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Four o’clock in the morning and already 27C and humid. Our 6.25am flight to Tasmania was too early to catch a ferry from Stradbroke Island so we had left our comfortable air-conditioned house and spent the night on the “Suzanne”. Despite opening every hatch, door and window there was scarcely a breath of wind in the Marina and the boat was like an oven.

We were heading for the Wooden Boat Show in Hobart and then spending the next two weeks travelling around Tasmania and catching up with relatives. Hopefully by the time we returned the heat would have abated and we would be back to pleasant weather. We had given the garden a final water and then left it to it’s fate (vowing that before we left again we would have put in that long talked about remote watering system).

Our plans had been made well in advance and we had booked all the ‘not to be missed’ items. We had discovered that we could valet park the car at the airport for three weeks for less than we would have paid in taxi fares so were off to a good start!

We arrived in Hobart to a very pleasant 17C. A little chilly for some but for us it was heaven after the past couple of weeks.

We took a taxi from the airport to our B&B in Salamanca Mews where we were met by Kim, our host, and shown around the very spacious and comfortable apartment.

We had arrived too early to officially check in so dropped our bags and headed down to Salamanca Square to look at the galleries and check out the cafes and restaurants, sample the Tasmanian fare, beers, wines and ciders (a Seafood Risotto at Maldini’s Restaurant was particularly good) and fall in love with Esther Shohet’s painting “Happy, Happy Hobart” – which we subsequently bought!

We collected some supplies from the Tasmanian Fresh shop and repaired to our apartment to unpack and settle in. A glass of Frogmore Creek Chardonnay and a mushroom omelet on the sunny balcony and it was time to crawl into our king size beds and sleep.

ACCOMMODATION
Best Hotels
Harvey Point, Donegal, Ireland
Old Ground, Ennis, Ireland

Best Boutique Hotels
Zanzibar Hotel, Hastings, England
The White House Hotel, Charmouth
Aspley House Hotel, Bath, England

Best B&B’s
Mariagh Lodge, Ballymena, Ireland
Hartwood House, Taunton, England
Dower House, Lyme Regis, England

Highy Recommended
Ravenstone Manor, Lake Bassenwaighte, England
The White Heather, Isle of Skye, Scotland
Aln House, Alnwick, England

MEMORABLE FOOD EXPERIENCES
The White House Hotel, Charmouth, Devon – Brilliant Chef
River Cottage Canteen, Lyme Regis, Devon – Interesting menu
Ballymaloe House, Shanagarry, County Cork – Lazy Sunday Buffet
Hole in the Wall Pub, York – Yorkshire Pudding
Oaks Hotel, Alnwick – Sausage & Lamb’s Liver Casserole/Slow cooked lamb shoulder
Nanny’s, Shieldag – Salmon Platter (caught locally and done in 4 ways)
Mariagh Lodge, Ballymena – Breakfast starting with Bellywarmer porridge, (excellent chef so night degustation menu should be wonderful)
The Point Bar, Magilligan Point, Northern Ireland – Seafood Chowder

MOST MEMORABLE DRIVES
The Lakes District
This can be done in a day but better to stay overnight so you aren’t rushed
Starting and ending at Bowness-on-Windermere / Ambleside / Keswick / Derwent Water / Seatoller / Buttermere / Keswick / Bassenthwaighte (don’t miss St Bega’s Church) / Troutbeck (visit Aira Force Waterfall)/ Kirkstone Pass / Bowness-on-Windermere (take a ferry to Near Sawrey and Beatrix Potter’s farm, Hilltop)

North Scotland
This was a fairly easy day and you can extend it by turning off at Tornapress and crossing the Applecross Pass to Applecross on the coast and back to Tornapress which is a round trip of about 35 miles. This is a high pass so check conditions before you go.
Starting at Inverness / Kessock Bridge / Contin (stop off at Rogie Falls) / Achnasheen / Kinlochewe (photo viewpoint 2-3 miles before village on right) / Torridon (has some of the most spectacular mountain scenery in Scotland)/ Shieldag (don’t forget to stop at Nanny’s for salmon platter) / Tornapress / Lochcarron / Kyle of Lochalsh / Isle of Skye

Isle of Skye to Loch Lomond Scenic Route
Rather a winding road but some spectacular scenery. It takes a good day.
Isle of Skye / Dornie (visit Eilean Donan Castle) / Shiel Bridge / Invergarry / Spean Bridge / Fort William / Glencoe / Crianlarich / Inverarnan / The Drover’s Inn (stop off at this historic inn for a meal) / Dumbarton

The Antrim Coast in North East Ireland
This is a long day – we set off at 9am and arrived in Derry at 9pm. We weren’t rushed but would have preferred more time at various places. If you want a leisurely trip suggest staying overnight somewhere on the way or starting very early.

Larne / Glenarm (visit the Walled Garden at Glenarm Castle and stop off at Garron Point / Cushendall (meeting point of three of the Glens of Antrim, Glenaan, Glenballyemon and Glencorp plus historic town so schedule a stop) / Torr Road (Have a good look at Google Maps in close up before you go and do not be deterred by GPS which will try to take you back on to the A2 – stay on Torr Road to Torr and all the way to Ballyvoy avoiding being diverted to Farrenmacallan Road. Stop off at Torr Head where on a sunny day you can see Scotland which is only 16 miles away) / Ballyvoy / Ballycastle / Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge / The Giant’s Causeway / Bushmills (stop off at the Old Bushmills Distillery and look out for Dunluce Castle just after leaving Bushmills) / Portrush / Magilligan Point (Point Break Bar & Restaurant for Seafood Chowder) / Ferry to Greencastle / Derry

The Ring of Kerry in South West Ireland
Can easily be done in a day but factor extra time for Muckross House. We went the afternoon before the drive
Killarney (plan a visit to Muckross House) / Killorglin / Glenbeigh / Rossbeigh (detour over the mountains for a fantastic view of the Dingle Peninsula)/ Kells / Caherciveen / Portmagee (take the Skellig Ring Road and visit Kerry Cliffs run by an enterprising farmer who offers fabulous views and a café for a small fee or you can cross the bridge to Valencia Island for the ‘Skellig Experience)/ Waterville (from Waterville to Caherdaniel are the most spectacular cliff views – be prepared to stop)/ Caherdaniel / Sneem / Kenmare / Moll’s Gap / Ladies View / Torc Waterfall / Killarney

Wales
This is a long two day trip which could be extended to three if you want to see Snowdonia. Alternately you could head west from Betwys-y-Coed to Snowdonia on secondary roads and linking up at Penrhyndeudraeth. This trip takes you through Gwydyr Forest and Brecon Beacons National Park as well as the Wye Valley.
Betws-y-Coed (this is the start of your journey through Gwydyr Forest Park) / Blaenau Ffestiniog (see the Ffestiniog Railway and the Llechwedd Slate Caverns)/ Penrhyndeudraeth / Barmouth / LLanidloes / Builth Wells (travelling mostly through the fabulous Brecon Beacons National Park) /
Abergavenny (short diversion to Blaenavon for the Big Pit National Coal Museum) / Monmouth (down through the picturesque Wye Valley)/ Chepstow

BEST GARDENS
Large
Bodnant Gardens,
Trebah Gardens
RHS Wisley
Hestercombe
Alnwick Gardens

Small
Hidcote
Abbey Gardens, Malmsworth
Kiftsgate
Hole Park

EXPERIENCES NOT TO BE MISSED
Canal boating with Black Prince in Scotland – the Falkirk Wheel
Canal boating in Wales with Black Prince – the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct
Special Group Tours – Chelsea Flower Show, Gardens of Kent and Cotswolds
Tracing the ancestors in County Clare
Cooking classes at River Cottage in Charmouth
Big Pit National Coal Museum – Blaenavon, Torfaen, South Wales
Thames Boat Trip on the Cockney Sparrow from Embankment to Hampton Court via Kew

On Wednesday morning we caught the underground down to the Thames Embankment for a cruise up the river to Hampton Court. We were a little early so after organising our tickets we strolled up to Westminster Bridge to see all the goings on. Today was the opening of the new Parliament with the Queen and all the trimmings so the crowds were flocking in and police were everywhere.

