£15,000

I visited Hillier’s Arboretum, Braishfield, Hampshire last Saturday, with my very dear friend Linda.

We have been members for quite a few years. For us this is a great place to meet. Linda and I are not shoppers, we only shop for a purpose.

We love to chat. We enjoy our 21 year friendship, having met when our boys were just 5 years old.

Linda loves to drink coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon.

Visiting Hillier’s allows us to do all the things we enjoy ... we start by having coffee (Linda) and a glass of milk (me). I so wished they would put toasted tea cakes on the menu, so that I could also have breakfast at the cafe.

Next, we go for a walk round the winter garden and beyond.

Returning to the cafe for lunch, we normally have a baked potato each and then in the afternoon we walk the other half of the arboretum, which takes us through the bog garden, the Ghurkha’s memorial and up to centenary walk.

This Saturday there was a wedding.

The swanky wedding car parked in front of Jermyn's House.

During the summer months, there is always a display of Art.

Every summer we pick up the price list and as we walk around the garden we try to guess the price of each of the pieces of art.

Normally we are way off, however Linda did extremely well, but we didn’t guess this one; a pregnant lady made of Portland stone.

She was smooth and warm to touch, her arms carved into the back of the stone.

Price: £15,000 for the garden