Daffodils at Rydal

It's only a week since we returned from the UK and we are already heading out and about. (I will post about the rest of our holiday shortly.)

It is as few years since we have visited the Daffodils at Rydal, so, as it was a nice day, we went for the drive.  You can see our previous visits here and here.  

Daffodils were't the only golden flower on show today.  The bush has so much wattle in bloom. You can see why green and gold are the colours of Australia.

Don't let the beautiful blue skies fool you into thinking it was a nice warm spring day.  We have had temperatures into the low 20s for the past week, but today it was a balmy 5 degrees C (yes that is correct, not a typo)  when we arrived at the gardens and reached a maximum of a staggering 10 degrees C.  Coats and beanies were the order of the day.  Also, don't let the green grass let you believe that the drought is over.  It is green, but there is no length to the grass and we need much more follow up rain.  Some gardens were suffering from the effects of the dry and all dams were low.  However, it certainly looks a heap better than when we headed overseas just over a month ago.

The poet William Wordsworth, who famously wrote a poem "Daffodils", lived at "Rydal Mount" near the village of Rydal in the Lakes District of England.  Therefore, it is rather appropriate to hold a Daffodil Festival at our Rydal, just west of Litghow.   

The park beside the railway line is gorgeous.

Rydal was the end of the line for a few years, before the railway was extended to Bathurst in 1876.  The village became rather dumpy as time went on, but has really been revitalised over the last ten years or so, now being really tidied up and having several holiday cottages.  It would be a lovely place to have a quiet weekend away.

Now for the gardens.  Enjoy.

How good is this for a child's play area.

The Union Church is always decorated with a daffodil theme.

The entry way.

The quilt is new since our last visit.

A new innovation this year was "Sculptures in the Scrub" held in Pioneer Park.  We've never wandered through the park before.  The Progress Association seem to have been doing a lot of work in this area with new seating and plantings.  It really was a delightful place to be in.  I do hope this is a feature that continues into the future.

There were some interesting old tractors on display in the park.

The weird contraption on the back of the little grey Fergie is a potato digger.  I've never seen one before.

There was continuous entertainment in the park.  This group "Raduga Trio" were really entertaining.

Tiny tots dancing are always fun.  They did really well.

The Scots School Highland Band put on a show as well.

Then it was time to start exploring some country gardens.  Enjoy.

I seem to have a theme of chairs this year. That was purely accidental.

If there's an old car I'll find it.  I've never heard of the Maxwell make before.

The following garden is special to us, as it used to be owned by family friends.  We have daffodils that were given to us by those friends about 30 years ago that are currently flowering in our front garden.

We did buy a couple of daffodil plants to add to our garden at a stall.  The below is a close representation of "Pink Accent", which should be a nice addition to next year's spring garden.