After a fun evening with my daughter and her partner in Manchester, we headed off on our trip to Conwy. I hadn't really realised how close the two places were - a little over an hour and a half - but it gave us chance to stop along the way, at Dunham Massey we'd hardly really left Manchester.
It's a place we've visited a couple of times before, exploring the deer park and the gardens, in autumn, in late spring when the rhododendrons are in full bloom, but never quite at this time.
Despite there being plenty to see elsewhere, the rose garden was the highlight of out visit, It's hidden away in what always seems like a peculiar spot to me - beyond the shrubberies, lawns and flower borders, under trees, in a cordoned off area of its own.
The roughly square space is divided by paths and arbours with seats to rest and take in the wonderful scent from so many flowers.
Some of the paths were bordred with giant alliums whose purple flowers contrasted sharply with orange/cream roses. I wondered if the alliums were there to reduce aphids but a notice about insect control inferred that they were tackled solely by letting nature take its course.
Our way out took us round the lawns (too hot in the sunshine) and through a shrubbery with late flowering rhododendrons, out of the gardens themselves to the main house/stableblocks where the park's deer had arrived to clear up after visitors.
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