Day 5 - The Hunters Garden Marlborough Tour - Garden 3

My friend Carol has a bad habit - she nags. She has been nagging me to finish of the blenheim trip blog for ages, but I've been really busy. But still she nagged. I guess somewhere it hit a spot because I do feel guilty I haven't finished it.

Garden three of the tour found us at Nikki & Trevor Collins house at Spring Creek. It was a beautiful garden - country cottage type with lots of flowers. What I loved about it was that it had a little path which meandered down the side of the creek, which was a lovely cool spot out of the hot sun.

I started photographing the roses, but soon spoted red damsel flies instead, so the roses got left behind while I started on the bugs..



Nikki the garden owner got curious with what I was photographing as my camera was pointed at weird angles but not at the flowers, so she came over to talk to me. I really liked her - very down to earth with loads of energy. If I didn't live in Auckland I'd be inviting her over for a wine!!

Her roses were spectacular, but unfortunately not many came out as gthe time of day was a bit wrong - very sunny at midday, so the lighting was a bit garish.



But a red rose is always a favourite. We meandered along the path in teh cool shade, and came across a feature..



Followed closely by the resident burman cat who was rather lovely...



There were several varieties of Clematis in the garden - and being my favourite flower I took lots of photos of these...



Did I tell you it was my favourite flower?



They were growing close to the Roses and I think they make stunning companions to the roses, and Nikki had a lot of rose varieties as well. I have lots of roses in my garden as well but they don't look as good as this...



Beautiful tiny forget-me-nots also dotted the garden. They're so tiny they're often overlooked but they really are a thing of beauty...



While concentrating on the forget-me-nots, some Hover Flies caught my attention, and they stayed still long enough for me to get some pics. Remember - I didn't have my tripod so all these photos were handheld - and when using macro lenses - that can be difficult...



Their wings and eyes are really quite something...



And did I tell you that the Clematis was my favourite flower???



I shot another few images of them on the way back to the bus...



I think it's their vibrancy that does it for me!