A Day Out at Batsford Arboretum

Having looked at spring flowers at Lawn one day last week, the next day I took a friend out to Batsford, it's one of my top ten places to visit. The arboretum is glorious at any time of year, the food in the cafe is fabulous, there's a garden centre and a shop; it's always a joy to visit there.
Last week at Batsford, I particularly loved the snowdrops, cyclamens, witch hazel and Daphne. The photos turned out rather well, aided by the sunny day and blue skies. I wonder if this is the best photo? It's of large Magnolia buds against the blue sky:

On the way into the arboretum was a bed packed with snowdrops and Cyclamen coum

 and more snowdrops on the opposite side of the path

 It was such a still day that the reflections in the lake were perfect

 The flowers on this tree were amazing, looking like buds, but apparently this is as far as they emerge. They are a beautiful colour, the plant is called Parrotia persica or Persian Ironwood

 Below there's a photo of yellow witch hazel

 There was some lovely, fragrant honeysuckle, but the flowers turned out very blurry, so I've deleted them. The Daphne bholua 'Jaqueline Postill' was very fragrant as well, and photographed reasonably well.

 There are some lovely statues in the garden, this one looked particularly fine in the sun

 And here's another reflection in another pond. A couple of people were sitting on a bench opposite this pond simply looking at the surface of the water, and looking utterly content.

 Here's another witch hazel: Hamamelis x intermedia 'Orange Beauty' I think I prefer this to the other more yellowy one, and although I don't think it would thrive on my alkaline soil, am very tempted to try it.

 I haven't mentioned the swathes of Hellebores all over the place, there are masses of different sorts and colours.