Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Dear mummy, What another beautiful day. You surprised me by taking me to a new place today. Word on the grapevine is that Mottisfont has a beautiful walled garden with loads of sweet smelling roses.

Mottisfont is near Romsey in Hampshire. It’s an 18th-century home with a medieval priory. Owned by The National Trust. The grounds are stunning! Ancient trees look like something out of creepy Sleepy Hollow and a crystal clear river.

The walled rose garden is like something out of Alice in Wonderland and what drew my mummy to Mottisfont today. The brick walls hold the national collection of old-fashion roses and are at full bloom in June.

Mummy made the sensible choice of taking her mei tai baby wrap with her today, so I could get up and personal with the plants. It was also busy (even midweek) as the roses drew crowds from far and wide.

A buggy wouldn’t have been suitable on the busy shingle footpaths around the walled gardens as the paths are also narrow. The blooms over-flowed the gardens and looked and smelt great!

I loved smelling the pretty flowers. Shame I couldn’t eat them though! I was totally overwhelmed by how many roses Mottisfont had. My favourite were the yellow Pilgrim ones at the entrance to the walled garden.

Even though I was the youngest visitor that day, the staff were friendly and helpful, explaining the different types of roses they grew there and a little bit of history to them.

We finished by having some rose-water ice cream in the courtyard, mummy even gave me a lick of hers!

I snoozed in the baby wrap while mummy had some lunch and then explored the rest of the grounds.

Great day out, the weather helped, beautiful scenery and very colourful. Find out more at http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk

Bella x