Botanical gardens.

Yesterday I took the day off from the shop to spend some time with my Cousin Amy, her husband James and their gorgeous little boy, Ethan. They are visiting the island for the week from Exeter, they probably choose the best week of the year!!  As the weather was stunning we decided to head over to Ventnor (my favourite part of the island) to walk around the Botanical gardens. My mum is a big lover of gardening so she was in her element, I enjoyed looking at the beautiful flowers, the colours were amazing and we all Loved the sunshine so its a win win situation :) 

 I particularly find the history of the gardens extremely interesting. They were built & constructed in 1969 on top of the ruins of the Royal National Hospital which was open between 1869 and 1964. The hospital was at the forefront of the fight against the highly infectious disease, tuberculosis for almost a century. More than 100,000 patients were treated there, many were cured but unfortunately many died because of the disease. The site now has a reputation for being one of the most haunted places on the Isle of Wight, with many people stating they have seen ghosts or have heard crying and weeping in the car park (which would have been where the original operating theatre would have been). I found this article on the destruction of the hospital and the ghost sightings seen by the workmen who were working on the site at the time. Its definitely worth a read if like me you find things like this interesting.  

I however saw & heard no ghosts yesterday, only beautiful flowers, trees and the odd lizard :)

 Palm trees.....I tried to imagine I was in California and to be fair the sun was so hot it wasn't hard  :)

As gorgeous as the gardens were the best part was probably the cuddles & smiles I received from this little man.......little cutie dont you agree?! :) 

 For this particually hot day I wore a simple vintage black & white floral sundress with simple black sandals and my dark brown leather bag with turquoise stone. 

Dress: Vintage

Sandals: TOPSHOP

Leather Bag: purchased in Thailand

Sunglasses: Rayban

After the Botanical gardens we headed down to the sea front for some lunch and a quick paddle in the sea.....a perfect end to the day.

 

Enjoy the sunshine lovely people and I hope you found this post interesting and I hope it inspires you to take a trip to Ventnor so you can go for a delightful walk around the beautiful Botanical gardens and sea front.