The Autumn Trees at Westonbirt Arboretum

I had a lovely day yesterday strolling through Westonbirt Arboretum

Just an hour from Treetops with a £10 entry it was a perfect time to see the beautiful spread of autumn leaves.

My walk started on a high Tree Top Walkway which was a lovely way to start exploring the arboretum.  There are 600 acres altogether!

Westonbirt started in the Victorian times, with a wealthy landowner called Robert Holford who financed expeditions around the world to collect specimens from the natural world, wanting to find the exotic species, the rare and the beautiful.

By 1855 much of the arboretum had been laid out, aesthetically, not in plant groups or country groups, just in a stunning picturesque vision.

When he died, his son George continued to plant the trees and the many rhododendrons that people visit Westonbirt for every year.

In 1956 the whole 600 acres, 15,000 tree specimens, 2,500 species, 5 national tree collections and 142 champions were handed over to the Forestry Commission

Westonbirt has the National Japanese Maple collection (over 400 different types) which provided much of yesterday's colour.

Autumn Watercolour Class

A beautiful sunny day for our Autumn Watercolour class.

The lunch table was covered with just a selection of the colours and leaves I found in the garden the afternoon before, plus conkers, feathers and fircones.

The paintings were full of rich warm colours

You can hear the leaves crackle

Darker hues needed to be dropped in to make the conkers stand out amongst the leaves

The sun streaming in .....

Lovely smells from the kitchen were coming from this pan full of plums, port, fresh ginger, lemon peel, cardamom pods and sugar.

I used them to make a delicious Spiced Plum Trifle 

Before we know it we will be back for our Winter Scene classes!