Ireland

We have had quite a busy time with visitors and travelling.  Spent three days in Dublin last week.  It was sadly wet wet and more wet for the first two days so we took good advice and got tickets for the hop on hop off bus which lasted for 48 hours.  Was the best place to be and the commentary was such a hoot.  The bus drivers even sing to you and we had renditions of Molly Malone and others.  They were very tuneful too. 

One just cannot help but like the Irish people.  They are so welcoming and funny.  No sooner had we gotten off the plane than did an Irishman come and ask us if we needed any help with directions.  We boarded the bus into town from the airport and John determined that we needed to get off at stop No 6.  He says, I guess stop no 6 comes after no 5 and the funny bus driver says in his lovely Irish lilt, well you would be right in tinking tat, but it is Ireland and anything is possible.  We did laugh.

The tour gave a good commentary of all the local sights and after two days of getting on and off we new it almost by heart, but as all the windows were fogged up we did not see a thing.

However what better way to spend a wet afternoon than visit the Guiness Brewery with the tasting bar on the 7th floor at the top.  The internal structure is shaped like a enormous pint glass.  They brew 3 million bottles a day and one bar we visited said they sell 10,000 glasses of the stuff a week.   You are given a chit to have a complimentary glass at the end of your tour - which you need as the tour winds up to the 7th floor en route.  John went back to the bar a couple of times and each time was asked by a tourist if he would like their chit.  Sooo we had a very long but fun session.  Chatted with three different lots of tourists - two sisters from New York, a group from Ireland who were off the see a show and then another older couple of women who has spent the last month driving right round Ireland.  As you can imagine - we did not even feel the cold and wet by the time we got back on the bus.

Conversly we visited St Patricks Cathedral which has a history dating from 1191. The first church was built then when Saint Patrick was said to have baptised converted christians at a well site and then the present cathedral was build in 1191.  The most noted dean was Johathan Swift who wrote Gullivers Travels.

The Trinity College is also in Dublin and this was founded by Elizabeth I.  It is famous for the Book of Kells and it has one of the worlds greatest research libraries.  The main chamber of the long room contains 200,000 of the librarys oldest books.  This original chamber was a chamber with shelves along the bottom only but by the 1850's they were overflowing so they raised the roof to make a vaulted chamber.  It is quite beautiful.  They also house the oldest harp in Ireland. which they predict dates from the 15th cerntury.  The Harp is the national emblem for Ireland.  The library displays research volumes written by early scholars and the perfection and detail of the calligraphic writing and pictures is astounding.

The Book of Kells was written in Latin by the Monks of Iona in Scotland, over 1000 years ago and is lavishly decorated.  It tells the story of the four gospels.  When the monastry at Iona was attacked by Vikings and left 60 monks dead, the Book of Kells was moved to Dublin around 1653 and was housed at Trinity from 1661.

The city has some amazing statues and colums and the main street is very attractive with pleached hornbean trees and a lovely mix of building facades. 

Ryans bar is a famous pub which was recommended for good food and drink so we went there for lunch.  Lovely old timber and lots of character.  We had lunch at Temple Bar the next day.  This was my favourite.  The enclosed outdoor courtyard was just gorgeous with ivy and flowering baskets dripping off the walls.  Lovely teratso tiles and french doors painted in shiny black.  It was so alive with people, laughter and conversation.

We arrived back late Saturday evening and Sunday we joined Michelle McDonnell at Rosemary Alexanders garden in Hampshire.  Michelle has completed a landscape course with Rosemary and contacted her to say she was returning.  Her visit coincided with  Rosemary's garden being open for the National Garden Scheme, so she suggested that we go and help her in the garden.  For those of you who dont know her, she runs a famous design school which has fours arms of possible study.  She herself trained as a lansdscape architect and taught at the Inchball school in London, but thought that was terribly badly run so started her own.  She is in her 70's and is an absolute dynamo.   Her garden is just lovely and clever.  Michelle and I had to assist with the visitors, tie up her sweet peas with blue string and then pick all the gooseberries of three bushes which were groaning with fruit.  Awful things to pick as they are so prickly.   She then took us on a goosechase to visit another garden open  called Kent House,.  This was owned by a very old gentleman but he had stunning roses and quite a lovely wooded garden.

