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.

WEEK 2 AND 3 - Ludlow

Greetings to you all, and I hope your weather is not as bad as ours.  We are still waiting for the rain to stop - although we have had a few lovely days today is bleak and cold again with the promise of more to come, straight off the Arctic Circle.  I guess the good news is that the drought has been officially cancelled.            

We have had fun exploring more small villages and new areas that we have not been to.  Last year there was a documentary on a village in Shropshire called Ludlow.  It was highlighted as the most successful village in England as it had no empty shops, successful markets and no unemployment.  Thought we needed to check it out so took a drive last week.  The country side is just gorgeous - much more rolling and hilly and has more dairy farms rather than so much cropping like around Knightcote.  Stopped for coffee along the way at a gorgeous cafe/deli/fishery/butchery /wine shop in a small settlement called Ombersely.   Was jammed packed with gorgeous preserves, chutneys and the like.  Like all small places here it has a huge Church with large graveyard.

Ludlow is famous for geological research and the museum has fossils of plants and animals that are some of the oldest known.  The town has lots of Georgian half timbered Tudor Buildings.  The most notable of these is the Feathers Pub which has a really ornate facade.  The name comes from the industry of arrow making which was a huge industry here.  There is also a ruined castle built in 1086, but damaged in the civil war.  Prince Arthur, King Henry VIII eldest brother died in Ludlow and his heart is buried in the Church here.

We had to meet with the letting agent who is arranging visits to the property here.  His company - Loyd and Townsend Rose arrange holidays for the wealthy across the globe.  Their website www.ltr.co.uk is worth checking out.  Most of their properties are vast with clients spending tens of thousands of pounds a week.  We feel quite humbled being part of their offerings as some of their places are 40 roomed castles with seating at dinner for up to 200.  Quite magnificent.  However we have a confirmed booking for an American family in July.  There is some lovely photos on the web site of this place.  It is listed as Knight Farm.

Had another wonderful afternoon with the Hills last Saturday.  Their bosses were out of town and as they have now bought a car and can get about, they came across to Banbury and then onto Knighcote.  Had many laughs once again comparing notes.

Looking forward to our next Kiwi visitors - Carol and Graham King who will be with us from the 25 for a few nights and then Michelle McDonnell will be here and we are going to check out some famous gardens together.

Hope you are all behaving - Debbie Clarke sent me a gorgeous photo of the autumn splendor of the trees up our drive way.  Made me quite homesick.  Anyhow - love hearing from you all so keep emails coming.

Church at Ombersley

The gorgeous deli where we had coffee at Ombersley

Huge Wisteria about to burst on house next to deli

The ornately decorated put called Feathers in Ludlow

The boy and all his toys mowing stripes in the lawn

Shopping at market with new Trelise Cooper bag sent by Carrie and Rhys

Tudor style houses at Ludlow

Love and smiles The Cook and the Gardener.

Beginning the 2012 Journey

Here we are back in Pongolia for another Summer - hahahahaha.  The weather has been bloody freezing, (highs of 10 during the day) wet, bleak, sunless and windy for our first week.   Not quite what we were expecting.  Like the rest of the world the weather patterns are completely up the whop and so very different to the drought we arrived in last year.

The bad weather did give us a wonderful chance to get over our jet lag without any bother about what work we should be doing,  The Saturday night we arrived we closed the gates at 7.30pm, went straight to bed and managed a 12 hour sleep - bliss!!

