Anglesey Abbey

Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire is a National Trust property known mainly, I feel, for its early spring snowdrop displays. Really to catch them we should have visited earlier in the year; by March, particularly with such warm weather, it was getting a little late, although we did still find some flowering in shady areas.

Anyway, you can't design a winter garden around just snowdrops, and there were other things to see  - hellebores, early daffodils, dogwoods, scented daphnes, and cherries and birches grown for the beauty of their bark; altogether a lot of inspiration for my own garden, if only I had space for any more shrubs and trees.

 

Not every winter day is going to have as stunningly blue sky as this one, but these silver birches would look wonderful whatever the weather; vivid in the sun, ghostly on duller days.

A gateway leads on to a more natural-feeling woodland, then the path meanders to the Lode Mill.

Eventually we found our way to the house, and then beyond to more tree-lined walks. 

Unfortunately, some of the gardens in this area, and a herbaceous garden we'd passed earlier, were closed to preserve the grass which was a little disappointing as, even if the flower borders here weren't at their best, a glimpse of them would have been better than nothing. For National Trust members living locally it's easy enough to return and see how the seasons unfold; for visitors from a distance it's not so simple, and maybe a better way way needs to be found to balance public access and gardening needs.