My sister in law has a small gardening business where she maintains people's gardens. She's really good at it and knows how to look after an English garden. We went to meet her at one of her gardens after walking around Glastonbury for the day - the garden itself is just on the edge of the town centre.

It's a little hard to do the centrepiece of this garden justice really. Even the scale of it is hard to capture. It's just absolutely massive. The burrs on it are incredible, reminding me of the weathered and hardened skin of a rhinoceros. Would you believe it's over 400 years old? They do grow quite slowly so it's just amazing to see how huge it's grown over this time.

I'll never get over how green an English garden is compared to an Australian one. There was MOSS on the lawn squelching under foot and mushrooms peeking up shyly, the absolute opposite in scale to the gigantic beech!

I adore the empty cases of gooseberry with their seeds rattling around inside - they are like fairy lanterns.

Bright tulips shine in warm corners - a little early, but so are many of the bulbs this spring. A small fig tree warmed itself against the wall. There once was many espaliered trees against the wall but building works on the other side had destroyed their roots. It must have been a really sheltered place for them with buildings all around.

Primoses seem to be everywhere. I'm sure they have medical value - I must look it up. Colour always seems to arrive early here in the form of flowers.

The magnolias are also in bud. Ours at home is huge but this one is a good enough size. I know you can pickle the flowers which taste like ginger but I've never tried and I don't suppose the owner of this garden would appreciate me picking his flowers.

Of course, despite appreciating all the little features and plants of this garden, I kept turning to look at the copper beech. My sister in law says she spends a lot of time staring at it too.

It kinda made me laugh that the supermarkets are selling daffodils. They are EVERYWHERE. I did hear a fun fact that during the wars, when people were trying to grow their own food, they'd dig up daff bulbs from their gardens and replant them on the roadsides.

The last look has to be at the beech, though, doesn't it? With any luck I'll be back in the summer to see it's magnificence.

With Love,

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