Cat on the Oak Tree Seat

Jerome the cat looks pensively and lovingly at the camera. She is sitting on her favourite seat - the Oak Tree seat in the Hen House Garden.

Oak Tree Seat

The Oak Tree seat is right by the water, almost directly opposite the glass house. It is brilliant catching the late afternoon sun in the middle of winter.

Many of the paths and seats at Mooseys are quite mobile as the design of the gardens changes. This seat, however, is in such a perfect spot that it has stayed put. I often find Jerome the cat here stretched out in the afternoon sun - cats instinctively know the best sunny spots, don't they!

Mass Plantings

Directly around it are mass plantings of short spikey grasses, name unknown. Small paths lead from the seat in three different directions of the compass - decisions, decisions!

It remains to provide a direct route over the water race - perhaps a stout plank would be the answer - and the Oak Tree seat could then be approached from all four sides.

The Oak Tree Seat in Summer 2004

Ambience for All Seasons

In summer the water race burbles past, making this spot peaceful and serene - particularly in the ambience of late afternoons when the whole of the Hen House Garden gets bathed in sunshine.

This seat has a great ambience in autumn. This is the time when the Oak trees change colour, and the roses produce their fat red hips. Spring is just as good, with bluebells, blue pansies, and blue aquilegias everywhere.

The Oak Tree Seat in Autumn 2004

The view from the Oak Tree seat is quite magical in all seasons - there are grasses, flaxes and giant Gunnera plants at the water's edge to admire, plus Japanese Irises and hosts of spring daffodils. And it's easy for cats to find - Jerome particularly likes sharing this seat with the head gardener.