Hidcote.

We traveled back from the Dales in stages, the journey is too long for us now, as we have slowed down everyone else appears to have speeded up. We stayed overnight in the Midlands with dear friends from our student days. Many years ago they bravely bought a dilapidated old hall. It is now restored and is a beautiful building and we sleep in style whenever we stay with them.

The following morning we went to Hidcote gardens where our friend, Janet Haigh, has an exhibition of her work on display. It is glorious stuff. If you are interested in embroidery, flowers, art, gardens ,this show is a must. Janet has produced a book, 'Drawn to Stitch: Gardens and Flowers' to accompany the exhibition. It is available via www.janethaighherwork.com You can follow her on www.instagram.com/janethaighherwork

The exhibition is held in this lovely building and is on display throughout the summer.

The famous gardens were the inspiration of an American, Lawrence Johnson. He bought the property in 1907 and set to work straight away to create his garden. He was the son of a wealthy socialite and a guide told us that Lawrence never actually got his hands dirty, he had a team of gardeners to work to his command! He was rather more hands on at party giving, clearly as much of a socialite as his mother!

Then it was time to explore the garden.

After looking around the garden we drove to Portishead to spend the night at Janet and Steve's. Their house is next to the Bristol Channel and conversations are often had while looking out of the window because a boat is passing up or down the channel.When we woke in the morning the tide was almost up to the garden wall.