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Caption: C A M B O gardens
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Caption: Back on the first Saturday in March, we took a trip to Cambo Gardens at Cambo Estate in Fife. This is a favourite place for us, particularly as the gardens and grounds are dog-friendly, as is the visitor centre, shop and café. We visit a few times a year to experience the gardens in different seasons - the historic walled garden is particularly beautiful all the way through summer into autumn - and after exploring we’ll usually walk through the woods and head to the beach at Kingsbarns so that Harris and Bracken can have a great off-lead walk. And we always visit in spring, timing our trip to see Cambo’s annual snowdrop festival.
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Caption: On this visit, on this chilly, dreich, wintry-feeling Saturday, the gardens were still a few weeks away from their new spring growth and colour, so we decided to have a walk in the historic walled garden, visit the glasshouses, and then head to the woods. But first, having had a long drive to get here, we headed to the café for lunch. First things first and all that.
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Caption: The café changed hands last year and now serves vegetarian and vegan food linked to Cambo Gardens’ edible garden programme - which I was delighted to discover.
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Caption: Tip: photograph your vegan chocolate torte before cutting it up! We were sharing, and Richard had sliced this before I’d thought to take a photo. Yes, it was delicious!
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Caption: The glasshouses in the walled garden at Cambo are relatively new additions made by a specialist company called Alitex, and replace four Victorian glasshouses that were here when we first started visiting, and which had become rundown over the years - beautiful to photograph, but not to use. These new glasshouses look original and have created interesting spaces for visitors to explore - and for the garden designers to be creative with, as with the ‘sensory’ glasshouse photographed here.
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Caption: The sensory glasshouse displays stained glass artworks by the East Neuk based glass artist Keny Drew. I’m particularly drawn to the pieces with the soft pink tones, and also the details of the insects in a few of the panels. And I love how these artworks have been integrated with the plants - quite literally with the hanging piece.
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Caption: And then… well, then this visit became even more exciting for me. The neighbouring glasshouse was set up as a studio for artist-in-residence Rachel Campbell, who hails from New Zealand and now lives in North Carolina. As soon as I walked into this space, I was intrigued, and the more I looked and studied these paintings, the more I was drawn to Rachel’s strength of form and use of colour.
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Caption: You can see more examples of Rachel’s work on her website. A few of these paintings are for sale, including this painting on the right.
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Caption: A Forest Full of Little Misdemeanors
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Caption: The Topiary Tree
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Caption: Autumn and the Day the Sky seemed to Sigh
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Caption: The Lae Braes at Dusk We were looking forward to visiting Cambo in late spring and I was hoping to meet Rachel, but clearly our world took another direction. This space, overlooking this incredible walled garden, was the perfect place to view these paintings.
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Caption: Nasturtiums
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Caption: My Drive to the Studio
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Caption: Looking ahead, Cambo Estate is one of the places that we’re most looking forward to visiting once the current travel restrictions are eased. I’m looking forward to wandering round the walled garden taking photos, enjoying the quietness, and then heading through the woods to the beach. I’m looking forward to experiencing Cambo Gardens with fresh eyes. Because as we move out of lockdown, we may not be travelling as far in the months ahead, but there’s still so much to see and so many places to support.
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Caption: Saturday 7 March 2020 Cambo Gardens
Cambo Estate, Fife