Tuesday of last week was another fantastic adventure.  We visited Highgrove and this would rate as one of the most wonderful gardens I have ever visited.  Prince Charles is actively involved in the on going design, developement and care of this garden and it is truly beautiful.  Sadly we were not allowed to take any photos - the security is very tight and there are cameras all over the property.  You are greeted by a police man who checks your passport for ID both entering and leaving.  He has the cleverest collection of garden areas that meld into one huge landscape.  My favourite was the meadow garden and stumpery.  Stumperies are made up of giant tree roots and are planted out with ferns, hostas and shade loving plants.  They were a Victorian idea and were a measure of how much money you had.  Highgrove has one of the largest collections of giant Hostas in Britain and not one slug whole.  His garden is all organic, and this has been a challenge to get it to the state is is at today with a balanced eco system.  Oops I lied when I said my favourite part were the stumpery and meadow.  It is actually the vegetable pottager.  You enter this under a long arbour of apple trees trained over an arch (on two sides of the garden).  It is so lovely I think it is what Eden is like!!

I will take some pictures from his book to show you. 

Our computer had had a hernia and is not working so are unable to access any photos just yet, but will post asap.

Have the promise of two sunny days this week,  so things are looking better.

Love and hugs to you all

The cook and the gardener.

Jubilee Weekend

Jubilee Weekend has just passed and what an amazing experience.  Every village and settlement right throughout England got on board and had street parties and gatherings of families, friends and neighbours.  Everyone put up buntings which are strings of union jack flags and they hung on gate posts, in hedges along the front of houses and even in pot plants.  We watched the river pageant from the comfort of our couch which was the best place as it poured all day.  Never the less, hundreds of thousands of people lined the Thames in London to see it all.
We were hoping to get to the local barbecue, but had to cook for family so did not make it, but we joined some locals on top of the Burton Dasset Hills nearby to watch the beacon being lit and fire works display on Monday night.  I think there were 4000 beacons lit throughout the commonwealth.

Flags, 0r buntings hanging on our neighbours house

And she even put one in a pot

The Village hall looking all spiffy

And even the farmers gate

Decorating the barn

Jen and Nico (Oli's girlfriend)

The Cook preparing the barbecue in the rain!!

The celebration begins.  Oli is on left and Matt on right

The cook and the gardener off duty

Some of the flotilla on the Thames.  The Royal barge is in the lead

The Royals - not doing too bad for 91 and 86 and standing in the rain for 4 hours.

Oli and his friends set up their own Jubilee party in the barn complete with flags and appropriate accessories.

We are off to Ireland tomorrow till Saturday so will update upon our return.

Cheers and smiles  The cook and the gardener.

Kiwis to stay

Arlington Row at Bibury - cottages built for wool spinners

This is our fourth week and at last summer has arrived.  Two sets of Kiwis visitors are due this week and they arrived in England on Saturday - just as the weather improved.  We have had 10 days of temperatures in the mid to late 20's - the English are expiring, but the Kiwis are rejoicing.

Thursday we drove into London to Kew Gardens.  It is our first trip that close to the city.  So good to have the  Tom Tom (his name is Sean and he has an Irish accent.  Keeps you smiling even under the stress of not knowing where you are going.)  We were to meet Carol and Graham King at the Kew railway station, but they had done one better than that - they had found a superb Italian coffee shop with a park right outside.

It was so wonderful to see their smiling faces and I think they were pretty pleased to see ours. Kew gardens is 300 acres of lawns, gorgeous trees and gardens, three of the most impressive green houses you have ever seen,  exhibitions centres, art galleries, shops, cafes and nurseries.  We got on the ' hop on, hop off'  train to save our legs - (it was pretty hot, but we were not complaining).  Throughout the park they were preparing for a sculpture exhibition by a guy who works with timber.  Most of his stuff is made from trees and is massive and quite clever and lovely.  The green houses are massive and make quite a statement.  They have the oldest pot plant in the world which is a cycad that has been in the pot since 1740's.  We checked out a gallery that has been recently restored and houses the life work of Marion North.   She travelled the world after her fathers death and produced over 3000 pieces of botanical art.  She even went to  New Zealand and the paintings of our fauna are there. Her detail was pretty amazing.

