In Anno Itinerantur - G is for Gardens

In the past year since  travel opened up for Australians Robert and I have taken several journeys at home and overseas. While I posted many photos of these adventures on Facebook I want to leave a more permanent record of some of our adventures. This challenge provides me with opportunities to share my photos and stories while recording some personal history. 

I plan to share photos and stories from our travels between April 2022 and March 2023.  My theme this year is In Anno Itinerantur.

Poet Saadi of Shiraz said 

“A garden is a delight to the eye and a solace for the soul.”

I couldn't have said it better. Although I haven't been blessed with a green thumb I'm rather partial to a good garden. Fortunately we planned some visits to gardens this year and had some serendipitous finds. I'll list a few of those notable sites here. 

The Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens in Dorset was included on our tour of the nearby Swannery. No wonder this serene and well maintained garden is on the list of Great British Gardens. A big surprise was finding beautiful statues of characters from children's literature placed thoughtfully throughout the site on the Wonderland Sculpture Trail. 

In Queensland we stopped off at the Cairns Botanical Gardens on our way to Palm Cove. I felt cheated as we only had an hour to enjoy the displays. I blogged about my visit and shared several photos in a post titled Lush and Lovely. 

In our many visits to Dublin we had never visited Phoenix Park. I am so pleased that our organised tour took us there to the Victorian Kitchen Garden, a delightful small garden. 

Plan of the Victorian Garden

Victorian Kitchen Garden, Phoenix Park, Dublin, Ireland

At Cawdor Castle in Scotland I skipped some of the Castle tour so that I could linger longer in the garden. I wrote and shared photos in a blog post, Blooming Highlight.

On my bucket list since I watched the first series of Downton Abbey was Highclere Castle, the setting for the program. While we ticked that item off our list we were rewarded with a bonus. A little way down the hill on the Highclere Estate was a stunning garden. Finding this garden was the icing on the cake of our visit.

On our tour of Northern Italy we visited several magnificent gardens including The English Garden at Isola Madre in Lake Maggiore. 

Garden at Isola Madre, Italy

Many Italians live in apartments and cannot have huge gardens. I was impressed by this gardener in Lucca, Italy who made the most of the available space.

Garden in Lucca, Italy