Lyndal went up to one group to see if she could get a photo with a London Bobby for the benefit of Ben. The Sergeant promptly dobbed in the most junior Constable who rather reluctantly posed for the photo. One could sympathise with them because there had been several security alarms lately and all the security apparatus was obviously on high alert.

After paying tribute to Queen Boadicea, whose statue is on the entrance to the bridge, we returned to the wharf.

We checked out the various large and comfortable looking modern ferries imagining ourselves cruising up the Thames reclining in an armchair with gin and tonic to hand.

One by one they sailed off in the wrong direction and we were rather reluctantly ushered towards a funny little tub down the end of the wharf, which was to be our vessel.

“Welcome aboard the Cockney Sparrer”, delivered in the appropriate accent, was the refrain of the cheerful young man who ushered us aboard. He proved to be deckhand, barman, spruiker and general factotum, and also obviously the son of the only other crewmember, the white haired skipper up in the little wheelhouse.

Well it proved to be the most pleasant way to cruise up the Thames. As all the crowds had swarmed to the opening of Parliament there were only about 20 people on board and we sat on the top deck on a bright sunny day, with only a slight chill in the air, and were entertained by the young first mate cum deckhand who proved to be the most competent and knowledgeable spruiker. He gave us a good commentary on the decorative and interesting bridges

and key buildings along the river. Later we just relaxed with a sandwich and a bottle of beer and watched the scenery go by.

We went through two locks, the first one at Richmond,

and the big one at Teddington, the end of tidal waters and entry point to the upper Thames.

It was interesting to view the various residences along the river, many very posh and nice and some surprisingly modest,
as well as some beautiful old boats.

So after this very pleasant three-hour cruise we disembarked at Hampton Court and went to view the Palace. It was all very grand, the original palace having been built as a personal residence by Cardinal Wolsey, the most powerful and influential man in the land under King Henry VIII. Thomas Wolsey, obviously a prodigy and enormously painstaking, hard working and ambitious, rose from relatively humble origins to Lord Chancellor to the King and his most trusted adviser and fixit man. His fall from grace was equally spectacular when he failed to secure from the Pope the annulment of Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon so that he could marry Anne Boleyn.

Wolsey was stripped of all his positions and property and Henry happily appropriated Hampton Court, which he preferred to his own palace anyway. Henry greatly extended and rebuilt the Palace and the Northern half remains much as he left it although from time to time renovated and titivated by his successors up to the time of the Stuarts.

The Puritan Republicans under Cromwell (a puritanical lot) did a bit of self righteous pillaging and desecrating till Cromwell himself put a stop to it having decided that, after all, it was a nice little weekender – for himself naturally. We viewed parts of the old Tudor Palace and the later part built by William as well as the gardens.

The next great builders were William III and Mary after their military coup that displaced James II. They employed Christopher Wren to rebuild the Palace but balked at his wish to demolish the whole place and start again due to the cost so just the Southern half was rebuilt in the contemporary baroque style. About half way through they gave Wren the push and passed the job to his deputy, William Talman who had given a cheaper quote and finished the job under budget. Goodness we could do with someone like William the Dutchman in Canberra couldn’t we?

William of Orange (in Holland) was James II son in law and his wife Mary was first in line of succession to the English throne until James finally produced a son. This heightened fears of a return to Catholic rule and William decided to make a bid for the throne of England; in this he was encouraged by powerful figures in England. In November 1689 he landed in England and just to be sure of his welcome he brought along 15,000 of his best friends, suitably armed. William and Mary were crowned as joint monarchs in January 1689; James having departed for France after many of his most powerful courtiers changed sides.

After George II Hampton Court fell out of use by British Monarchs and during Victoria’s reign it was restored and opened to the public.

We returned to London by train and got off at the West End where we were to attend, at St. Martin’s theatre, the 26,059th performance of Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap”, the world’s longest running play. First we hunted round for a reasonable meal which was much more difficult than we expected. Although there were myriad eateries of varied description, very few were particularly inviting and all were packed. Eventually we claimed a back room table in a pub cum restaurant and had a rather ordinary meal.

As you would expect in England, which seems to have an inexhaustible supply of character actors, the play was very well presented and acted and we enjoyed it very much. We are not allowed to tell you whodunit – that’s a secret. After the performance we were pretty well worn out so got a taxi home.

Thursday was our last day in London, with our flight departing in the evening, so we packed up and then went in to town to the Horse Guards Parade to watch the changing of the Guard. Very picturesque, and impressive when you consider that most of the young troopers had never set eyes on a horse, never mind ridden one, until they joined the Army.

After that we walked up through St James Park, past Buck Palace with more crowds and troops marching to and fro, on up to Hyde Park Corner and then to Harrods. Here we enjoyed lunch – very swanky – and did a little shopping. Bought a train for Mike and some scarves for each of our sons. I only checked the price tag on the first I picked up and bought four of our pick on that basis so got a bit of a surprise at the checkout! The boys did very nicely out of that!

Then it was time to go back to the flat and meet our hire car for Heathrow, followed by the usual mind and bum numbing flight back to our side of the planet. Ben met us at the airport and we went back to their place to see Claire and the girls and then made our way home. It was perfect day on Moreton Bay as we crossed on the ferry: “Hmmm….pretty nice here; why did we leave?”. But it was a fantastic trip; we enjoyed every bit of it.

On Monday morning Lyndal opted for a leisurely start to the day and I took the underground and visited the Natural History Museum for a couple of hours. Like the Maritime Museum, this is a place that could occupy you for the whole day. Unfortunately a special exhibit on this public holiday meant a massive queue for the section which housed the Charles Darwin centre, but nevertheless I strolled through some fascinating halls of exhibits before returning to home base in time for us to catch the 1.00pm train up to Oxford.

On arrival we first went to pick up our hire car, at which point we had a most unfortunate attack of the miserlys: we declined to pay the 12 quid extra for a GPS reasoning it was only a small place – how hard could it be. Well, as we found to our cost how wrong you could be. Oxford would have to be the worst town in the UK to drive in – and that’s saying something. One ways, no ways, pedestrian only streets, restricted access – it had it all. So our progress (and regress) was marked by curses, mutterings, querulous questions and increasingly short answers.

Eventually, and just in time, we found our way to the River Thames for our date with the punt. We had hired punt plus driver, as we had heard that punting was not as simple as it looks, and expected some husky young undergraduate would be propelling the craft. We were a little surprised then when our punter turned out to be a slight and diminutive young schoolgirl. However she was a very competent young lady with the punt and took us on a peaceful hour-long tour up and down the river.

It was a pleasant and mild late afternoon and there were lots of punts out on the water, many obviously in the hands of beginners. When we saw all the difficulties they were in we were very pleased to have a skilled punter. Many a muttered curse was heard out on the water including: “whose idea was this…”. One crew had given up altogether and were pulling themselves along the bank by clutching weeds and tree roots etc. After a while we left the crowds behind and cruised the quieter reaches – all in all a very pleasant hour.

We then found our way to the B&B (with only one wrong turn), a nice establishment in a semi rural setting. Dinner was at the “Royal Sun”, a 17th century inn just up the road. Their speciality was the “deep dish pie” which naturally we had to have, and rashly ordered entree as well having had no lunch. Result: thoroughly over indulged in food once again!

In the morning it was off to Blenheim Palace.

John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, probably Britain’s greatest ever field commander, was voted the land and means to build the palace by a grateful Monarch and Parliament in 1705. It was a reward for his most famous victory at Blenheim, on the upper Danube, as commander of the Allied Army in the War of Spanish Succession.

Planned on a most stupendous scale, building commenced in 1705. Unfortunately the Churchills had failed to read the fine print and no definitive amount had been stipulated in the Act of Parliament. As the cost of the building mounted, funds were doled out in an increasingly niggardly fashion. Nothing erodes gratitude and friendship like money problems and in the end, in 1711, Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough who had been close friend and confidant of Queen Anne for many years, had a spectacular falling out with the Queen. The Churchills thought it politic to remove themselves to Europe for a time and all work on the building halted until their return in 1714 after the Queen’s death. Sadly the Duke did not live to fully enjoy his reward; after a succession of strokes he died in 1722 with Blenheim Palace still incomplete.

The Duchess Sarah, reputedly temperamental, but also fiercely loyal to her husband and determined to see Blenheim Palace completed as his memorial, battled on and finally saw the building substantially complete by 1733, although some work was still going on in 1735. When she died in 1744 she and her husband were interred together in the Palace chapel.

