but lots to blog about when I get back. 

The intention is that there will be at least three more posts before I go, but you know what they say about the road to hell....