It took me a while to realise that the Cotswolds are really not that far from us, about an hour and a half, and there’s so much to see and do there. This time of year is also snowdrop season! I’m not much for flowers but I do think snowdrops are really pretty and it’s a nice reminder of Spring coming. This weekend we spent a day at Colesbourne Park, who claim to have the best snowdrop garden around.
I feel like I need to add a full disclosure that my knowledge on flowers wouldn’t fill the back of a postage stamp. I can appreciate their beauty but that is pretty much as deep as it gets. Snowdrops make me think of being a child though and of seeing my grandparents. I’m sure they had snowdrops in the Churchyard just next door and I’ve always had a love of them. Perhaps it’s their dainty appearance or perhaps it’s how fleetingly they’re around.
We definitely didn’t fit the target demographic for people visiting this weekend. Other than children, clearly not there by their own choice, we were the youngest people by about fifteen years. I also didn’t blend in very well dress sense wise. We were planning to loop into a nice country pub for drinks and dinner so I tried to mix my attire with a dress and boots. Didn’t really fit with the walking gear everybody else had on. Not that this has ever stopped me. I’m used to not necessarily fitting in but just rolling with it. Once we finally realised that the track marked ‘no entry’ was actually the one down to the car park, we were ready to go.
Colesbourne Park is essentially a lot of gardens, grounds and woodlands. There’s a Church onsite, a house but not you can go inside and I imagine this season is their busiest of the year. The sheer number of snowdrops they have is quite astounding. They also have so many varieties. As part of the £8 entrance fee, you got a map and a list of the various species with a little bit of detail. You can see from the photo just how many there are. I’ll admit I didn’t really know this beforehand and when you look, there are subtle differences.
Our time here mostly consisted of wandering around, admiring them and taking photographs. My office job and commute don’t really give me much time outdoors or exercise so I do enjoy a good walk at a weekend. I would bear in mind that a lot of these grounds are steep and due to the weather this year, there’s still a lot of mud. I almost slipped on some steep steps down and there were a lot of people on sticks so it was mildly concerning. It feels worth pointing out that this place is not suitable for disabled people unfortunately due to the variances in height. Anybody with pushchairs would do well to steer clear in the winter months too.
They’ve done a good job of tending for the plants and I did enjoy looking at them and learning a little. We were amused to find one strain called the Mrs Thompson (Chris’ surname) and even more so to find it’s considered to be an eccentric kind. Snowdrops weren’t the only plants on show and there was a general variety of spring plants and flowers creeping through. Experts may well get more pleasure in seeing different kinds than my poorly trained eye did.
As with any good gardens attracting the older generation, they have a tearoom. Each day is supplied with cakes from a local charity or organisation. It was the local rowing society when we were there. £2 got us coffee and homemade cake so you can’t argue. After a brief stop here, we’d concluded seeing the snowdrops and it was time to continue exploring.
Something I hadn’t seen advertised but that was gorgeous is their blue lake. We saw the sign but hadn’t actually expected it to be so blue. I’ve not edited these photos other than to straighten or crop them so you can hopefully see the colour that greeted us. It looks more teal on one side and from certain angles. It sure is pretty! There’s a short loop alongside it that gives you two different heights on which to admire it. Plus in case you were worried you’d not seen enough snowdrops, there were more here.
In the summer, you’d walk away from the house towards the fountain but it’s still switched off currently. You can walk out across bridges, through the woods and loop back to the Church. As it was, an early Spring day made for pleasant walking too. We were happy just to wander once we’d finished looking at the snowdrops. On a different day, we might have made the short trip over to Sudbury Castle or into Cheltenham but we had a late afternoon drive back instead.
It also gave me the perfect excuse to have a play with my Huawei P20 Pro again. I’ve got what is now the old version (the camera and lenses are on the left vertically for me and it’s fine). It’s such a powerful camera. With less personal time, and less nearby inspiration, I gave up my DSLR but having a phone that packs 40 MP and a Leica lens means I can still unleash my creativity where needed. I’ve tried to keep editing to a minimum but I do use VSCO to store and do batch edits for simple things.
I’d really recommend this even if you want crisp, clean images and like to have a bit more manual control available. I certainly made use of the manual control option this weekend and particularly enjoyed playing with the focus and apertures.
Ramblings of a coffee & fox addicted Nutter 