Garden centre here I come......

So yesterday was Mothers day here in the UK and I woke up to a fabulous treat, a trip to the garden centre to buy plants - yes!
I should mention that our local garden centre is 2 hours drive away! Oh we do have the garden plant area at the local 'Homebase' and there are a couple of small garden centres within the 2 hour drive to Inverness but they're tiny and seem quite limited in their plant selection - especially this time of year.
So a trip to Inverness it was and we also took the opportunity to take our daughters shopping for their birthday presents (they're 22 on Tuesday) at the same time as we have no decent clothing shops here - 2 birds, 1 stone - cool!
Now back to the 2 hour drive to the garden centre, many people would baulk at the thought of it and tbh I wouldn't blame them but you have to realise that here in the Highlands vehicle traffic is negligible - especially on a Sunday (even Mothering Sunday!) and the scenery all the way down is pretty amazing as it's a coastal road. So you see the journey down and back again is part of the whole package and very enjoyable.

Having forgot to grab my camera I had to make do with the camera on my Ipod but this was taken around 7.30am as the sun was coming up.

I really wish I could have got a picture of the beaches as they're beautiful however the tide was in so all you can see is the seaweed.
This next one was taken on the bridge leading to Tain but my Ipod just couldn't deliver the scenery half as beautifully as we could see it.

But look where we ended up - yay! I was so excited to get to visit an actual purpose built garden centre instead of an addition to a shop - 'Simpsons Garden centre'.

First things first though, people needed feeding and it just so happens that there was a cafe which opened at 9am just as we got there - how convenient.
This was mine

And then - Tada!

Having been without choices for so long I kinda didn't know what to get.

Here's my plant stash:
Sedum: 'Angelina'
Iris: 'Pastel Charm' & 'Langport Storm'.
Roses: Bush: 'Faithfull' & 'Princess of Wales'.
           Climb: 'Compassion'
Aucuba Japonica: 'Crotonifolia'.
Polemonium: 'Stairway to heaven'.
Cotinus: 'Young lady'
Plus a standard Rose and a fern I don't know the name of.

But not only did this Garden Centre have plants, trees, Bulbs etc, it also sold garden tools (I got a rake, long handled garden edge shears and garden swivel shears) and look what else

Various water features, bathbombs that looked edible (in fact my 21 year old daughter tasted one of the sprinkles cos she refused to believe they weren't real) and Yankee Candles! Yankee candles! OMG I could have spent hours just smelling each and every one of them, they're my favourites! I contained my enthusiasm though and only bought a Plug in set.

Basically I had a fabulous day. A whole day with MrTG, both my daughters, a garden centre and a McFlurry - Bliss!
I hope everyone else had such a brilliant Mothers day!