Feeling Pashley!

At the risk of sounding like a scratched record, I recently celebrated yet another gorgeous sunny and warm autumn day, this time at Pashley Manor Gardens in Sussex.

I have loads of pics to share with you but let's do the important stuff, the OOTD!



Out from my travel capsule came my Peacock jeans, Woolovers grey cashmere/merino cardi and M&S snakeprint flatties and grey/jade/blue/pink ... you-name-a-colour-it's-got-it scarf. 

Underneath I wore an M&S Limited Collection white modal vest.  It was fortuitous that I chose to wear it on this day - more on that later.  But I have a fear that this is the only time during the trip that the vest got worn. 

I decided to knot the scarf, for perkiness, and for driving.

It dawned on me that I could easily have managed the trip with the one scarf, as it went so well with all in the travel capsule, even some combos I hadn't considered before.  A good little scarf!

Then on to Pashley, a short half hour drive away from my sleepy seaside town.  As usual on such occasions, I will try to let the pics do most of the talking.

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It was my first visit.  I soon discovered that it's USP is that it features garden sculptures, so you will see a fair few in this post.

Being autumn, the gardens were short on most types of flower.  But thanks to the gutsy dahlia, there was a good showing of autumn colour.



Sedum really comes into its own this time of year.

And slightly embarrassingly, I took a lot of pics of this type of huge, waxy flower.  I'd never seen this type of glorious flower before.  They were dotted around the flower beds. 

After lunch I enthusiastically dragged The Photographer back to show him the amazing flowers.  Only to realise when not seen through a camera lens, that they are actually sculptures.  I should have suspected, never having previously seen this type of "flower" and it being a sculpture garden!

Time for lunch.  This little café serves super tasty home prepared and cooked food.  A myriad of salads and cakes and everything in between.

The quiche was courgette and feta.  There's a fab couscous salad in there.  The potato salad was scrummy; it was draped in a dressing that I swear had some pesto in it and the juicy capers tossed in just finished off this must-try-making-this-at-home potato salad.

And look at this.  Lunching outside, in autumn, in my vest top. 

I spent the rest of the day wandering around this pretty place in said vest top, hot even with bare arms.  What a glorious autumn (oh, it's that scratched record again!).

A folly on an island accessed from a little bridge.

Anne Boleyn, in wood, with her head.

The terrace café.

The sculptures are for sale.  I think this one had a £40k price tag!  Most were in the £1-4k bracket.

Tree trunk sculpture.

A very happy garden visitor.

A sculpture lazily reading on the pool diving board.

I liked the manor house's fine chimneys.

Unusual to have a swimming pool in a visiting garden. 

But I guess the manor is a home too.  To some lucky person!

The framed garden arch created trompe-l'oell framed picture.  Effective.

OK , having been fooled by the "flowers, I was prepared for these "chickens".

The cabbages and kail in the veggie patch were enormous and so beautiful.

A nod to the impending Halloween fest.

The shop's wares were displayed with panache.

Handmade handbag and gloves set against similar coloured blousey dahlias -

an oil painting in the making!

Now, autumn is not the best of times to be garden visiting, but I did feel that this garden still had lots to offer.  Blooms, landscaping, art and a nice day out too.  The nosh wasn't half bad either!

Oh maties, if you live in our northern hemisphere, please tell me that you too are raving about this glorious autumn too and that I'm not the only one with a huge scratch in her record!

A la perchoine.