Woody at the Rococo Gardens near Painswick

Woodpeckers suggested a little expedition a few miles up the Painswick valley to explore the Rococo Gardens on the outskirts of the town in the grounds of Painswick House. We hadn't been there for many years and then only in springtime to see the famous swathes of snowdrops.

Since then the gardens have been much improved with a lot of time and money invested in returning this very specific style of landscaping to its former 18th century glory.

The sun was shining behind fast moving and billowing clouds and the light was gorgeous with the deep blue sky providing a magnificent backdrop to the tall trees and formal gardens. We explored a few of the pavilions and walked through formal avenues that were separating key areas of the gardens. Several ponds have been built on the platforms at different heights of the sloping valley some wild and overflowing with vegetation, others formally constrained by Cotswold limestone blocks appearing like plunge pools from a Roman baths.

Helena decided to walk the maze but I thought better of it and climbed up the slope to look down on her progress. She also wanted me to photograph her T-shirt in yet another location which I have been doing on various outings this summer. Hers he decided to pose on the slope below the pond and the Exedra, which stands at the top of the valley in front of the woodland.

I also liked some of my other pictures including a few taken inside several follies. Woodpeckers has blipped one such scene. I had thought I would be doing another in the Derelict Thursday challenge, but at this location I think we were about twenty years too late. I did blip the ruined canal lock at Daneway last Tuesday, si that will have to do this week.