crathes castle

we started the morning at the highly recommendable, excellent, exhaustive and fascinating gordon highlanders museum in aberdeen - mostly for my dad's benefit, as he's a big history buff, also because it was once again heavy drizzling, but also for general interest. there was so much to take in that i meant to go back round once we'd done, but never got the chance - another time. the guides are volunteers and ex-services and very interesting, willing to chat about more than the history with those who are interested enough to ask. i always feel my ignorance looming large on such occasions, but that didn't seem to be a problem - glad you're interested, it seems. also, the cafe, tho wee, is great :-)

then the afternoon was over at crathes castle - starting with a rather good haul from the nursery, which was selling off for the winter. i'm sure there will be pix of my potentially stunning clematis next year! again here we didn't go into the house (for one, not enough time and for two it was hugely expensive to do both) and contented ourselves the garden.

but what a garden! we spent about two hours just wandering the walled garden area, which is definitely 'mature' but also under reconstruction in some areas - fascinatingly, they are cutting back the massive ancient yew hedges to something of a more managable size (read: width), so one side of each was cut right back to show the archictecture of branches inside - fabulously tangled, and showing signs that they'd regrow, too. each little area of the garden was its own 'room' which always sounds pretentious when they talk about it on the telly, but here it just works because it's done so well (including things like an urn or seat for strong lines all year round). and btw, if you ever go, don't miss out a wander into the glasshouse - if you like pelargoniums, fuschias and exotics it's a little slice of heaven. i could happily work there, i reckon!

the cat was in front of the house on the main lawn doing a bit of a meet and greet, then followed us into the top garden, and posed nicely at the side of the pond. wasn't that considerate? i reckon we'll be back to see him/her again sometime, this place deserves a second look, maybe spring...

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btw, this little adventure starts back here if you're interested.