Menondering; I Do Like A Wall Or Two

On Monday, I told you about the visit to Drum Castle. The walled garden was the highlight of the morning. There is a good variety of shrubbery on display, but the main focus of this garden is roses—specifically, heritage varieties. You might guess that I have a photographic overload! I have now created a sub-folder for this blog's post images dedicated to flora and I will eke those out over the weeks so that we carry a little bit of the summer with us into the fast approaching autumn and looming winter. (I mean, really, is not this year going at light speed??!!)

The garden at Dun House had felt very ... tailored. Clipped and curated to within a seed of production. It was beautiful, no doubt about it. However, I found myself rather more relaxed in this one. It may have been the rose-scented air that had something to do with it, but it was, I think, also because roses lend a more 'blousey' relaxed appearance to the scenery. There were ornate bits - like the paved centrepiece above and the gazebo...

Then there was the sundial. It took quite a while to work out exactly what was going on - indeed, it was only because the lady standing in the centre read the small print that we determined the purpose of this sunken patch.

There was a plaque with the names of several months on it (April to September, I recall), and by standing on the relevant month (July in this case), the shadow would fall at approximately the time of day. At first she thought it was wrong - but I reminded her this had been created before BST was introduced, so it was accurate to GMT, give or take 15 minutes.

That last one is the main flower shot for today - not roses, I know, but still rather gorgeous, donchya think?

Before I left the grounds, I got diverted by a little side track - following that inner compass again - and found this...

The Irvine clan are the heritors of Drum, and the fence is around their burial plot. The stones you see in front, though, are for a number of pets (presumably dogs). 

Oh, and to see who has been paying attention, what do you suppose is the origin of the name Drum?