Essex Days Out

Just a note about our short visit to Mark’s Hall Gardens and Arboretum last Sunday. We dropped by to visit their Christmas Farmer’s Market. It was £2 per car to get in, but we didn’t feel there was enough value for money from the market even at that low price!

In contrast to previous visits to their regular Farmer’s Markets, there weren’t anywhere near as many stalls, and instead of being thronged by visitors, it was fairly empty.  The market had opened the day before, so perhaps a lot of stalls had sold all their goodies and packed up and gone. The craft area was, with all due respect, mostly of a standard you would find at a church bazaar.

The saving grace was that the £2 admission also got you into the gardens and arboretum, which are lovely even at this time of year, if a bit squishy underfoot due to the recent wet weather. The best view was at the top of the gardens, where some bare trees with striking white bark contrasted beautifully against some red bushes.  Here’s a video :

And there were some equally stunning white-feathered bullrushes :

We’ll do a fuller review of the gardens in the spring of 2010. In the meantime you can find out more about Marks Hall at their website.

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