Waxwing

Waxwing
"To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour."

From "Auguries of Innocence"

by William Blake

Friday 14 September 2012

Baddesley Clinton - Part 2 Butterflies and Scarecrows

Following on from yesterday's post, I was really pleased to see quite a few Small Tortoiseshell and Red Admiral butterflies, together with a few Large and Small Whites, nectaring in the Walled Garden.

Butterflies seem to adore Sedum spectabile and it was quite easy to get close and take photographs.

Red Admiral












Small Tortoiseshell








In the Vegetable Garden there were lots of themed Scarecrows celebrating the Summer of Sport. Some of the captions next to the scarecrows were quite amusing and I've put a few in quotes below together with all the Scarecrow names

Ivor Cushy Job (from H20 security)guarding the entrance to the Vegetable Garden



Swede Redgrave



Russell Sprout

"Scared of heights. Likes to keep his feet firmly on the ground. Never won a medal."



Zara Parsnips and her horse Radish

"Wanted to enter Horse of the Year Show but got lost and ended up at Crufts.... didn't win Best in Show".



Tomato Daley




Lord Sebastian Crow

"Campaigned tirelessly for 2 and a half days to bring the Olympics to Baddesley Clinton. Total cost to the tax payer nil. We'll show London how to do it properly"



Dame Celery Holmes



Geoff Grapes - "Baddesley's strongest scarecrow. Has been known to lift two cabbages and a whole turnip without taking a nap."



Andy Strawmurry - my favourite!



Zola Spud



Turnipisian Bolt



Sir Chris Pak Choi riding through rhubarb. "Hopes one day to enter the Tour de France. Where is France?...... Is it far from Lapworth?"



Fatima Cornbread "Very short-sighted. Can't see without spectacles.. but lost these in a dung heap in 1978. Please stand well clear"



And finally lots of activity round the bee hives






If you live locally or are in the area its well worth a visit to see the dahlias and scarecrows. There is so much to see and do in the House and grounds.


5 comments:

Rohrerbot said...

I love this place you visited. It really looks like a great place to kick start our autumn here. The butterflies are gorgeous.....I also like the flower they are using.

So glad it's Friday. I am needing a break from this terrible week of silliness. It will be nice to get out and do some gardening and photography tomorrow. Hope you are having a nice weekend. Ours is just to about to start:)

Ragged Robin said...

Rohrerbot - Many thanks Chris. The sedum is lovely. The strange thing is that we have several plants of a similar species in our garden but rarely see a butterfly on them! They seem to prefer michaelmas daisies in our garden!

Have a lovely weekend and enjoy your gardening and photography. I think we may go blackberrying this weekend :)

ShySongbird said...

Hi Caroline, I have just thoroughly enjoyed both of your Baddesley posts. What lovely gardens they are, I haven't been for a couple of years but have always enjoyed my visits there and remember that there always seemed to be butterflies everywhere. The dahlias are beautiful, I love the big, bright red ones.

Your butterfly photos are gorgeous, the Red Admiral is my all time favourite butterfly so I loved seeing yours. As for the scarecrows :-) What fun and so creative with the names and captions, every time I thought I had found my favourite another would make me laugh...just brilliant. Do they always have scarecrow displays there? I don't recall seeing them when I have been in the past.

P.S. I too was devastated about the Badger decision!

Anonymous said...

What fun the scarecrows and comments are! I noticed the other day that we are having a Scarecrow Fair, locally. I shall try to go to it.

Ragged Robin said...

ShySongbird - Many thanks so glad you enjoyed the post. I'm glad you've been there in the past because the gardens are so well worth a visit. The dahlia display was absolutely beautiful and for once the gardens seemed fairly quiet.

I think the Red Admiral is probably my favourite butterfly too - such a stunning combination of colours :) Glad you liked the Scarecrows and captions. Its the first time I have seen them there although to be honest I don't always visit the Vegetable Garden which is where they were based. A couple I got talking to (about red admirals!!) mentioned they thought it was a better display than last year so it sounds as though they have had them in the past. I will certainly look out for them next year.

The badger decision is just too awful to contemplate especially as I firmly believe it won't solve the cattle bTB problem. So all those badgers will die for no reason. I cannot remember when I have been so angry and frustrated about such a decision :(

Toffeeaple - Many thanks. I do hope you get chance to go to your local Scarecrow Fair as they can be such fun. We went to one last year (I think I did a post on it) at a village near to Baddesley and there were some superb creations.