Howick Hall again!

  2 weekends ago we were up in North Northumberland at a Scottish wedding; the bride looked radiant, the kilts swung to the bagpipes skirling and the downpour washed Alnwick unnoticed by us.

We've been back to Hawick Hall to see the magnolia Campbelli?

Already the rhododendrons are bursting into flower.

Their borders are dotted with all sorts....

what are these 'red buttons'? Obviously some kind of primula but what name should I ask for at the market garden or in catalogues?

Yes I know pom-pom primulas.... I have those in my borders

and dicentra (Love lies bleeding)

The tulip lawn was emerging when we were there- can you see them? click on the photo and it will enlarge.

We went on the hunt for frogspawn, of which there was none; there was an elegant/ fearsome swan but where have all the herons gone?

Already the bluebells are hanging their heads on the banks

Lord and Lady Grey have developed an arboretum, divided into areas of trees reflecting continents. There are odd shrubs like wintery mahonia still in flower

and azalea

or are those above rhododendrons of some type?

Earl Grey's tomb is at Howick while the column is in the centre of Newcastle. One hundred years on, mariners' great grand children and locals have remembered sailors drowned on a French vessel wrecked off the Howick shore.

Forget-me-nots drift all over the rough grass and Howick's narcisssi deserve a blog of their own.
Why am I sitting indoors at a computer when I have plants outside to get in before the rain forecast for tonight comes?- they could be watered in.......