A couple of months ago, I paid my annual visit to Dyffryn Gardens, a large Edwardian manor house, surrounded by 55 acres of botanical gardens, just south of Cardiff.
I won’t write about the house as it hasn’t changed much since I wrote about it last year. But there was a wonderful art exhibition in the great hall by the Japanese artist Takumasa Ono.
If you come across an exhibition of his work at another National Trust property, I’d recommend checking it out. I spent ages looking at all the prints and paintings for sale, and eventually bought a traditional Japanese-style painting of cherry blossom.
The gardens were as beautiful as ever, and I spent a lovely, relaxing day walking around. As always, I got a little carried away photographing them, even though a number of the flower beds had been left fallow and there were fewer plants and flowers to see.
Here are some of my favourite photos from this year’s visit, starting with this lilac flower:
The blossom was out in force in May:
The dragon flies came out to play:
The Italian Gardens were as delightful as ever:
I liked the shape of these red flowers:
A couple of the many flowering cacti in the orangery:
A lonely blossom on a tree branch:
In case you’re interested in seeing how the gardens have changed over the last few years, here are 2017, 2016 and 2015’s posts.
Little Old World 