Heaven in the gardens

'I come here once a week and I think I’m in heaven! I am between careers at the moment and I wanted to spend my time usefully. I have nothing but praise for the way in which the National Trust integrates its volunteers and makes them feel so valued. We work as a single team with the permanent staff members and I go home each week feeling that I have really made a contribution, however small, to making this garden the wonderful place it is.'

Rosemary Mensbridge, Volunteer Gardening Team, Hidcote Manor

Moved to poetry by plants

Mellow light warms weathered stone
And scents of summer everywhere
Beyond high walls I turn to find
A rill garden hidden there
Bright blossoms in the balmy air.

Sentinel stands the Tulip Tree
By valley, stream and grassy mound
Gazebo and 'Cathedral Bank'
My footsteps odd staccato sound
Alert me to the peace around.

Clouds puff across an azure sky
Pure Clarice Cliff for my delight
Here I stop and shade my eyes
As swifts wing past in heedless flight
To skim and soar far from my sight.

From the Terrace twenties tunes
Mingle with a soft tick-tock
Which hint of other afternoons
Measured by dandelion clock
As time unrolls and I take stock.

Julie Harris, Volunteer Gardener, Coleton Fishacre