In 1874 Winston Churchill, grandson of the 7th Duke, was born Blenheim Palace during a visit by his parents.

We had booked a tour of the private apartments, which turned out to be very informative as we were the only ones on the tour and had the undivided attention of our knowledgeable tour guide. As we toured the rooms we were given the low down on the past occupants – in particular Consuelo Vanderbilt.

Her marriage to Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough became an international emblem of the socially advantageous, but loveless, marriages common during the Gilded Age.

Determined to secure the highest-ranking mate possible for her only daughter, a union that would emphasize the preeminence of the Vanderbilt family in New York society, Alva Vanderbilt engineered a meeting between Consuelo and the financially embarrassed land-owning Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough, chatelaine of Blenheim Palace.

Unfortunately Consuelo Vanderbilt had no interest in the duke, being secretly engaged to an American, Winthrop Rutherfurd. Her mother cajoled, wheedled, begged, and then, ultimately, ordered her daughter to marry Marlborough. When Consuelo – a docile teenager whose only notable characteristic at the time was abject obedience to her fearsome mother – made plans to elope, she was locked in her room and Alva threatened to have Rutherfurd murdered (when we were in Newport a couple of years ago we were shown through the Vanderbilt mansion and the room where she was incarcerated).

Still, she refused. It was only when Alva Vanderbilt claimed that her health was being seriously and irretrievably undermined by Consuelo’s stubbornness and appeared to be on death’s door that the malleable girl acquiesced. Alva made an astonishing recovery from her entirely phantom illness, and when the wedding took place, Consuelo stood at the altar reportedly weeping behind her veil. The duke, for his part, gave up the woman he reportedly loved back in England and collected US$2.5 million (approximately US$67.7 million in 2015 dollars) in railroad stock as a marriage settlement plus a settlement each year.

We then joined the main tour of all the public rooms of the palace before inspecting the gardens.

It is a most impressive castle and well worth a visit. We could have spent a full day there.

We headed back to Oxford to hand in our car and join a walking tour of the Colleges.

Having allowed nearly two hours for the fifteen minute drive plus a relaxed lunch, we ran into a horrendous Oxford traffic snarl and only just made it to our tour in time to start. We met our guide Stuart from Oxford Walking Tours outside Trinity College and then strolled through Exeter,

Jesus (noting the portrait of T.E.Lawrence (of Arabia) in the dining hall, together with many former British PM’s)

then past the Divinity School and Bodelean Library,

through Hertford,

Balliol

Johns

and back to Trinity, finishing our tour there.

After the tour it was back to the Railway Station for the train back to London and our home away from home.

On Sunday we boarded the tour bus again at Marble Arch and did a more complete circuit of London.

We crisscrossed the Thames seeing the sights of London and passing many of the historic buildings.

The weather was less rainy and from our seats on the top of the bus we got a good view.

St Pauls was closed to public tours due to Sunday services, and the Tower was reputed to take the best part of the day to tour so bypassed those

and got off near Whitehall to see the “Churchill War Rooms”, the bunker built under Whitehall which was the meeting place of the War Cabinet and the nerve centre of the British war effort in World War 2.

After that we walked on past the Horse Guards parade ground to Trafalgar Square again and then sought out a meal once again in Villiers Street, before catching the underground back to our home away from home.

Tomorrow to Oxford…………..

London: If it was not for Westminster Abbey, the Albert Memorial, Museum of Natural History, the Horse Guards, West End, etc, etc, etc,…. you might conclude that London was just another big city and a fairly grubby one at that. The most jarring first impression was the bin-less garbage disposal which meant sidewalks were lined with heaps of garbage bags. Boris really should do something about it.
However there would surely be only one or two other cities in the world (if any) that one could leave after a busy week feeling that much was left undone. Certainly none that I have been to before.

After the intense experience of Chelsea Flower Show we had a late start and then moved up to our flat in Bayswater, walking up through Hyde Park to meet the agent.

On the way we passed the Albert Memorial (stupendous)

and the Princess Diana Memorial, a unique and interesting circular water feature.

There are Diana memorials dotted all over the city – an indication of the enormous impact she had on people’s memories.

After our exploration of Hyde Park we met up with our agent and moved into 70 Inverness Terrace, Bayswater. Done up on the cheap, it was nevertheless spacious and very well situated.

The next day, Friday, I took myself off to Greenwich while Lyndal had a bit of R&R at the flat after putting in a big week of walking round the gardens. First, the clipper ship Cutty Sark, now rebuilt after all decks and masts were burnt out in a tragic fire some years back. Luckily Cutty Sark was a late era composite design with timber hull and decks on steel frames so the framework survived as well as the hull, otherwise she would have been a total writeoff.

Cutty Sark and her rival clipper ships like Thermopylae were built for the premium tea trade where bonuses were paid for early delivery of the new crop. In fact winning the “tea race” attracted great prestige for a shipping line and almost became an end in itself. Unfortunately for Cutty Sark her launch coincided with the opening of the Suez Canal and steamers soon captured the tea trade, so after a few voyages to China Cutty Sark moved to the Australian wool trade where she recorded the fastest time ever for a sail powered merchant ship London to Sydney : 72 days.
Then up the hill to the Royal Observatory to stand on the “0” degree longitude, the reference line longitude for international time and navigation.

After that signal experience, down the hill again to the Maritime Museum. You could spend the whole day in this building and I only had two hours sampling the various displays, models, and artwork.

Then back home to the flat in time to join up with Lyndal and catch the underground to Victoria and the Victoria Palace theatre to see Elton John’s musical “Billy Elliott” – a great show with many fantastic dance scenes. Afterwards we hunted around for a decent meal without much success – eventually lobbing in to a Spanish style joint before heading home.
On Saturday we first went to Argyll Rd in Kensington to look at No 7 where Lyndal lived with her family in the late sixties. Then we got on the red tour bus

as far as Westminster Abbey via the new RAF Bomber Command Memorial at Hyde Park Corner.

A tour of the Abbey is a tour of 1,000 years of history via the many people: monarchs, famous scientists, statesmen, politicians and poets, and many others more or less obscure, who are interred and /or memorialised there. In all there are over 600 memorials and tablets in the Abbey, and over 3,000 people are buried there. It surpassed all my expectations.

We then made our way to Embankment and Villiers St., looking for Gordon’s Wine Bar, an 1890 establishment which serves wine in the cellar, but found it packed – standing room only – so sought out another spot in the street lined with various eateries and bars where we could actually get a table and chair.
After a pleasant dinner accompanied by a couple of glasses of wine we visited Trafalgar Square, viewed Nelson’s column and contemplated immortality

Our objective for the evening was St Martin’s in the Fields, which once was indeed in the fields between London and Westminster. Rebuilt in 1722, it now stands next to Trafalgar Square. Here we listened the choral and orchestral performance of Mozart’s Requiem – quite a beautiful way to spend the evening.

Tomorrow it’s back on the Big Red Bus to see more of London

Some just caught our eye.……

Some we need to win gold lotto.………
Amazing Driftwood Sculptures by James Doran Webb

David Harber Sculptures

Woven metal horse sculpture by Ruper Till

‘Ephemera’ by Simon Gudgeon Sculpture by the Lakes

Michael Speller Sculptures

The two way stream A glass sheet separates the water which runs down on the top layer and is pumped back on the bottom – awesome!

The Royal Rocking Horse Company

Giles Rayner Water Sculptures

Some are on our long term list (maybe)………

The Firepit Company

Enchanted Earth Wind Spinners

Willie Wildlife Birdbaths

Gaze Burvill oak tree seat

Green Meadow Furniture

Waterfall wall

and some we are either already implementing or have scheduled……..

and now all we need is a boat!!!

To describe the Royal Pavilion is impossible so I’ll let the photos do the talking. These are some of the 600+ photos we took that day!

There was plenty more ………..

And then there was the Floristy section…

Rain around lunchtime brought the crowds into the Pavilion so it was time to meet up with the others and seek out some lunch. Fanning out we managed to secure a table where we partook of lunch washed down by jugs of Pimms and followed by plates of strawberries.


Feeling a lot more mellow we went back into the Pavilion to finish the exhibits and then down to where the orchestras were playing to listen to some music. For the next couple of hours we wandered through the outside exhibits and then on to the trade exhibitions, ending up in the Artisan Gardens where the crowd was about 10 deep and increasing.

