The beautiful Dorothy Clive Garden

An enormously enjoyable afternoon was spent at the Dorothy Clive Garden near Market Drayton in Shropshire. At last the weather was warm and sunny, and the garden's special feature was in full bloom.

It's a really unusual garden in two sections: a fairly conventional one with lawns and borders, with an astonishing quarry garden filled with rhododendrons, azaleas and bluebells. It was these which prompted the visit and I wasn't disappointed.

Paths spiral up and down the walls of the quarry, which was turned into a garden by Col. Harry Clive to provide a beautiful environment to tempt his ailing wife Dorothy out for walks. She suffered from Parkinson's Disease and sadly died soon after the garden was begun, but her late husband continued to develop the scheme until he handed it over to its management to a charitable trust in the 1950s.

The sound of this waterfall is audible throughout the quarry garden, and helps to orientate the confused visitor (like me).

At the entrance, this beautiful pool greets the visitor, and I was very excited to see newts swimming in it, something I've rarely seen before. Yet another 'new' creature (new to me) since I've been blogging, that's a real buzz for me,

I love how the planting includes plants some might consider weeds, such as yellow poppies and cow parsley. Just like my garden!