Wakehurst Place & Nymans Gardens

Funny old day today.   At this time of the year, many of my regular haunts are closed, or have limited opening.  There were places I could have gone but the M23 Northbound is shut between 2 junctions,  for its second of reported 4 weekends.. from Friday evening to early Monday morning.  So given there are queues of traffic to get onto the motorway higher up.. I avoided going in that direction.

So I decided I'd visit Wakehurst Place.  Whilst the National Trust own the land (and members get in free) it's a Royal Botanic Gardens run property.. and not that long ago the organisation (RBG) introduced parking charges for those who didn't have passes or who weren't paying for entry.

Subsequently I limited my time there so not to have to pay exorbitant parking costs!!

Load of cyclamen as you enter the gardens.

Down towards the Water Gardens

The Walled Garden

Given my self-allocated time was up, I decided that, as Nymans was not that far away, I would go there for lunch and a wander...

There was a queue for parking, and just at the point I decided to call it off, a place became free.

I started with a scone,, of course !! and very nice it was too..

So off for a wander... the skies were grey, but it was very mild.. about 10 degrees.

Ponders & Frank

The scent of Daphne Odora was almost over powering.. beautiful though!!

and with that.. off I went homewards.. and when I got there.. the sun was out!!