At 3pm another wave of people came through the gates and the crowd was so thick that we decided to call it a day and head back to our hotel.

To say that we enjoyed Chelsea is an understatement. There was so much to see and all very inspiring. We came away with so many ideas to try at home we will be going for the next 50 years!

Next blog shows some of those ideas – and some of the things that caught our eye!

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show has been held in the grounds of the Chelsea Hospital every year since 1913, apart from gaps during the two World Wars. Formerly the RHS Great Spring Flower Show, it was first held in 1862 in the now vanished RHS garden in Kensington, later moving to the Temple Gardens before moving to its current site. This year is its 93rd Show.

Whilst the Flower Show at Hampton Court is bigger, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is still viewed as the most important event in the horticultural calendar and is as popular as ever. In 1979 the turnstiles had to be closed due to overcrowding and since then there has been a limit on the number of tickets sold. With enormous media attention and exhibitor waiting lists longer than ever, there seems no sign of this appetite abating.

The Special Group Tour had made us all members of the Royal Horticultural Society so that we could attend the day before it officially opened – somewhere between the Royal Family and the general public.

Under advice we were there the minute the gates opened in the morning and headed straight for the Exhibition Gardens. Over the next couple of hours we managed to get a good look at all of them, photographing them and taking careful notes of the features in our favourites.

The Show Gardens – The Show Gardens are a highlight of the show and always generate a huge amount of worldwide media interest

Best in Show – The Laurent-Perrier Chatsworth Garden

Gold Medal Winners

Silver Gilt Winners

The Fresh Gardens – Engaging and different, Fresh Gardens complement more traditional Chelsea exhibits and reveal new ideas and styles.

Lyndal & Edgar’s favourites

Artisan Gardens – Truly enchanting and imaginative, Artisan Gardens reflect both traditional and modern approaches, using artisan methods and natural materials from sustainable sources – all in a small plot.

By 10.30 am the crowd had swelled to the extent that getting a good look was near impossible so we decided to check out the Royal Pavilion where the crowd was minimal.

The following day saw us at Stow-on-the-Wold, which is a delightful market town and perhaps one of the best known of the small Costwold towns.

Stow-on-the-Wold is the highest of the Cotswold towns standing exposed on 800 feet high Stow Hill at a junction of seven major roads, including the Roman Fosse Way. At the height of the Cotswold wool industry the town was famous for its huge annual fairs where as many as 20,000 sheep were sold at one time.

An ancient rhyme reads:-
“Stowe-on-the-Wold, Where the wind blows cold.
Where horses young and old are sold,
Where farmers come to spend their gold.
Where men are fools and women are bold
……and many a wicked tale is told.

The vast Market Square testifies to the town’s former importance. At one end stands the ancient cross, and at the other, the town stocks, shaded between an old elm tree. Around the square the visitor is faced with an elegant array of townhouses and shops

From Stoke-on-the-Wold it was off to the final gardens of our tour – Waterperry Gardens and then on to Kew Gardens.

Waterperry Gardens were home to the renowned horticultural college between 1932 and 1971 and the emphasis was on food production rather than spectacular ornamental gardens.

Over the past twenty years the gardens have developed and grown and many new projects have been undertaken and completed. You’ll now find a Formal Garden, the Mary Rose Garden, a Waterlily Canal and the Long Colour Border, and they recently planted a small arboretum in the meadow area beyond the canal.

Waterperry is now a lovely place to visit, where you are surrounded by beautiful tree, shrubs and flowers, classical borders, modern planting, secret corners and long vistas.

Our final stop for the day, and for the tour, was Kew Gardens where we were scheduled to have a guided tour and afternoon tea.

Some excellent driving through drenching rain by our driver, Tom, got us to the gate of the Royal Botanical Garden Kew to meet our guide who braved the rain to show us some of the notable trees and features.

The origins of Kew Gardens can be traced to the merging of the royal estates of Richmond and Kew in 1772. In 1840 the gardens were adopted as a national botanical garden, in large part due to the efforts of the Royal Horticultural Society and its president William Cavendish. Under Kew’s director, William Hooker, the gardens were increased to 30 hectares (75 acres) and the pleasure grounds, or arboretum, extended to 109 hectares (270 acres), and later to its present size of 121 hectares (300 acres).

In passing we saw many of the attractions that, due to the inclement weather, we were destined not to visit.

Seen in the distance was the Chineses Pagoda, which was one of the jewels in the crown of Georgian London. It was so unusual that a suspicious public were unconvinced it would remain standing when it was built in 1762. Designed at the height of the 18th century craze for Chinoiserie, it tapers with successive floors from the first to the topmost being 1ft less (30 cm) in diameter and height than the preceding one.

The original building was very colourful; the roofs being covered with varnished iron plates, with a dragon on each corner. There were 80 dragons in all, each carved from wood and gilded with real gold. The eye-catching dragons were the talk of the town for 20 years, before disappearing in the 1780s. They were rumoured to have been sold to pay for the Prince Regent’s debts. – however experts believe that, being made of wood simply rotted and were removed during the roof restoration.

The dragons are to be reinstated in the most comprehensive restoration of the Pagoda in its 257-year history, which is scheduled to be completed by 2017. A good time to revisit perhaps!

In passing we glimpsed The Palm House, which was built by architect Decimus Burton and iron-maker Richard Turner between 1844 and 1848, and was the first large-scale structural use of wrought iron. It is considered ” the world’s most important surviving Victorian glass and iron structure.”‪ The structure’s panes of glass are all hand-blown. ‬

We also sighted the Temperate House, twice as large as the Palm House, which was built later in the 19th century. It is now the largest Victorian glasshouse in existence.

However we did manage to visit the Princess of Wales Conservatory, which was commissioned in 1982 to replace a group of 26 smaller buildings that were falling into disrepair. It was named after Princess Augusta, founder of Kew, and opened in 1987 by Diana, Princess of Wales. It is the most complex conservatory at Kew, containing ten computer-controlled climatic zones under one roof. It was also warm and dry!!

The two main climate zones are the ‘dry tropics’, representing the world’s warm, arid areas, and the ‘wet tropics’, housing moisture loving plants from ecosystems such as rainforests and mangrove swamps. The eight remaining microclimates include a seasonally dry zone containing desert and savanna plants, plus sections for carnivorous plants, ferns and orchids.

The southern end is heated more by the sun than the northern end, so this is where you find towering spikes of echiums and silver agaves from dry tropical regions such as the arid Canary Islands. The central area contains an elevated aquaria, complete with waterlily pond and the dangling roots of mangroves, plus displays of orchids and carnivorous plants. At the northern end are species from the moist tropics, including banana, pineapple, pepper and ginger. On the lower level, there are viewing windows so you can see the pond from a fish’s eye view.

There is also a ‘time-capsule’ buried at the southern end of the conservatory. Sir David Attenborough placed it in the foundations there in 1985 as part of the World Wildlife Fund’s Plants Campaign. Containing seeds of basic food crops and endangered species, it is not due to be exhumed until 2085. By this time, many of the plants it contains may have become rare or extinct.

There are about nine water dragons that live and breed freely in Zone 1. They provide a natural means of controlling unwanted insects but tend to keep out of sight of visitors.

Whereas the Palm and Temperate Houses make grand statements with their designs, the low-lying, angular ‘glazed hill’ of the Princess of Wales house is less obtrusive. The conservatory was designed to be energy-efficient and easy to maintain and was built partly underground.

The pond within the aquaria section contains the Asian form of the giant waterlily Euryale ferox. This plant has huge leaves that can span two metres and are strong enough to take the weight of baby without sinking

Our tour finished with a sumptuous afternoon tea in The Orangery. As its name suggests, the Orangery was designed as a hothouse to grow citrus plants.

The building was originally designed by William Chambers who was employed by Kew founder Princess Augusta as an architect for the Gardens and a tutor to her son (the future King George III). He completed the Orangery in 1761. Built of brick and coated in durable stucco, it is the largest classical style building in the Gardens.

Low levels of light made it unsuitable for the growing of citrus and in 1841 the building’s ailing orange trees were shifted to Kensington Palace. Large glazed doors at either end of the Orangery to improve its effectiveness and it was used to house plants too big for other glasshouses.

