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The Garden House (Devon, England)

The destinations are beginning to blur but looking at the tour guide booklet, I see that we are now in Plymouth. Today, we visited two gardens designed by Keith Wiley.  The first is The Garden House , where Wiley worked as Head Gardener for 25 years (from 1978-2003). The 10-acre estate was purchased in the 1940s by former Eton schoolmaster Lionel Fortescue and his wife Katherine. It was formerly home to the  vicars of Buckland Monachronum. The Fortescue's renovated the gardens and ran a market garden business and raised cattle.  The remains of some of the original buildings in the vicarage still stand in the garden and serve as a romantic backdrop in the Walled Garden - I loved the way they had massed ferns together. Just stunning! Surrounding the walled garden and venturing out away from the house are more naturalistic plantings  - Today, the head gardener is Nick Haworth, who was previously head gardener at Greenway , which we visited earlier.  Keith Wiley lef...
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Walking the Salmon Creek Trail


A few days ago a friend and I took a walk along the Salmon Creek Trail. This trail is less than a mile from our house and while I've glimpsed part of it along the highway, I'd never been on it and did not realize how extensive it is. My friend says the entire length is about 3.5 miles. We didn't walk the entire distance but got a good workout. We even got a glimpse of Mt. Hood (in the top photo) which is a rare happening. We also got another surprise near the end of the walk which you will see at the end of the post.






 





We were almost back to our entrance when I spotted a large bird flying from limb to limb. It was an owl and I managed to get a shot with my telephoto lens.

 


Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

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  1. chavlinessDecember 7, 2020 at 11:12 AM

    How fortunate are you: such fantastic trail, and only a mile from home. I'm surprised the mushrooms are still in such good condition. They often are a heap of mush at this point. Love the owl!

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  2. chavlinessDecember 7, 2020 at 11:12 AM

    How fortunate are you: such fantastic trail, and only a mile from home. I'm surprised the mushrooms are still in such good condition. They often are a heap of mush at this point. Love the owl!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kris PetersonDecember 7, 2020 at 11:46 AM

    You have incredibly beautiful scenery in the PNW.

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  4. sweetbayDecember 7, 2020 at 4:28 PM

    What a beautiful place to walk, and so close to your house.

    Great picture of the owl. That's a barred owl isn't it? The streaks on the breast are making me think barred. Those live on our farm and it's always exciting to see one. We hear them far more often than we see them.

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  5. Hoover BooDecember 7, 2020 at 8:08 PM

    Start with a volcano, end with an owl, beauty all the way. Thanks!

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  6. NellDecember 7, 2020 at 10:34 PM

    Wonderful pics, Philip! Thank you.

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  7. Lisa at GreenbowDecember 8, 2020 at 7:37 AM

    Fabulous shots of you little corner of.the world.

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