Skip this if you don't like gardens!

We spent practically all of our second day in the Cotswolds at Hidcote Manor and Garden, near our Airbnb in Mickleton. Hidcote Garden is famous world-wide; it partners with Longwood Garden in Delaware in the US and another garden in Japan to do “gardener exchanges “each year for a couple of permanent full-time staff each. It was developed from scratch over a 40-year period by a wealthy man named Lawrence Johnson who was passionate about collecting and importing flowering plants, shrubs, bulbs and trees from all over the world.  He began with empty fields and a few trees and devoted his entire life to cultivating this garden, which is comprised of many widely varied smaller gardens that make up an amazing whole as a property. We took tons of photos there on yet another sunny-cloudy-rainy-sunny day.  This is a National Trust property and we became members of the National Trust to give us entry into several other National Trust venues during the rest of our trip.  Here are some photos of Hidcote:

The entrance to the Manor

One of the original trees on the property - a Lebanon cedar, I think, with a flower garden in front and the Manor behind

 Johnson paired colors and textures in interesting ways in his gardens

 This is a view of the distant hills beyond Hidcote Gardens

 The Beech Allee

 Not sure about this building but the wooden siding and thatch roof are interesting

 This is Lawrence Johnson and his mother

 A lilly pond. Gotta have one of those...

 Globe thistles a bit past their prime but lovely nonetheless

 One of my favorites - a smoke bush - paired with hot pokers.

 Another long allee

 Smoke bush again - beautiful colors with sunlight shining through some of the leaves

 That same Lebanon Cedar

 The tops of the hedges are often reddish in contrast to the green lower down.  The eye is drawn to the distant opening onto fields beyond.

After visiting Hidcote, we spent 3 days driving short distances around the Cotswolds, seeing gorgeous countryside and pretty villages like Stow-on-the-Wold, Chipping Campden and Broadway.  We went to see another couple of National Trust properties – Chasleton House and Snowshill Manor and Garden. More to come on those and other places...