February Snowdrops at Kingston Lacey

A walk through the snowdrop woods at Kingston Lacey has become a family tradition. A February treat after cold, grey days and an uplifting way to see the first signs of a new spring.

From the parkland, we passed through the great gates into the courtyard, and round through an entrance in the yew hedge, to the back of the house. Kingston Lacey House was built by the Bankes Family in the seventeenth century and is a treasure house of centuries of art collecting.

The house and estate now belong to the National Trust and more information can be found at their website on http://nationaltrust.org.uk/kingston-lacey or on the Wikipedia website. The house remains closed in the winter, although we could see that repairs were in progress on the bell shaped dome on the roof.

At the side of the house, formal gardens gave way to fine views across landscaped parkland.

We turned away from the house and followed the path into the old walled garden. Here were the first snowdrops, planted in drifts among companion plants like this small black grass .....

......delicate cyclamen......

....and some of the year`s first daffodils, brightly flowering in sheltered sunshine.

A water feature, built like a cairn from rocks and stones, grew velvet-green moss and damp- loving ferns.

Owl sculpture........

....and out along the woodland path were borders of early iris.....

...and yellow aconite.

Pathways bordered with banks of drifting white snowdrops. Most visitors just love the snowdrops as harbingers of spring, whatever their variety may be. For true Galanthophiles, who are lovers and collectors of snowdrops, this is a collection worth travelling many miles to see.

We walked through the wild wood , where masses of snowdrops grow at will among fallen tree trunks and undergrowth. Along the pathway where new beds of camelias and rhodedendrons are being planted, the trunks of old, dead specimen trees had been left as store cupboards where woodpeckers could drill for insects.....

....and as beautiful , natural sculptures among the newer , more formal beds.

The fine tree collection in this garden showed mature specimen trees both deciduous and evergreen. Young trees are growing here, planted alongside trees as old as the house itself. A living, changing arboretum that links generations of those who love to walk among trees.

Camelia......

...and the grave of a much loved pony, Silvertail. Such a poignant marker of the life of a family friend. Especially in the year 1915, when the young men of Dorset were being slaughtered across the Channel on the battlefields of World War I.

I stayed for a few moments with Silvertail, to find that our family group had moved on. I did not rush to join them, but wandered among trees and snowdrops in a glade left silent, apart from the song of robin, chaffinch and great tit.

The sun shone brilliant and warm onto the peeling bark of a young specimen tree.

Through dappled shade and snowdrops.....

...I walked to find the parkland gate that led out of the woods.