Autumn colours at Forde Abbey, Dorset

This beautiful house, originally an Abbey founded by Cistercian monks over 800 years ago was transformed into a house as long ago as 1649! Both house and gardens are open to the public and are only a mile or two from my Mum's house. As she has a season ticket she had a couple of free guest passes, so when we had an afternoon free my OH and I decided to go for a walk around the gardens. The weather was pretty grim but given its closeness and the fact it wasn't going to cost us anything we had nothing to lose! I've visited many times over the years so I have seen it in all seasons.

When we arrived we were rather surprised to see trucks galore and soon realised there was a film crew there. At the ticket office we were informed that a movie remake of "Far From the Madding Crowd" was being filmed. Thankfully the gardens were still open and in fact we had to walk past loads of actors/extras in period costume to get to the gardens around the front of the house. We didn't find out until we left which actors were starring in it; nobody that I know apart from a couple of people I've vaguely heard of. Thank goodness it wasn't Colin Firth is all I can say, or I'd have spent all afternoon hanging around trying to get a glimpse of him! I actually remember the film from decades ago starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates but don't know the story line at all as I saw it when I was too young to make sense of it.

What I was surprised and pleased to see were the amount of pretty autumn colours here - a total contrast from higher up where Mum lives. We were told that this valley is in fact in quite a frost pocket which may explain some of the more native plants having already coloured up, but as it's a public garden with an arboretum it is not surprising that they also have many non native trees which have splendid autumn colours.

The back of the house with a huge walled kitchen garden with fruit, vegetables and flowers.

We weren't supposed to take photos but hey I've got a superzoom 'paparazzi' camera
so nobody noticed me taking this from a distance..... :-)

View uphill from the bog garden.

Yours truly!

View over the Great Pond from the bog garden.

Farmland behind the gardens looking very English to me.

There were loads of flowers still in bloom.

The Mermaid Pond.

A Japanese Maple starting to change colour,
and I can just about see a face in that bark behind.

No idea what the fungi is but it looks interesting.

There are extensive rock gardens which were still very colourful.

I see faces in these flower buds! I think it's a flowering sage of some kind.

Dahlias and more Dahlias.

The annoying thing about the filming is that the front of the building was covered in
scaffolding with lighting rigs and people, vans and trucks all in the way.

I've no idea what most of the trees in the arboretum section were but it was
wonderful to see so many trees and shrubs starting to turn beautiful colours.

There were also plenty of trees with berries too which brightened up a dull day!

All in all a lovely visit despite grey skies.

Their website, showing what it looks like through the seasons, and with blue sky! http://www.fordeabbey.co.uk/