Inspired by an English Country Garden #9

If you've already sneaked a peek at this card from a preview or link, you may well be wondering "What on earth does an Oriental dragon have to do with an English country garden?"

Well it all stems from our recent visit to West Green House. One of the features of the garden is the Dragon Garden, a tree-lined avenue with an enormous dragon along each side. Around the dragon are pots of Japanese acer and maple shrubs in many shades of red. Because of the position of the hedges, Mark hasn't got a photo of the dragons and shrubs together, but there they are separately:

My problem was that my only maple leaf stamps are solid, rather heavy ones, not the dainty long-fingered variety so typical of the shrubs we'd seen. Then I had a brainwave...... when my younger daughter was in her teens, she, too, was a keen stamper, but when she went to live overseas as an adult, she left me to look after her stamps. I had a rummage in the box, and yes! There was indeed a cannabis leaf stamp! Inked in an assortment of red and gold shades, it was perfect for the border of my card.

I emailed her to say I'd found a cannabis leaf stamp in her collection and her reply was simply:

YOU bought it for me!

Touché.

And on that note, I'll share this post with Addicted to Stamps and More, where this week it's an Anything Goes week.