The Christleton Garden Trail listed nine open gardens this year. Your webmaster was able to visit eight of these gardens and photograph them. Only Whitegates was missed owong to time running out. This lovely garden was, however, featured on last years web Garden Trail. Thank you to all the owners of the gardens for such a warm welcome. Your gardens will now be open every day of the year on the internet for anyone in the world to look around.

The Garden Trail ended for a while when I arrived at David Cumming's home in Rowton. After joining Alf and Margaret Croston at the table surrounded by plants and flowers Beryl Cummings gave me a most welcome cup of tea with jam and cream scones. David had gone to the Village Hall to help someone who had arrived a day late for the Village Show but in fact were not there. On his return the Garden Trail turned into a Nature Trail for he took me a walk down the canal bank as he ate his late lunch. It was most interesting as David provided information on anyting that moved. We chatted to fishermen and David then provided me with a demonstration of the power he has over swans. The seven Rowton cygnets were all resting on the opposite bank but with grass thowing and special call sound he managed to get all cygnets and parents to our side of the canal. On our return he dived into the grass and secured a butterfly - the rare Small Blue. In his garden he showed me all the plants he had provided to attract wildlife and gave me with a glimpse of his wild orchid photography. Thank you David for a fascinating interlude in my Garden Trail.