Winter wreath

On my most recent visit to Ham House there was nothing new or different in the gardens that I found worth taking a photograph of so I was pleased to discover this winter wreath on the rear gates as I made my way home.

Steps

There is so much to enjoy at Ham House and these steps are one of those things.

Broken finial

The side gate to Ham House garden is majestic but slightly damaged.

One of the finials has obvious cracks in it and so the area around it, on both sides of the wall, has been roped of to keep people away.

Pumpkins on display

This impressive display of pumpkins is in the kitchen garden at Ham House.

Second Hand?

I spent too many hours proof reading business documents at work not to spot this.

This should be "secondhand" because it is one word in this context, when written as two words it means part of a clock face. To make matters worse, the very tight kerning of the letters with some even overlapping, e.g. the final "O" and "P", means that the erroneous space between the words is more obvious.

Late flowers

The Kitchen Garden at Ham House is usually enough to justify a visit to Ham House by itself, especially as you can admire it from the cafe, and that was definitely the case this time with an abundance of autumn flowers.

Ham House

Over the years I have posted several pictures of the back of Ham House explaining why that is my favourite view of it and I thought that, in fairness, I should post one of the front too. 

From this distance it looks grand and imposing with neat geometry. It is when you get closer to the house and the details start to become obvious that I find it overly fussy which detracts from the neatness of the overall design.

Passing Ham House

I was walking along the towpath past Ham House quite late at night, it was almost 10pm, when I was struck by the view through the trees.

The camera on my phone did all sorts of clever stuff with the image to make it look like daylight which actually makes it look a little less dramatic but I like the picture enough to post it anyway.

Construction site decomissioning

An area next to the car park at the north end of Ham Street had been used as the centre of operations for the major works at Ham House and now that those works have finished this area is being decommissioned and sits mostly empty.

Works completed at Ham House

The current stage of the major works to Ham House have completed and the scaffolding has gone to reveal the house in its familiar beauty.  I like scaffolding (I really like scaffolding!) but I like this view of Ham House even home and it is good to see it return in time for the warmer, brighter and longer days.

A closer look at the side of the house tells us that the maintenance work included some fresh paint, another welcome improvement.

Daffodils at Ham House

Being a member of National Trust means that I can pop-in to Ham House for a quick look around the fardens whenever I am walking in that area and I do so many times a year because there is always something interesting to see. On this visit I was charmed by the daffodils.

The main display is in the beds in the Kitchen Garden (top picture) and there are others around the gardens, like this one along a border.

Purple Plats

The Plats behind Ham House are looking resplendent with thousands of crocuses in regal bloom.

Elysium by Ellie Drake-Lee

This was probably my favourite piece in The Art Of Nature exhibition at Ham House and this setting did it proud.

The Art Of Nature at Ham House

Over half term (it has finished now!), Ham House held an exhibition in the grounds of works by local artists with the title The Art Of Nature. This is one of my favourites from the half a dozen or so exhibits; as the sign says, these are works in steel by Alison Catchlove.

Ham House head and lamp

There is a narrow corridor between yew hedges on the south side of the Cherry Garden and the Ham House end of this corridor is decorated with a head and a lamp.

Rows of pots

The terrace behind Ham House is a small part of the garden but it has a big impact due to the way that pots and planters are arranged along it.

Cherry Garden at Ham House

It is always worth posting a picture of the Cherry Garden at Ham House and on this occasion I was forced into it by the bright winter sunlight.

Ham House scaffolding

I posted a couple of photos of the scaffolding at Ham House a couple of months ago and its is still there and I still like scaffolding so here are a couple more, taken from different angles.

The yellow blobs amongst the red are workers.

The house is all but hidden and somehow almost looks better, though I suspect that is a view that is not widely shared!

A closer look shows just how much scaffolding is being used and also starts to show some of the house hidng behind it.

Making movies

There was more filming taking place at Ham House recently and all of the support vehicles were assembled in a corner of the Ham Polo site, next to the horse training field.

It was late in the day when I went past and someone was putting up lights to guide people walking between there and Ham House.

Kitchen Garden border

The border along the wall of the Kitchen Garden at Ham House is boasting some autumn colours and the sun is shining too. Just another good day to visit Ham House.