We've almost forgotten what it's like to 'do things' at the weekend but we spotted a Plant Fair taking place at a local historic house and, in the lovely weather, it was an enjoyable couple of hours.
Leighton Hall is a few minutes from home and overlooks the pretty village of Yealand Conyers on the Lancashire/Cumbria border. Dating from 1759, the house is a lovely example of an English country house. Since 1822 it has been owned by the Gillow family who still live in it today. Gillow's of Lancaster was a successful furniture-making company and went on to merge with Waring of Liverpool to form Waring & Gillow.
 |
| Leighton Hall with south Cumbria's hills in the distance |
The Plant Fair gave some added interest but the real stars of the show were the plants in Leighton Hall's own beautiful gardens. We enjoyed our long, leisurely walk as we admired the different parts of the formal and informal gardens, especially the rose garden, the walled herb garden and the shady woodland walk.
And as we spent the whole time outdoors there wasn't a face mask in sight! For a while we completely relaxed and forgot about the pandemic.
All in all we had a great day doing something which really felt, after 15 months of strangeness, very normal indeed.