Tag: Gardens

Japanese Garden

Outside of Dollar in Clackmannanshire there’s a Japanese garden that is over one hundred years old. It’s open to the public and is amazingly tranquil and beautiful.

Referred to as “the most important Japanese garden in the Western world” (Prof. Suzuki) She Raku En, or the place of pleasure and delight, was the original idea of Ella Christie back in 1908. She was an unusual woman for her time as she travelled extensively throughout Asia during her life. She brought in Taki Handa, another fabulous woman ahead of her time, to design the garden. It was a complicated history after that as it was destroyed in 1963 and the main home of the Christies was demolished, however the garden has been re-established since then. If you want to see more of the history and how the garden has developed I suggest you have a look at their website – https://cowden-garden.myshopify.com

Each of the elements in the garden have meaning and it’s a genuinely fascinating place to spend a day. They also have a lovely cafe onsite too (because we know that’s important after shooting).

Arran

It was a whistle stop trip to the isle of Arran for a Sunday shoot.

After a little early morning jaunt on one of CalMac’s finest. They do a cracking bacon roll, by the way. It was decided that we would head to Brodick Castle. A National Trust for Scotland property with extensive gardens, it’s a beautiful place. I need to head back to spend longer there sometime and to see round the castle itself.

If only there had been more time…. We were running a little late to get the ferry back (there’s limited spaces just now) so had to do a bit of a route march to get back to the terminal. My legs almost couldn’t take it…. I need to to more excersize if I plan on doing more shoots like this.