A Perfect Day Out…

Sunday involved two of my favourite things, beautiful gardens and antique hunting! We headed off to the National Botanic Gardens of Wales for a special two day Antique fair and I was a little bit excited. I love looking around antique and vintage fairs because you never know what you are going to find, you just can’t beat old furniture packed full with character, old toys and books which have been loved and unique retro clothes.

The admission price was only going to be £4.00 instead of the usual £9.55 price tag which was a lovely little bonus and the sun was out in full force, I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect morning. To start the day we headed straight up the broadwalk to the great glass house to look around the stalls inside, that’s where I made my first purchase. I’ve been slowly collecting the old Britain’s farm toys and everytime I visit a certain stall at Shepton Mallet Antiques fair I buy a new family of animals. I now have a family of sheep, pigs, some fences and a sheepdog with his kennel so when I saw this little collection I couldn’t resist taking some home. I picked up a chicken coop with two chickens for £7 and the lady feeding a lamb for £5.00, I was happy as punch!

We left the glass house and walked through the beautiful Wallace garden packed full with flowers, vegetables and some very pretty outbuildings, it would have made a perfect kitchen garden at home.

We looked around the rest of the antiques fair which isn’t huge but just right. Certain things were very expensive but when I passed a table with items for £5.00 on and saw an adorable pull along ladybird toy I couldn’t leave without buying him. The gardener inside me fell in love with this unique vintage toy, I’ve seen lots of pull along toys on my journeys but never a ladybird, I was in love! I paid for him, popped him in my rucksack with our other buys and we headed to the double walled garden to have a look around. We’ve been here before but I just love this place, there’s so much to explore and the gardens are just brimming with beautiful flowers this time of year. In the vegetable garden the crops were growing and some leeks had just been planted out. The sweet peas were blooming in full force and looked so pretty on the handmade willow structure.

We opted to skip the Butterfly house today because it was just so hot, instead I had a good look around the small allotment inbetween the two walls. It is pretty much my ideal space and I could very much live here. There’s a greenhouse, shed, an archway, coldframe and a bench. There’s beds containing both flowers and vegetables working in perfect harmony and a little bug hotel hiding at the back. If I could take this entire garden home with me I would and I don’t think I would ever leave it!

But alas we did… The morning was perfect but we had to get back to the farm. I left the botanic gardens full of inspiration and dreams, as well as some adorable vintage toys (I swear I’m 28 really!) I would have liked to have had a proper look round and missed the bee garden completely, but that just means I have to visit again and I plan to do just that!