The Orangery was converted to a tea room in 1989. It was adapted again in 2002 to its present use as a restaurant. The building is now an airy and elegant eatery. Outside of normal opening hours it is used to host corporate or special-occasion dinners.

The coat of arms above the central bay of the façade is that of Princess Augusta, founder of the Garden. This detail was added in the 1840s, along with the royal coat of arms.

In these elegant surroundings we partook of cakes, scones and cucumber sandwiches, exchanged stories and highlights and farewelled all those except our fellow Australians and adopted Canadian, who we organized to meet for lunch the next day at Chelsea

First stop of the day was Hidcote Manor Estate and it’s gardens – one of the best-known and most influential Arts and Crafts gardens in Britain and possibly our favourite garden of all.

Created by the talented American horticulturist, Major Lawrence Johnston, its intricately designed linked “rooms” of hedges, rare trees, shrubs and herbaceious borders are full of unexpected surprises. Lawrence Johnston’s mother bought Hidcote in 1907. He soon became interested in turning the fields around the house into a garden. By 1910 he had begun to lay out the key features of the garden, and by the 1920s he had twelve full-time gardeners working for him.

He was influenced in creating his garden at Hidcote by the work of Alfred Parsons and Gertrude Jekyll, who were designing gardens of hardy plants contained within sequences of outdoor “rooms”. Many of the plants found growing in the garden were collected from his many plant hunting trips to far away places. After World War II Johnston spent most of his time at Jardin Serre de la Madone, his garden in the south of France; and in 1947 he entrusted Hidcote to the National Trust.

Hidcote’s outdoor “rooms” have various characters and themes, achieved by the use of box hedges, hornbeam and yew, and stone walls. These rooms, such as the ‘White Garden’ and ‘Fuchsia Garden’ are linked, some by vistas, and furnished with topiaries. Some have ponds and fountains, and all are planted with flowers in bedding schemes.

You can spend all day exploring the maze of narrow paved pathways and discovering secret gardens and magnificent vistas. You can find a quiet spot and sit on one of the ornate benches and watch green woodpeckers search for their lunch or listen to the calls from the buzzards circling overhead. Time it right and you might catch a glimpse of the elusive hummingbird moth. It’s the perfect place if you’re in need of gardening inspiration

Just across the road are another of Britain’s top gardens – Kiftsgate

These gardens are the creation of three generations of women gardeners. Started by Heather Muir in the 1920s, continued by Diany Binny from 1950 and now looked after by Anne Chambers and her husband, who have made it their home.

Heather Muir created the garden, which up until 1920 had consisted of a paved formal garden in front of the portico, with a field and wooded banks beyond. Heather was helped and inspired by her lifelong friend Lawrence Johnston of Hidcote Manor. She decided that the garden would develop organically as she was inspired, rather than planning everything on paper. This has given the garden a distinctly feminine feel, almost in direct contrast to the more masculine lines being employed by Johnston at Hidcote. By 1930 the steep banks were tackled and the steps to the lower garden were put in place, along with the delightful summerhouse taking advantage of the views to the west.

From the mid fifties Diany continued to add to the garden by creating the semi-circular pool in the lower garden. She also commissioned two sculptures and began to open the garden on a regular basis. The white sunk garden was also redesigned by her to incorporate a small pool and a well head fountain. The well head that frames the fountain came from the Pyrenees and is carved with bucolic activities such as harvesting, hunting and wine making in each of its twelve panels.

One of Anne’s finest accomplishments is the addition of the new water garden that was once the tennis court. This area is now an oasis of calm, where fine white stepping stones give the illusion of floating over the black pool below, leading to a grass island at the centre. To the far end, a double row of gilded bronze philodendron leaves sway gently under a cascade of running water surrounded by a curtain of yew hedging.

The Drive to the house and car park is edged with some very old lime trees, the oldest of which date back to the original planting in the first half of the 18th century. More recent replacement of weeping limes produce a sweet scent in late summer that permeates the whole garden and which the bees find irresistible. The rough grass underneath these trees is yellow with daffodils in spring.
The other side of the drive is the Bluebell Wood, a spectacular sight in early May. This south facing bank is also planted with maples and cherries for spring and autumn colour.

In front of the house are four rectangular beds planted with a mixture of rare shrubs and perennials that give interest throughout the gardening year. From the sun dial in the middle one can look back to the fine Georgian portico on the house that was transported by light railway from the manor house in Mickleton, a mile away. Down some steps to the Terrace, there is a spectacular view towards the Malvern Hills and also down to the steep banks to the lower garden and swimming pool. On this terrace large terracotta pots are filled to the brim with plants in the summer.

The double border on either side of the grass path is planted with a mixture of shrubs, small trees and herbaceous plants. The main colour tones in this summer border are pinks, mauve and purple with abundant grey foliage. The smaller portico overlooking this border was added in the 1920s by the Muirs. Several clumps of the ‘Burning Bush’ Dictamnus albus purpureus are to be found. On a still summer evening one can ignite their oily seed heads in a spectacular pyrotechnic display without harming the plant.

The principal shrubs in this small sunken garden all have white flowers, but the under planting is unrestrained in colour and in form. Spring flowering plants such as erythronium and trillium give way to a succession of summer flowering anenomes, helianthemums, dieramas and santolinas. The large headed allium christophii self seeds throughout this garden. The main white flowering shrubs that give the garden its name are deutzia, carpentaria, hoheria and staphyllea.

The double rose border is filled with a mixture of old fashioned, specie and modern roses. The scent in high summer is overpowering. The path running down the middle is edged with the pink striped Rosa mundi, many of which have reverted to its parent, the Apothecary’s rose. To extend the interest throughout the year, plantings of astilbes, asters and grasses add further texture and form.
The original Kiftsgate rose grows in this border enveloping three trees and is a magnificent sight in early July with sprays of white flowers cascading to the ground.

Off bright and early the next morning to the next unscheduled event on our magical mystery tour we passed Silbury Hill on the way to Avebury Henge

At 30 metres (98 ft) high, Silbury Hill is the tallest prehistoric human-made mound in Europe and one of the largest in the world; it is similar in size to some of the smaller Egyptian pyramids of Giza. Made of chalk it is now grassed over but originally would have gleamed white and been visible for miles. Its original purpose is still highly debated but legend has it that it was the final resting place of King Sil.

Avebury is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire. One of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest stone circle in Europe. It is both a tourist attraction and a place of religious importance to contemporary Pagans.

Constructed around 2600 BCE, during the Neolithic, or ‘New Stone Age’, the monument comprises a large henge (a bank and a ditch) with a large outer stone circle and two separate smaller stone circles situated inside the center of the monument.

Its original purpose is unknown, although archaeologists believe that it was most likely used for some form of ritual or ceremony. The Avebury monument was a part of a larger prehistoric landscape containing several older monuments nearby, including West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill.

Leaving Avebury Henge we passed one of the famous White Horses of Wiltshire. The Cherhill white horse is the second oldest of the Wiltshire horses. Very well placed high on a steep slope, the horse is easily visible from below and from a distance.

The Cherhill white horse is the work of a Dr. Christopher Alsop of Calne, sometimes referred to as “the mad doctor”. He is said to have directed the marking out of the horse from a distance, calling instructions through a megaphone. Dr. Alsop’s design for the horse may have been influenced by the work of his artist friend George Stubbs, famous for his paintings of horses and other animals.

This white horse once had an unusual feature, a glass eye. The center of the eye was formed from upturned bottles pressed into the ground to reflect the sunlight. Thus the eye apparently had a bright gleaming appearance, and was visible from a considerable distance. Unfortunately vandals kept taking the bottles and, after replacing them on several occasions, they have now been replaced by a concrete eye.

We arrived at the Abbey Gardens in time for lunch. Situated beside the 12th century Abbey Church in the center of medieval Malmesbury and straddling the River Avon, Abbey Gardens was one of my favourite gardens. The main part of the garden was not as large as some of the other gardens we had visited though it did have an extensive dell. It was beautifully maintained, crammed with interesting things and very quirky.

Ian and Barbara Pollard purchased the 16th Century Abbey House in 1994. Empty for 3 years after its previous owners had vacated, it needed a good deal of work and love to bring it back to a comfortable family home. Following the restoration of the house they decided to create a garden that might attract visitors from around the world.

