Another Garden Day!

Today we thought we would wander down to West Green to visit the highly regarded gardens. And, so we did! 

Still great late summer displays around the garden. 

What a pleasant overnight stop by the lock. 

Hilton trying to get a glimpse of the lock action. 

Another slow morning - must be slowing down as we get to the end of our trip! We left for a gentle drive into Hampshire on our way to West Green Gardens. Even though we have been there before it was interesting to revisit but at the end of summer rather than at the beginning, as we did previously. 

We saw this magnificent setting for a house on our drive through Hampshire. 

At West Green Gardens even the decor blended in. 

Tea garden with the topiary teapot in the background. 

West Green Gardens was still an outstanding garden but not with the same impact that it has in full flight of summer. Many of the plants were past their best with seeding and dying off evident in large parts of the garden. What seemed to be noticeable was that it appeared to be very dry in places. Rain, believe it or not, has been scarce of late but it's about to happen in a big way and of course all weekend!!

Just love these circular gateways. 

Even spotted some wildlife!

Other views. 

Just the same, many late blooming summer plants were in flower offering the visitors a beautiful display. We spent a good deal of time there enjoying the ambiance of the surroundings. 

A late hollyhock flower. 

And a wild sunflower! 

We have come to the conclusion that there aren't too many parts of England where noise pollution doesn't impact ones daily life. You can either here the hum of a distant motorway, the sound of an aircraft overhead or close by local traffic. It may be like that in many places but it seems a little more evident in the UK. 

To add to the noise, we drove on further into Hampshire to Fleet where we needed to restock some basic supplies. Another quaint English town with plenty of activity. 

Keeping with the flowery day - a pub in Fleet decked out with flower baskets!

And a colourful street display. 

After this we continued on a few kilometres to Crookham for our overnight on the banks of the Basingstoke Canal. 

The Basingstoke Canal and Hilton.