Coleton Fishacre (Devon, England)
Coleton Fishacre was in my top 5 gardens on the tour. This Arts & Crafts style house and garden was the country home of Rupert D'Oyly Carte and his wife Lady Dorothy Carte. He was the well-known theater owner (The Savoy) and producer (Gilbert & Sullivan). They spotted the property from their yacht and thought it would be a great spot for a country home and garden. Ah, to have that much money... They commissioned Oswald Milne, a former student of Edward Lutyens to design the house. Both Rupert and Lady Dorothy were interested in gardening but it was Lady Dorothy who mainly planted the garden, filling it with exotic and tender plants that survived with the influence of the Gulf stream. They employed six full-time gardeners! I often wonder if people who have that much money are really able to enjoy a property like this and actually live in it? Their tenure here wasn't that long (a dozen years or so) although Dorothy lived here full time in the late 192...






You've got all the bases covered for you avian visitors, Phillip. I loved the photo of all those bushtits clustered together.
ReplyDeleteI love your photos of your birds, Phillip! The bushtits are little balls of feathers...
ReplyDeleteGood photos! Nice to see what your feeders do for them in the tough winter months. We have the same birds here. A west coast thing? No nuthatches, though. Oak Woodpecker for Woodpeckers. The Bushtits travel in a group and visit each shrub looking for---whatever they look for. Then they move on, just as you say, swiftly. I like the Scrub Jays too. Their scratchy call. They "plant" acorns in all my pots.
ReplyDeleteI too find it frustrating when good quality, cleverly designed items disappear from the market place (a watering can, in my case).
ReplyDeleteWonderful pictures of all your feathered visitors! The Bushtit photo is hillarious! There is safety in numbers, I know, but this is too funny.
Chavli
So great to have all that wildlife, I'm jealous. *I don't feed the birds anymore, I was attracting rodents. I really miss it.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite morning activities is to have a cup of tea and enjoy watching the birds cluster around the feeder in the back garden. They wait in the trees for me to replenish the supply, then bombard it the moment I walk away. Thank you for sharing these great captures and I do love the one of the Bushtits all congregated together!
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