The next day we took them on some of our favourite local places.  We started by showing them Warwick Castle and  Lord Lecster Hospice which we had been to last year.  It is a hospice for some of the veteran Queens Hussars and has the prettiest courtyard garden behind it.  I had been given the tip of a wonderful pub for lunch called the Saxon Mill at Warwick.  It is an old water mill on the banks of a river.  We had wonderful beer and cider, which I am pleased to say was served cold and not the usual tepid, and good food.  We had to share a table with a couple of guys already seated.  They were local lawyers who had just finished a case and told us we must go to Bibury for afternoon tea at the Swan Hotel.  That worked with our plans as we were heading to Burford and Westwell, where Susie's man lives and Bibury was only 20 minutes away.  Bibury is a small village and has the cutest row of houses called Arlington Row which were built for the wool industry.  The spinners worked in the top story of their homes.

They had arranged to collect their car from Stratford on Avon  on Saturday morning so we headed over there after breakfast.  There was a antique and craft market on where we all did some damage.  Lovely leather bags, belts and wallets!! Stratford is very touristy, being the home of Shakespear, so there was hundreds of people about.  Had lunch in the Pen and Parchment, which has been a pub since the 1700's.  They offer two lunches for 9 pound and the food is pretty good.  We spent the afternoon showing them Banbury and made it home in time for G and T's on the deck by the barn and barbecued Cumbrian Sausages for dinner.

Sunday we had an overlap of guests as Michele McDonnell arrived for a couple of nights and the Kings left us to drive north to the Lake District and then on to Edinburgh.

Michelle was keen to check out some reknown gardens so we headed over to Hidcote Manor which is, I think one of the finest gardens in the world.  He,  Lawrence Johnstone, was very clever in creating a vista where ever you looked.  It is a garden you can see many times and never tire of.  We then headed down to Barnsley House which was the garden of Rosemary Verey.  She is now deceased and the property is a hotel and spa, but you can have lunch or afternoon tea and walk around the gardens.  She has a famous arbour that appears in books all over the world and it was in flower with the yellow blooms of the Laburnum  arcand the purple allium underneath.  It was just amazing to see. Sadly the garden was in quite a poor state - the focus is obviously the spa.  She has designed some quite famous gardens in her time for Prince Charles, and Elton John.  Her skill was planting.  The afteroon tea was gigantic - three tiered plates with  scones cakes and sandwiches and as this was 5oclock we made it dinner.  Upon returning home Michelle and I walked to the Burton Dasset Hills so she could get the 360 view of the area.  It was a perfect evening.

Monday we headed off to Stowe in Buckinghamshire.  Only about a 40 minute drive. Stowe is the most famous off all the English gardens for its size, the historical figures who worked on it and its new trend in its day to begin the move away from annual beds to a more natural landscape.  Capability Brown had a major role in this and recontoured. added lakes, and did massive plantings.  He was very clever at framing a view and this is evident here.  It took us 4 hours to walk around part of it, but we got to see most of the monuments.   We took Michelle to the Saxon Mill for dinner - such a good tip I think we will be there alot.

Tuesday was her last day with us so we visited The Mill garden under Warick Castle and Lord Lecester garden again.  Our intended garden for the afternoon was Broughton Castle about 20 minutes from Knightcote and has been owned by the Fiennes Family since the 1400's.  That is Ralph the actor and it also where the nursey rhyme 'Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross to see a Fienne lady on a fine horse comes from.  Sadly it was closed that day, but we spotted a good looking pub offering retro lunches so decided to check that out.  The publican was a fantastic operator and came and sat at our table for a chat.  Once he learnt we were Kiwis he told us about the couple tending the house and garden next door who were Kiwis too.   The clever man gave her a call whilst pouring our beers and Kate came over to meet us.  Turns out she was from Tauranga too.  Imagine that.  Kate Church and her American husband.  We are going to join them in the pub for a quizz night.

