My Favourite Place: Bluebell Co age Garden, Cheshire
Bluebell Cottage Gardens and Nurseries is situated right on the Trent and Mersey Canal.
I live on a narrowboat and usually my life is very nomadic, but it provided a safe harbour for me.
I’d only met owner Sue Beesley once briefly but I arrived at the beginning of lockdown and she was incredibly kind and welcoming!
I moored up in a beautiful, tucked-away spot next to the ancient woodland.
There are carpets of wood anemones, bluebells and dog’s mercury all under magnificent hornbeam trees, I love it! The wildlife is wonderful, too; the trees are full of black caps. They’re known locally as the northern nightingale and they sing around the boat every morning.
Bluebell Cottage is situated in a hidden corner of Cheshire.
It’s a bit like an island, separated from the rest of the country by the River Mersey to the north and, more locally, by the canal to one side, the River Weaver to the other and the west-coast mainline railway across the top. It’s cut off by infrastructure, rivers and industry and as a result it seems very remote.
My dog, Flash, is a Hungarian pointer and needs a five-mile run every day!
Historically, this was part of the forest of Mercia – an ancient hunting woodland. Where the streams cut dips in the arable landscape and the land is too steep to plough you get remnants called cloughs. Flash loves these dense, tree-lined pockets.
First thing in the morning, the canal is magical.
When it’s still, the water reflects the sky and the trees like a mirror, and sometimes there are incredible, opalescent dawn mists. It’s such an inspiring place.
I think the combination of garden and nursery is really special.
The garden has been designed by Sue and it’s a real work of art, woven together using the perennials that she also sells. The process is fascinating to watch. The summer house is a great blogging retreat; it became a bit of a zen-zone for me!
l Bluebell Cottage, Lodge Lane, Dutton, Warrington, Cheshire WA4 4HP; www. bluebellcottage.co.uk.