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.