Over the following years they dedicated every waking moment to the garden, rarely going outside the garden gates. Featuring formal knot gardens, spring bulbs, tulips (third of a million), hostas, laburnum tunnel, colonnade walk, roses (largest collection in the UK), japanese maples, fruit trees, double herbaceous borders, irises, alstroemerias, herb garden, monastic fish ponds and with woodland and riverside walks where wildlife from water voles, the occasional otter, goldcrests, longtailed tits, treecreepers, kingfishers, woodpeckers to sparrowhawks, buzzards and swans appear – there is plenty to see!!

Over the years the Pollards have become well known as “The Naked Gardeners” both because they often garden naked and have Clothes Optional Days, when the gardens are open to those who wish to spend their time (within the garden boundaries) without their clothes – though this is not compulsory. The day we visited was not one of these days!

Unfortunately the Pollards have separated amidst claims of naked infidelity and there are fears Abbey House Gardens could be lost when the 16th century mansion is sold – disappointing thousands of naked tourists who visit every year as well as the many millions of visitors who have admired the garden.

Our next stop was the village of Bibury, was once described by William Morris as ‘the most beautiful village in the Cotswolds’.

The village center clusters around a square near St. Mary’s, a Saxon church. Some of the Saxon remains inside the church are replicas as the originals are housed in the British Museum.

One of the village’s main tourist spots and overlooking a water meadow and the river is Arlington Row, a group of ancient cottages with steeply pitched roofs that were built in 1380 as a monastic wool store and converted into weavers’ cottages in the 17th century. Henry Ford thought Arlington Row was an icon of England. On a trip to the Cotswolds he tried to buy the entire row of houses to ship back to Michigan.

A couple of horses who escaped and took off down the road delayed our travel to the next garden. Their owners chased them for a number of miles down the busy road until someone with a bit of horse sense managed to block them

Coughton Court has been the home of the Throckmorton family since 1409. The Throckmorton family is the oldest catholic family in England having remained Roman Catholics since the reformation.

Various members of the family were involved in, or connected with, pre-Reformation plots and conspiracies including the Throckmorton Plot of 1583 and the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

Although Royalist sympathisers during the Civil War, the family was one of very few recusant families to survive the turbulent 16th and 17th centuries with their estates intact. They went on to become leaders in Catholic emancipation in the 18th and 19th Centuries.

The Throckmorton Family Gardens at Coughton Court are still owned and managed by the family. Clare McLaren-Throckmorton together with her daughter, acclaimed garden designer Christina Williams, has devoted the past 15 years – with the support of a dedicated team of gardeners – to developing what is now one of the finest gardens in Britain.

Behind the Tudor gatehouse house you will find the courtyard with its fine Elizabethan half-timbering, where a knot garden leads to lawns and fine vistas of the Warwickshire countryside.

The house stands in 25 acres of grounds. The centerpiece is the famous walled garden, with a concentration of roses and herbaceous plants. There is something for everyone in horticultural terms: a bog garden, formal lawns, vegetable garden, orchard, riverside walks, and a formal garden in the courtyard.

Close by, the Catholic Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Elizabeth was commissioned by Sir Robert Throckmorton, 8th Baronet, soon after the emancipation acts were passed which permitted the building of non-Anglican places of worship.

Tomorrow it is on to Hidcote and Kiftsgate – what a treat!!

To add a bit of variation to the itinery, Special Group Tours had added some surprise visits they thought we might like.

The morning of the third day saw us heading for East Grinstead and The Bluebell Railway, which is a heritage line running for 11 miles along the border between East and West Sussex. It is the first preserved standard gauge steam-operated passenger railway in the world to operate a public service.

It operates between Sheffield Park and East Grinstead, with intermediate stations at Horsted Keynes & Kingscote, and is managed and run largely by volunteers. The attention to detail in preserving the stations, waiting rooms and luggage at each of the stations is a real trip back in time.

Of particular interest to Ed (and lots of photos for Mike) is their Railway Museum. Having preserved a number of steam locomotives, even before the cessation of steam service on British mainline railways in 1968, it has the largest collection (over 30) of steam locomotives in the UK after the National Railway Museum. The Society also has a collection of almost 150 carriages and wagons, most of them pre-1939.

Our very relaxing train trip, through some beautiful countryside, saw us arrive at Sheffield Park Station and the renowned Sheffield Park and Gardens. The gardens have evolved through centuries of landscape design, with influences of ‘Capability’ Brown and Humphry Repton. Four lakes form the heart of the garden, with paths circulating through the glades and wooded areas surrounding them.

Each owner has left their footprint on the gardens, which can still be seen today in the layout of the lakes, the construction of Pulham Falls, the planting of Palm Walk and the many different tree and shrub species from around the world.

Our final stop for the day was Vann Gardens owned by the Caroe family for over 100 years. The house is steeped in history with additions to the original timber-framed 16th century house in every century, the most recent in 1907 by WD Caröe.

Nestled in the Surrey countryside near Godalming, this five-acre garden is formed by a series of “rooms“ which surround and complement the family home.

The unique Water Garden by Gertrude Jekyll in 1911 links a succession of small ponds fed by the cascade from the quarter-acre pond, crossed by stone paths and bridges banked with lush vegetation and 1,500 water-loving plants supplied by Miss Jekyll. The stream flows down to a wild White Garden, a blanket of snowdrops in February succeeded by narcissi, white fritillaries and martagon lilies, before disappearing into the coppiced woodland beyond.

To the north, the stream enters the garden and runs through the Yew Walk (1909) in a rhyll banked by dry-stone Bargate walls and enclosed by large yew hedges with beds each side. This formal room has been replanted with foliage plants and bulbs to give year-round interest. In the double mixed borders in the vegetable garden plants of special interest to the horticulturist abound and pears and peaches fruit on the crinkle-crankle wall. Both the house and garden are Grade 2 registered by English Heritage

Whilst Vann is an interesting garden the most inspiring part of it is the current owner, Miss Caroe, who not only is a practicing doctor but also, despite being well into her seventies, manages the garden with very little help.

Days 1 and 2
Gathering in the hotel foyer with our luggage, we met up with Kate from Special Group Tours and sorted ourselves out into buses and guides. Kate had five tours leaving that morning – all heading for different destinations and occasionally crossing over at some of the larger gardens. With the exception of the Boston Gardening Club, we were all in groups of 12 or less, each with a driver/guide.

Our group numbered twelve – six Americans, five Australians and one Canadian and soon fell into three groups – four Americans from St. Louis, the commonwealth contingent and an American couple who were so difficult everyone gave up trying. Our guide was Tom, an affable Brit who now lives in America but does these mid year tours in Britain to catch up with his family.

First garden to visit was the fabulous RHS Wisely. Our first purchase was two large umbrellas as the weather had chosen today to end it’s dry spell, starting with showers and degenerating into steady rain. Despite this we loved our visit to Wisely. So many different areas, beautifully set out and well labeled so we could take note of the plants we liked. Stunning long vistas divided the wild garden from the shrubbery with garden rooms in the middle including the rose garden and the lavender garden. The huge glass conservatory in the middle of the lake housed tropical and semi tropical plants and an area was set aside for a series of display gardens demonstrating different uses of plants and natural materials.

Having gained a number of ideas we headed for the coffee shop for what was to become our standard lunch – soup and farmhouse bread – before heading for our next destination, Penshurst Place.

As it was now raining pretty steadily we decided to tour the 14th century manor house before heading into the garden. The House, once the property of King Henry VIII, was left to his son King Edward VI and granted to Sir William Sidney in 1552. The Sidney family has now been in continuous occupation for more than 460 years.

Penshurst boasts one of the finest medieval Barons Halls in Britain. This great stone hall, decorated with the usual weaponry and banners has changed little from medieval times. Though they have closed in the aperture on the roof to keep the weather out you can easily visualize the central roaring fire that supplied warmth and cooking facilities.

A quick tour through the rest of the castle with it’s withdrawing rooms, tapestry room, galleries and the Elizabethan room (where Queen Elizabeth I did a lot of business) and then, with the rain easing slightly, it was out into the garden.

