I recently visited a new garden (to me) in Suffolk - Wyken Hall just a little north-east of Bury St Edmunds. This is part of my quest to seek out seventeenth-century houses and gardens for inspiration - and I certainly found some here. Lots of box and yew of course, pargetting on the real Tudor 'Suffolk pink' house which is much darker than the current version - much more earthy. Lovely long views through to meadows beyond the formal gardens.
But what really struck me were the benches. Carla Carlisle who lives at Wyken and writes a regular column in Country Life is American and that perhaps explains her courage in dotting these beautiful blue benches around the place. Not that they are all blue! But they are all different and very special. Definitely food for thought.