We were feeling a bit restless by Monday and the sun did come out that day and gave us a high of      16 deg (felt positively tropical)  so we headed down to Cirencester - the capital of the cotswolds and a town with a huge Roman history.  The drive through the Cotswolds was just gorgeous - a real patchwork of beautiful rolling fields of yellow (rape in flower), and a mixture of yellow and grey greens with wheat and barley crops.   They have a museum which exhibits mosiac tile floors that have been rescued from old Roman sites as the area was a busy settlement in 43BC.  The tiling is quite spectacular with its detail and variety of patterns.  Not far away is the site of an old Roman Villa - really an extensvie mansion with hot and cold baths, drainage systems etc. and covered an area of about an acre.
In the 1800's two hunters had to dig down a rabbit hole to retreive their ferret and discovered all these small coloured tiles.  They showed the owner of the land and he arranged for 50 of his workers to excavate the site over a period of 10 years.  The dig was not conducted like a proper archeological process, but he did put up coverings over the massive floor areas to protect them.  Lucky for us the site now belongs to the National Trust and is well protected.

Found a really lovely cafe called Made by Bob for lunch - delicious food and decor and had a good look around the market and bazaar which had a good standard of gifty things for sale.

John and Barbara Hill are over here for 1 year and living in the South Cotswolds near Malmsbury.  We made contact with them on Thursday and took a drive over to join them for dinner and check out their digs.  It was so wonderful to see fellow kiwis and I know we were as excited as each other.  The lady they are working for has done some serious PR for two local guys who own a very impressive and grand hotel and next door a lovely pub/restaurant called The Potting Shed.  She managed to secure a table for us for dinner at the last minute and we had a fabulous meal and shared much hilarity comparing notes.  It did us both the world of good to have a laugh and unwind after the stress of travel and settling in to foreign surroundings.

The wet weather has prevented us from doing too much outside - managed a trip to the library to gather lots of travel books and we braved the cold and reacquainted ourselves with the gorgeous Barley and cute as Maisey.  Went for a good brisk walk with them for an hour around the usual circuit and enjoyed watching them play, run in puddles, and bound along beside us.

Have had a cuppa with our very favourite Knightcotians - Richard and Rita Sanderson and just like the first visit we had with them it started out as tea and finished with wine.  Moira and Graham, our neighbours has also had us in for a cuppa yesterday afternoon and we had a visit from George Wood who called to say hi.  Our other neighbour, Veronica delivered a community newsletter with news of the jubilee celebrations and also gardening club news.

Spent today (Saturday)  gardening and mowing as the place is starting to look quite wooly.  Areas of grass are still very waterlogged, but the stripes look very lush on the house lawns.  Are not expecting to see Susie until early June so will have it looking smashing by then. 

Thinking of you all - all the time lots of loves and smiles Jonnie and Sue

Bright yellow rape seed and green wheat fields

Country lane on way to Cirencester

Lovely english house and stone wall

Old Roman mosaic discovered in Cirencester

Roman floor mosaic dating back to 43BC

New thatch for the roof of the Three Pidgeons Pub in Banbury

AN UPDATE AT LAST

The driveway at Westwell  Manor

The reflecting pool

one of the many well groomed lawns

Looking down to the Manor House

The beautiful herbacious border

The cafe court yard at Hyde Hall

Brilliant red ivy

Bill and Allie enjoying a coffee at Hyde Hall

The "Sisters" part of the African exhibition

The main square in Brugge

A typical canal scene

One of the many bridges over the canals

Lovely old grand buildings

Typical architecture along the canals

German mass grave-44,00 buried here.Only black or grey stone used .

The Canadian memorial "The Pensive Soldier"

The NZ memorial by the road side

Tyne Cot cemetry.Thousand of NZ soldiers-Known only to God.

The Mennen Gate at Ypres

Ypres-totally rebuilt after the war

Unexploded shells by the roadside

Up=market appartments in London

Looking down the stairwell at Fortnum and Masons

Hello everyone and apologies for the void in blogging.  I have just read the post that the cook did whilst I was away in NZ, and those photos of Lake Como gave me happy memories.  It truly is a beautiful spot and we did love having good friends with us.  Being in the village here is OK, but there is nothing like having people around you who truly know you.