Including the parklands, the grounds cover 48 acres of grounds with 11 acres of formal Grade One listed Garden. Opening directly in front of the House, the 16th-century Italian Garden, with an oval lily pool and classical statue at its center, is designed to be enjoyed from the State Rooms. To the left an archway under the Garden Tower leads you past the blue and yellow borders, planted in the colours of the Sidney family coat of arms, to the paved garden. Over one mile of yew hedging divides the remainder of the Garden into a series of ‘rooms’, each with its own season and colour

Our stay that night was in The Royal Wells Hotel at Tunbridge Wells. Our room turned out to be a suite with a magnificent freestanding copper bath – so glad we had two nights in this welcoming Hotel.

The next morning it was off to the legendary garden of Sissinghurst, which is owned and maintained by the National Trust. It is among the most famous gardens in England and is Grade I listed. This was evidenced by the crowds of people!!

Sissinghurst’s garden was created in the 1930s by Vita Sackville-West, poet and gardening writer, and her husband Harold Nicolson, author and diplomat. The garden itself is designed as a series of “rooms”, each with a different character of colour and/or theme, divided by high clipped hedges and pink brick walls.

Some of our favourite areas were the sunken garden, the nuttery and the lime walk. The white garden, though not in full flower, was interesting even if just to see this talked about and widely emulated room. Other things to see include the 15th century Elizabethan gatehouse tower (fabulous views of the garden), the complex of Oast Houses (Hop Kilns) which were previously used in the brewing process and now house a museum, an orchard and an extensive vegetable garden, which supplies the two cafes.

Having had a large breakfast – and with the promise of scones and homemade jam for afternoon tea – we bypassed lunch, boarded our bus and set off for Hole Park (with a quick diversion to have a bit of a wander through one of the Cotswold Villages).
This privately owned Queen Anne manor house and garden was bought in 1911 by the current owner’s great grandfather, Colonel Arthur Barham, who redesigned and replanted the gardens, creating a valley garden and a series of garden rooms with gates.

Driving down a rolled gravel drive lined by an avenue of mature horse chestnut trees, we arrived at the forecourt on the front of the house where we were met by Edward Barham, the owner, and his two black Labradors. He gave us a conducted tour of his estate finishing up at the small café where his wife, Clare, served us tea – truly a family affair.

The extensive garden covers 15 acres with over 200 acres of parkland and is maintained by the current owner, Edward and two gardeners. It is only open during the summer months, the rest of the year being set aside for maintenance and family time.

Immaculately trimmed yew hedges, many with geometric topiary shapes, surround much of the formal gardens. These are clipped entirely by hand and shelter sweeping lawns as well as herbaceous borders, a rose garden, an egg pond, numerous sculptures and seats and a memorial gate dedicated to Colonel Barham eldest son who was killed at Ypres in 1915. Outside the rooms are long vistas, many of which open up to breathtaking views over the Weald (woodland) of Kent.

The vista in front of the house is particularly striking looking out over a lily pond within the garden, rolling parkland outside the garden and an obelisk framed by hedges in the distance. A brick ha-ha ensures that the view is uninterrupted

Behind the house you leave the formal area and wander down a gentle slope into quite a different world. The woodland walk takes you through the wildflower meadow into the heart of a dedicated bluebell wood. So spectacular is the display that visitors monitor a ‘bluebell barometer’ and turn up in their thousands when it hits level four.

Grass and bark paths wind their way through an area planted with many rare and unique trees as well as rhododendrons, azaleas and magnolias. A small stream feeds a densely planted bog garden at the bottom of the valley.

It was with some reluctance that we left the woodland dell and headed up for afternoon tea but hunger was a deciding factor. A wander through the walled garden and the millennium garden and then it was back on the bus and a return to our hotel for drinks and dinner.

Tomorrow we are off to an undisclosed destination before visiting the Vann Gardens in the afternoon

Our last choice of an English B&B on this trip proved to be a great one.

The Dower House was built in the 1880’s by the owner of the Rousdon Estate which is situated approximately a mile to the south of the property on the top of cliffs overlooking the sea. It is believed that the house was originally built for his mother-in-law, hence the name Dower or Dowager House.
After All Hallows public school relocated to the Rousdon estate from Honiton in 1938 the Dower House became the headmaster’s residence.

We woke to the sounds of the countryside outside our window and after a substantial breakfast tackled the job of cleaning out the car and repacking prior to handing it back. It had virtually been our home for the past eight weeks and we would rather miss it.

Our path took us through more beautiful Devon countryside to the New Forest

and on to Fleet, the town I lived in in the early sixties.

Whilst the main street hadn’t really changed that much our search for the house proved fruitless. The area that I thought was right was covered with newer houses so I fear the house is no longer. We crisscrossed over the Fleet canal, which made us feel quite nostalgic – maybe the location for our next narrow boat experience!!

On to Heathrow and Hertz where we were met by Chris who Special Group Tours had arranged to meet us and take us to the Regency Hotel in Queen’s Gate, where our tour was due to start the next morning. We offloaded our extra bags (much to the displeasure of the Head Concierge, who marched me off to show me how small their baggage room was) and were shown to our small attic room where we had our first encounter with a Memory Foam mattress – hmmmm!

Slightly annoyed by the attitude of the hotel we decided to walk down Queen’s Gate and find a pub for dinner rather than dine in their restaurant. Despite it being a lovely walk we couldn’t find a pub that wasn’t standing room only so reluctantly returned to the hotel and the Pavilion Restaurant.

The meal was unmemorable but we did run into Pat, Hilary and Judy from Australia who, together with Linda from Canada, where to become good friends and travelling companions over the next eight days

After a substantial breakfast watching the boats go by on Penzance harbor, we headed on the first of our stops for the day – St Michael’s Mount.

The Mount is a small tidal island in Mount’s Bay, Cornwall, and is linked to the town of Marazion by a man-made causeway, passable between mid-tide and low water.

I was viewing this expedition with some trepidation, as the causeway was underwater and the small boats bobbing up and down in the swell looked somewhat unstable to a person with dicky knees. However the crossing was accomplished, we landed at the small village at the base of the Mount and all that remained was the climb to the top!

There is plenty to see at the base of the Mount. Chapel Rock, on the beach, marks the site of a shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary, where pilgrims paused to worship before ascending the Mount. There is a row of eight houses at the back of the present village; they were built in 1885 and are known as Elizabeth Terrace. A spring supplies them with water. There are also buildings that were formerly the steward’s house, a changing-room for bathers, the stables, the laundry, a barge house, a sail loft (now a restaurant), and two former inns. A former bowling green adjoins one of the buildings.

There is evidence of people living on the Mount during the Neolithic (from circa 4000 to 2500 BCE years). The earliest buildings, on the summit, date to the 12th century, the harbour is 15th century. and the village and summit buildings were rebuilt from 1860 to 1900, to give the island its current form.

Historically, St Michael’s Mount was a Cornish counterpart of Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy, France. It was given to the Benedictines, religious order of Mont Saint-Michel, by Edward the Confessor in the 11th century and was a priory of that abbey until Henry V went to war with France in 1424 and the Crown seized the priory.

In the succeeding years the Mount changed hands a number of times. Some of the more notable occupants were

• Henry Pomeroy, who led a group of Prince John’s supporters, seized and held the Mount, on behalf of Prince John, whilst King Richard 1 was on a Crusade in the Holy Land in the 1190’s.

• John de Vere13th Earl of Oxford, who was one of the principal Lancastrian commanders during the English Wars of the Roses, seized it with 400 men and held it during a siege of twenty-three weeks against 6,000 of Edward IV’s troops in 1473. The following year he was forced to surrender to the King.

• Perkin Warbeck occupied the Mount in 1497 when he embarked on his ill-fated attempt to seize the English crown. By claiming to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, (one of the young Princes in the Tower) Warbeck was a significant threat to the newly established Tudor dynasty, and gained support outside England. Ultimately failing in his quest he was eventually imprisoned in the Tower and hanged at Tyburn. Dealing with Warbeck cost Henry VII over £13,000 and severely depleted his coffers.

• Humphry Arundell, a Puritan and governor of St Michael’s Mount, who led the rebellion of 1549. The Act of Uniformity had been passed, and it abolished the diversity of religious practices that had existed up to then and dictated one form of worship “The Book of Common Prayer, with services only allow to be in English (not Cornish). Humphry Arundell was captured and, with other rebel leaders, hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn.

