RHS Hyde Hall - a Fleeting Visit

I had reason to be near RHS Hyde Hall the other day and decided I should stop in.  I have visited previously a couple of years ago and I thought another visit was due.
Hyde Hall feels very open when you first arrive.  The landscape rolls away in front of you and you have to decide a path to take to discover where the gardens are.  I rather like this as it does feel like you are exploring. This is going to be a very partial view as we were not there very long and I am going to focus on the parts that made a real impact on me.  The Dry Garden is what Hyde Hall is probably most known for and indeed it is the jewel in their crown. It was looking really good and as we walked around we noted that most of the plants were plants that we already had in our own gardens.  This part of Essex is known to be rather dry and has recently been through several weeks of no rain.  There was no apparent sign of parch here or indeed frost damage from the recent late frosts. It is not a huge area but it is criss-crossed with paths that take you through the planting so you can enjoy it from several different angles. There is often on show-stopping plant when I visit somewhere and I think at Hyde Hall it was this ceanothus.  It was such a dark blue and it worked perfectly with the contrasting planting around it. There is a lot of building and development happening at Hyde Hall.  It was intriguing to see boarded off areas. One area you were able to see work in progress is the new vegetable garden.  This area is huge! It looks like it will be quite a thing to see when it is open to wander around. We wandered towards the formal gardens and admired this oak pergola covered in white wisteria. The gunnera was sending out new growth and again seem unphased by the recent frosts. and I loved this pink persicaria that was lining this part of the pond.  This is far ahead of the persicaria in my garden which is currently just showing a few leaves. We enjoyed our walk very much and this is but a mere fraction of what we saw.  It was a pleasant stop-off on our journey.