A New Year's day wander at Nymans Gardens.....

Well my first National Trust garden to visit in the new year was one of my two 'locals'... Nymans..  I got there not long after it opened .. and by the time I left the car park was full....

The skies were grey but while I was there it remained dry.  Later on it started to rain... for a very long time.....

Regular visitors will have seen many pics of the house and main views, so today, given that the winter flowers were blooming I spent more time on photographing the flora!

Hellebores and Cyclamen were very evident.

Mr Ponders found a stop to enjoy the view

Camelias bloom..

A blackbird views the world..

and scented Daphne...

A singing Song Thrush at the top of a high tree

This is the 3rd year that Nymans have had a sculpture in conjunction with the Arts Council - this year it's 'Rapure' .. further details can be found here!!

The Gold colour is... literally 23.5 carat gold leaf.  The Chestnut tree is one from the woods at Nymans and is buried in the ground with the roots at the top of the tree.

Under wraps for the winter... this morning we had the first frost and the temperatures dropped into single figures.....got rather used to the very mild weather up till now...

and I then wandered off and paid at visit to Warnham LNR ... pics to follow at another time...