• Sir Arthur Bassett, one of four brothers who supported the Royalists during the civil war. He played an important role in the civil war in the West Country and held St Michael’s Mount against parliamentary forces. He escorted King Charles II, who is believed to have stayed at the Mount before taking a boat for the Scilly Isles, to safety before surrendering in April 1646 when he was forced to cede the Mount.

In 1659 John St Aubyn became the proprietor and the castle lost its military role and became the family home. However the new owners used it only as a summerhouse for the next two hundred years.

In 1755 the Lisbon earthquake caused a tsunami to strike the Cornish coast. The sea rose six feet in ten minutes at St Michael’s Mount, ebbed at the same rate, and continued to rise and fall for five hours. Though the wave was of no great height, it was still substantial enough to suck the sea out for 150 feet or more, before surging back in to drench the causeway linking St Michael’s Mount to the mainland, and giving tourists a soaking. Witnesses said it was preceded by a surge of static electricity and people’s hair literally stood on end!

At the end of the 19th century, the 1st Baron Saint Levan commissioned a cousin of his, Piers St Aubyn, a London architect, to make the Mount into a family home. Piers St Aubyn left the original church building on the top of the rock and added a large mansion to the southeast side ensuring that the addition did not alter the existing dramatic skyline of the Mount.

The St Aubyn family owned St Michael’s Mount until 1954 when the property, together with a large endowment, was given to the National Trust by the 3rd Lord St Levan, and the castle and its grounds were opened to the public. The family retained a 999-year lease to inhabit the castle and it is still the official residence of Lord St Levan. The 4th Lord St Levan left the island in 2003, to enable his nephew James St. Aubyn, plus wife Mary and four children, to take over the family lease.

Despite the climb to the top, where you climb the mediaeval Pilgrim Steps and at times clamber over rocks, the end result is well worth it.

There is a sign beside the cobbled path: The Giant’s Heart. According to legend, a giant called Cormoran, lived here. He used to steal poultry and livestock from the mainland, as well as an occasional child to eat, before he was killed by an ingenious local boy called Jack. The Giant’s Heart turns out to be a tiny dark heart-shaped stone in among the cobbles. This is the origin of the story “Jack the Giant Killer” which was set in the time of King Arthur.

Beyond the stone ramparts and rows of cannons on the western side of the castle stands a granite stone pillar. This is where St Michael is believed to have appeared to a group of fishermen in AD495, and why the Mount became a place of pilgrimage from the 6th century.

Many relics, chiefly armour and antique furniture, are preserved in the castle.

The rooms in the castle feature paintings and portraits by artists like Gainsborough, Hudson, Kneller, and John Opie together with collections armour.
The gardens are lovely and an excellent example of what can be done in a totally inhospitable climate if you choose the right plants and use protected niches for the less hardy. Like the Castle, the gardens require some pretty serious climbing over some rocky paths as they are built up a steep slope.

The harbour has a pier dating from the 15th century, which was subsequently enlarged and restored. Queen Victoria landed at the harbour from the royal yacht in 1846, and a brass inlay of her footstep can be seen at the top of the landing stage. King Edward VII’s footstep is also visible near the bowling green. In 1967 the Queen Mother entered the harbour in a pinnace from the royal yacht Britannia.

One of the most noteworthy points of interest on the island is the underground railway, which is still used to transport goods from the harbour up to the castle. It was built by miners around 1900, replacing the packhorses, which had previously been used. Due to the steep gradient, it cannot be used for passengers and the National Trust currently does not permit public access or viewing of the railway.

After a less fraught return, the harbour at the Mount is well protected from the seas, we attained the other side – we had to step aside for the ambulance carting off one hapless tourist who had failed to negotiate the steps!

We then set off for Lyme Regis and the lovely Dower House B&B and, being the wrong night for River Cottage and too late for the local seafood restaurant, settled for an evening meal at the historic inn, The Anchor, at Beer.

After a rather too leisurely breakfast with David and Rosemary we set off for Penzance with plans to visit two of Cornwell’s most famous gardens, the Lost Gardens of Heligan and Trebah, on the way. I had seen the series of television programs made on the restoration of the Lost Gardens and was very keen to see the actual garden and Trebah was highly recommended by David and Rosemary.

Ed and I were surprised that anyone ever found the Lost Gardens. Even with a GPS we couldn’t! We careered around the area, trying to turn in impossible places and plunging down lanes so worn they were almost tunnels. Every now and then we would come across similarly confused people until, finally, we came across a small sign pointing the way and arrived at our destination.

The Lost Gardens of Heligan are now one of the most popular botanical gardens in the UK. They were created by three generations of the Cornish Tremayne family from the mid-18th century up to the beginning of the 20th century. Each generation added to the gardens, which were considered to be very innovative and housed a number of rare and exotic plants including a collection of rhododendrons purchased from Joseph Hooker in 1851. Joseph Hooker was Charles Darwin’s close friend and a great English botanist. The new species of Himalayan rhododendrons were among his great discoveries.

The gardens include these aged and colossal rhododendrons as well as camellias, a series of lakes fed by a ram pump over a hundred years old, highly productive flower and vegetable gardens, an Italian garden, and a wild area filled with sub-tropical tree ferns called “The Jungle”. The gardens also have Europe’s only remaining pineapple pit, warmed by rotting manure, and two figures made from rocks and plants known as the Mud Maid and the Giant’s Head.

Before the First World War the garden required the services of 22 gardeners to maintain it, but that war lead to the deaths of 16 of those gardeners, and by 1916 the garden was being looked after by only 8 men. In the 1920s Jack Tremayne (the last of the direct line) decided to live in Italy and lease out Heligan.

The house was tenanted for most of the 20th century, used by the US Army during the Second World War, and then converted into flats and sold, without the gardens, in the 1970s. Against this background the gardens fell into a serious state of neglect and were lost to sight, disappearing under a blanket of vines and ivy.

A member of the Tremayne family, John Willis, lived in the area and in 1990 was responsible for introducing record producer Tim Smit to the derelict gardens. He and a group of fellow enthusiasts decided to restore the gardens to their former glory.

The restoration proved to be an outstanding success, not only revitalising the gardens but also the local economy around Heligan by providing employment. The gardens are now leased by a company owned by their restorers, who continue to cultivate them and operate them as a visitor attraction.

We clambered down steep slopes and across rope bridges and only the thought that if we waited any longer we would miss Trebah Gardens caused us to leave.

We raced across the country heading for the coast and finally, at the end of the road, we came to the gardens. Trebah is a 26-acre sub-tropical garden and, of all the gardens we have seen, is one of my favourite gardens.

It was first laid out as a pleasure garden in 1831 by Charles Fox, who paid meticulous attention to the exact positioning of every tree. His son-in-law, took the work further and Trebah nowboasts nine official UK Champion Trees. A tree becomes a champion when it is either the tallest specimen of its kind or has the largest girth or even both.

From 1939 to 1981 the garden fell into decline. During the Second World War, Trebah was used for military purposes and the assault on Omaha Beach in Normandy was launched from Polgwidden Beach, at the foot of Trebah Garden. There is an inscription on a Memorial Slab at the foot of the gardens: “To the officers and men of the U.S. 29th Infantry Division, who embarked from Trebah in June 1944 for the D-Day assault on Omaha Beach. We will remember them.”

In 1981, on their 64th birthday, Tony and Eira Hibbert bought Trebah as their retirement home. They were persuaded to give up the first three years of retirement to restore the garden. When Major Hibbert agreed to three years, little did he know it would become a quarter century. The decision, he eventually wrote, “has given us the happiest twenty-four years of our lives and had we not taken up the challenge we’d have been dead long ago of gin poisoning and boredom.

The garden was opened to the public in 1987 and by 1989 visitor numbers had reached 36,000. The Hibbert family then gave the house, garden and cottages to the Trebah Garden Trust, a registered charity, to ensure that the garden could be preserved for future generations.

Trebah is a wonderful garden with imaginative and beautifully coordinated plantings. It leads down the valley to the beach with streams and waterfalls and the most magnificent trees.

We must have been the last people to leave and the gates were being locked as we left. Thankfully Penzance was not too far away and we collapsed in our room at the Penzance Hotel for a few drinks and room service.

Tomorrow we start heading back to London with a few side trips – the first being St. Michael’s Mount, which we can see out of our window.