Xystus

On a sunny midday in April (which as it turned out was warmer than any day in May) I took a walk around Holker Hall formal gardens and along this path under a tree canopied garden walk - a xystus.

 Here one of the excellent gardeners who keep the gardens looking immaculate making her way, bag in hand, between the xystus

If one takes some steps back amongst the forget-me-nots and tulips (and the bare branches of the willow leaf pear tree) then in the distance can be spotted a gateway

which leads out from the formality of the the manicured gardens and into the meadows. The mown pathway

leads eventually to a sundial.  In the synchronism of ABC Wednesday it was exactly one year ago I featured it here because of its Roman numeral X. 

The Holker Hall gardens are near the garage I take my car to for its annual service so they make a nice diversion to while away the time (while hoping nothing expensive is wrong with the car). If you noticed that in my second photo the planters were empty it is because image was from 2014 when the gardeners were finished with Spring and getting ready for the next planting. There is always something to delight the eye in the gardens so here is this year's April planter.

and one of the many x factor plants in giant bushes and trees that people come to see in May and June

     When the azaleas and rhododendrons are in full exuberant flower. 

An entry to  ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at X here