To me nothing is more beautiful than the British countryside in Spring

Belsay House and Gardens is well known to be one of my favourite spots but you see it's different every time we go there and each new week seasonal treasures emerge -- so why not keep going back? This walk sustains me even when I am not there. I take a walk sometimes in my imagination and when the world seems a dark place, I think of all that's bright and good in this garden. Everyone needs such a place. What's yours? Today there were frogs (or toads) (hard to tell when they are in the water)

cavorting around. And bog lilies which look just like plastic or wax and have a most unpleasant scent. and then through the quarry arch that used to carry stone for building, a blaze of colour as summery as the weather was today. Down by the castle, daffodils, Beyond, the English countryside. Northumberland is not the greenest part of England -- or these isles. Ireland is of course the greenest place on Earth ('cos it rains so much.) But I don't mind a bit of rain in exchange for such as this. I was saying to Noel as we stood by this gate that I would not like to live anywhere less green.