Monday 16th May
A lovely day out at our local National Trust property, East Riddlesden Hall - full of inspiring images of ornate 17th Century plastered ceilings, tapestries and embroideries. In the afternoon we had a brilliant behind the scenes tour of the grounds by head gardener, Jill Sanders. Jill has worked at the Hall for 22 years and has been responsible for designing and planting the sensory garden and the innovative children's secret garden - full of dens, fairy-tale doors and a mud-pie kitchen as well as the day-to-day upkeep of the herbaceous borders and orchard.
But for us, the most interesting development was the new dye-garden. Jill told us that this was very much, work in progress and she hoped that some time in the future there would be a washing line with fabrics dyed with each of the plants. There is lots of scope for a collaborative project - maybe next year!
Thank you to Sue Ingles for arranging the visit.