My time back in NZ was pretty busy with my Father's funeral and then making arrangements for my Mother to continue to live on her own.  She is pretty feeble and unstable now as a result of both old age and the grief, but does not want to leave her home.  It was quite surreal being there and dealing with such huge decisions.  We have named  my sister Florence Nightengale and she is doing a splendid job of holding the fort.  However she has renamed herself Florence Nuttingale!!

She is due over here on the 19th Oct, so I am getting very excited to see her.  We have booked a trip to Paris for 2 nights just after she arrives.  We will take the Euro Star over - can you imagine, it is only a 2.15hr journey -  and that way she can see some country side also.

I was pretty whacked after my flight back - so had a few quiet days here at Knightcote continuing with the gardening chores.  Jonnie had done a marvellous job all by himself.  Susie is doing some serious redecorating, so he had extra jobs to do too.  The first thing I noticed was the Autumn feel in the air and change of colour in foliage.  We now know that it has been the driest summer on record so that is contributing to the earlier leaf drop (about 4 weeks) and we can expect brilliant colour.

About a month ago we had to deliver some chairs and trestles across to Susie's friend Thomas.  He was having a family christening at his 'Manor'.  His late wife was a re known English garden designer and has created the most amazing garden at what was her home.  Thomas opens it up as part of the national garden scheme.  It is one of those ones you see in books and think - 'is this for real'.  The house is a huge Georgian Style Manor and the garden consists of lots of garden rooms.  The vegetable patch is a Peter Rabbit Heaven.  I have never seen such huge and abundant celeriac, carrots, leeks, beetroot, lettuce etc.  It was such a treat being able to see it.  Our favourite part was the reflection pool.  This is quite a large oblong shape shallow pool that has been painted with a special black paint that is not for sale any more.  It reflects everything around it like a mirror - just stunning.  His property is quite near the town of Burford which is also to die for gorgeous.  If you want to see an excellent example of a quaint village this has got to be it.  The pub was covered in a selection of climbers and had flowering baskets hanging off the walls - gorgeous cafes and bakeries, galleries and lovely shoe shops etc.

Two weekends ago we spent two nights at Chelmsford with Bill and Ali, my brother and his wife.  We had a great day out with them to Hyde Hall - another of the RHS example gardens.  Essex is the driest region in England, so this garden is an example of what works well in a dry climate.  The had a huge Australian and NZ section (not sure about NZ being dry), but alot of the plants suffered very badly with the severe Winter they had and needed to be replaced.  The outdoor cafe part was just lovely and made my head spin as to how I could create something similar at home-on a smaller scale of course.  (Poor John)  There was a sculpture display of African artists there also with some stunning pieces.

We headed down to Dover after leaving them and crossed over on the ferry to Brugge in Belgium.  We had heard lots of gorgeous reports about Brugge and we were both keen to visit Flanders and some of the war cemetries.  What a gorgeous town - picture post card perfect, very very old, very clean, and very pretty.
Our hotel offered wonderful hospitality and superb breakfasts.  The town is surrounded by a canal and is medieval.  It has lots of squares and gorgeous shops and the best selection of beers you will ever come across.  We had a bash at trying as many as possible.  Some of the pubs have over four hundred types and each brand of beer has its own glass.  Making a selection from the menu  booklet is like reading a shopping on line catalogue.  Belgium is also known for its beautiful lace so there was plenty of outlets for lace linen, lingere, antique wedding veils, cushion covers etc.  They also make the best french fries there.  We have the recipie for the perfect chip and the trick is to double cook them.

One whole day of our stay was taken up with a guided excursion to the Flanders Fields.   Our group consisted of 8, so lovely and small and all commonwealth members.  Our guide gave us a fantastic overview of the war and its locations.  I was stunned to learn that the battles took place in such a confined area and that the front line continued to move back and forwards.  The trench warfare was something new and they were very extensive - quite amazing really.  Menin Gate is an enormous monument with 55,000 names of soldiers who died, but were never found. The last post is played every evening at 8.00p.m. under this gate.  It makes me teary just writing about it.