I hope you’re all enjoying the sun and extra bank holidays (if you’re in the UK). We’ve certainly been taking advantage and visiting several local attractions. During the Easter Weekend we took a long overdue trip to Lea Gardens in Derbyshire. The wonderful thing about the gardens is the amount of paths and plants which meant plenty of shady spots to escape from the very hot sun.

Lea itself is a small Derbyshire village where two notable figures have lived. Florence Nightingale was brought up here and the knitwear designer John Smedley started his famous business from Lea Mills.

The gardens themselves are celebrating being in business for 50 years this year and all the plants are currently in full bloom. The upper part of the garden has  numerous gravel paths between rhododendrons and azaleas and then  further down the hill the garden becomes a woodland area with mud  paths, trees and many bird boxes.

The gardens were so beautiful we think we took more than a 100 photos (such is the wonder of a digital camera) so it was very hard to chose just a few to show you here. I hope you’ll enjoy the selection. Of course the next big event in the calendar is the Royal Wedding. Unfortunately we have not been invited (I can hear you all crying about the injustice from here he he) but not to be deterred we will be celebrating Angel Eden style on Friday, if you are braving the crowds in London you have my full respect and admiration, I just hope this lovely weather holds for both you and the happy couple 🙂