It has been back to work the last couple of days.  Mowing, weeding, planting etc.  Lots of growth with the rain and now the warmth.  It is the diamond Jubilee weekend here this week.  It is absolutely huge - every village is having a street party and in London there is a giant pageant, a variety show, a float down the river on her barge etc.  We will go to the local barbecue and we have to dress up so will look for a costume tomorrow. 

We are expecting Oli and Ned, Susies two sons and their friends maybe for part of the weekend, but havnt heard when as yet.

Will keep you posted.

The cook and the gardener.

Imagine the smell from all this lilac and lilly of the valley picked from the garden

The Trrops under the laburnum arch at Kew Gardens

A bouquet of lily of the valley from the garden

Enormous water lillies in green house at Kew

Kew Palace  at Kew Gardens

One of the amazing green houses at Kew

Earnest conversation at Saxon Mill Pub where the beer was really cold

And a fine time was had by all - at Saxon Mill

The Swan Inn at Bibury where we had afternoon tea

Saxon Mill Pub is on very edge of river.  This pic was taken from our table

Perfect clipping at Hidcote Manor.  (sorry about the sideways bit - too many beers)

The picturesque Bibury

Cycad in pot at Kew - oldest pot plant in the world

Ironbridge Gorge

Ironbridge - isnt it pretty

Views of the Gorge

The glass blowers

Some of the commissioned pieces of glass

Working on the Islamic piece

The Coalport pottery with kiln in background

The river Severn running through the Gorge

An early piece of Coalport China -gorgeous detail

More china with amazing detail

The canal running along the pottery site

Weather is still yuk and wet for the second week of May which makes if difficult to get any gardening done, but it does allow us to explore all the places we singled out but did not get to last year.

 Ironbridge Gorge was one of those places.   It is located up in Shropshire which is North West of us and the drive there was through gorgeous rolling farmland.   It became one of the major centers during the industrial revolution because of the proximity of the river and the ability to deliver coal to industrial companies.   The location is also famous for its pretty bridge (not a word usually used to describe a bridge).  Abraham Darby (yes David Austin named a rose after him)  was the first man to smelt coke with iron for strength  and built this bridge.  This exercise was the forerunner to all high risers and sky scrapers built in the 20th century.   The gorge is very pretty being lined with trees running along the banks of the river  Severn and has 10 museums which include a model village, the pipe museum (as in smoking - you would have thought it would have been iron ones),  the museum of the gorge, the Coalport China museum  and the Coalbrook Dale Museum which gives the history of the smelting process and the making of the bridge.

The famous china 'Coalport', which is now part of Wedgewood became one of the most productive enterprises in this area  until 1926 and  the museum details the history and has fabulous displays showing the exquisite painting techniques.

We came upon a glass blower also who is commissioned by the Victoria and Albert Museum to do historical pieces.  He and his guys were working of a piece for Islamic art and we were fascinated by the way they used gold leaf and rolled it on to the hot glass and how it transformed into an interesting and realistic pattern when pressed out.

Susie and her man Thomas came up for lunch on Sunday 20th.  We had a productive time talking about the garden and prospective visit by the American family staying here in July. Lunch for her was a simple roast chicken and lots of vegetables.  

Our  English friends Barry and Wendy Winson who now live in Bergerac in the south of France stayed with us for a night.  It was lovely to be able to return their hospitality as we have stayed with them a few times in France and being there is like being at the Ritz.  They have a fabulous new french style house,  new but fits in to the landscape there like it has stood for hundreds of years.

Veronica, our neighbour,  suggested I might like to join her at art classes on a Tuesday evening.  Have been twice and really love it.  The two hours flies by as you get lost in drawing.  The teacher is lovely and very encouraging.  (She needs to be in my case).

Looking forward to a visit from Carol and Graham King later in the week and also Michelle McDonnell.

The sun has come out of hiding and we have gone from 10deg daily highs to 24.  Love love it.

The Cook and the Gardener.