Oh my, we have had the most glorious days at last, although today it is much cooler. But the week preceding the Olympic opening has been fine and warm (the English would say hot).
How many of you watched the opening ceremony of the games. We had Kate and David Church join us for a meal and we set up so we could watch it on the big screen in the barn. We loved the lack of flashiness that other openings have displayed, and particularly liked the message of inspiration to the next generation they portrayed. Thought Rowan Atkinson and the Queen stole the show. Apparantly the skit with HRH was filmed 3 months ago.
The coverage here is super biased towards GB and as usual the media have hyped up the performance of all their athletes and have had to do a bit of humble pie eating. For the opening event which was the Kiwi ladies football game played in Wales, our team did not even get a mention. We would have had a profile of all the opposition players to the inth degree. However as they are hosts, I guess they can be like that.
Our trip into London was great and we always have a wonderful sense of excitement being in that wonderful city. Our hotel was very central in High St, Kensington and this allowed us to cover huge areas on foot. We checked into our hotel and then walked into Oxford St to meet my brother Bill for lunch. Along the way we passed the Royal Albert Hall - it is such a glorious building. The proms season was about to start that week so we picked up a programme in the hope that we may get to a concert. The idea for the proms is to bring classical music to everyone so not only can you buy seated tickets for a show, but if you queue on the day you can buy standing tickets for two different spots (either in the centre, or up the top which is apparently better acoustics and you can have a picnic) for £5. How great is that. The performances run everyday for 53 days. Around this area are all
the schools of music buildings and hostels which are quite grand. Next to the RA Hall is the Victoria and Albert museum which is my favourite in the whole world. Had to pop in there for a quick look and then we discovered the science museum across the road. We also managed a visit to the British Museum which is another magnificent building.
Bill took us to an excellent italian restaurant and I am still salivating over my seafood spagetti. It was delicious. We walked down to the Tate modern art museum after lunch and were thoroughly confused and mostly unimpressed by most of the art. The building itself is fantastic. It started its days as a coal fired power plant and they have done the most amazing transformation of it. We caught parts of a tour of art students led by an art professor and it was interesting listening to the interpretation of some works as explained by her, but we were still scratching our heads when we left.
Friday we were booked to have afternoon tea at Kensington Palace in the Orangarie. It certainly gives a new importance to oranges having to grow them in an orangarie all those years ago. They were meant to reflect ones wealth. This one is now a cafe as I guess they can import the oranges from Spain. The Palace is home to a whole bunch of royals. William and Katherine live there as did Princess Margaret when she was alive. I think Charles and his sidekick is there too. It is a much more modern looking building in dark brick and the part we were allowed to tour through has lots of history. Obviously you are not allowed in the state apartments. We walked back to the hotel through the Park private road which houses mostly international embassies. The London Plane trees are giant and gorgeous and provided much needed shelter from the rain. The street is under CCTV surveliance and some of the embassies have armed guards outside. You are certainly not allowed to take any photos.
The next week took us across to the town of Wynchcombe. We had spotted a rather lovely painting by a dutch artist who lived in the latter part of the 1900's on one of our earlier visits to the town and could not stop thinking about it. John made the decision that we really should have it, so after moderate haggling we managed to secure it. The previous owner had a gallery, but had passed away and his wife was selling it. It is very restful - is a painting of two old fishing boats up on a sand bank.
The fine weather has allowed us to get right around the garden and tidy everything up. Feels good to have it back up to date. It only took two days of hot sun and the ground started to crack - just awful soil.
We spent a weekend in Chelmsford with Bill and Ali. We drove across leisurely on the Friday taking the back roads and avoiding major roads. We had time to visit Maldon which is famous for its salt. Jamie Oliver is the main promoter of the product and it was a small family business until it got a mention from him. We were entertained by a gypsy wedding which was held in the church opposite the cafe where we had afternoon tea. The Bride was very frou frou and she was carried away in a cinderella coach with two horses. One had to see it to believe it. The main reason for the weekend was to help them with their allotment. It is a new project for them, which they are just loving. Quite a big parcel of land and they have divided what was a jungle into small beds. Part of it still needed digging over so we helped them with that and dug out nettles that stood about shoulder height. Saturday we spent at a wonderful food festival near where they live and as it was the first fine day for weeks, it was a real success.
Follow the adventures of The Cook and The Gardener
Monday, 30 July 2012
Sunday, 8 July 2012
Mid summer and still raining!!
Well hello again - and yes still raining here. Apparently the jet stream has shifted south and is sitting right over Britain, and this is bringing more rain that one could ever imagine. Even the pohms are saying, 'bloody weather' and I have to say they generally just get on with it no matter what the weather is doing. They say - there is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing.
Last Monday morning I looked out the window and the rain was horizontal so called my neighbour to see if she was walking (3 doors away) down to Zumba. She was shocked that I should ask - of course she said!! I did feel a little pathetic, so put on the coat of off I went. Just love Zumba - its just like dancing and you can jiggle as much or as little as you like - and it is such a novelty to be able to walk there.
We have been working hard and fast on fine days to keep up with the maintenance and gardening. Have gotten right round the garden now, so most things are under control. John has been strimming widly all the woodland areas and mowing any fine moment that the grass is dry enough. Still picking gorgeous bouquets of roses and starting to enjoy some lovely little gem lettuces, strawberries, heaps of rhubarb, broad beans and corgettes.
Took a visit up to Coventry which is about half an hour away. The town is pretty ordinary as it was one of the major hits by the Germans during the war and there are very spectacular ruins of the cathedral. They have cleverly designed and built a fabulous new cathedral which joins on to the ruins, but the old one would have been very impressive. We walked up St Stevens Spire which is 181 steps and you get a very good 360 view of the landscape. We could almost see Banbury.
Invited our new Kiwi friends over - Kate and David - they tend the property for James Murdoch and his wife Katherine. (Yes that is the media magnate guy who has been in the new alot - well here anyway - because of the phone hacking scandal. Kate is an ex Tauranga girl and her husband David an American, but they are such fun and enjoying other Kiwi company too. The property they look after is just gorgeous, but their term will end in November as the Murdochs are off to live in New York permantely. We have met them for coffee and they were the folk who asked us to join them at the quizz night.
Attended Carmen at a theatre in Cheltehnam last week with John and Barbara Hill. It was a modern take of it and in english, so easy to follow if your Italian is not too good. We had a gorgeous meal at a Turkish restaurant first - lovely flavours in the food. This week John and I will join them again for another show called Top Hat. Is song and dance - 50's style and we are going to eat at Jamie Olivers Italian restaurant there. It looks fantastic - is a gorgeous huge stone building and the entry has a large tub all planted with lovely fresh herbs. Will keep you posted!!
We have had for the past week our first paying guests to stay. They are from the US, although the gentleman went to prep school in Oxford, so I think is really English. His daughter, about 17 and his girlfriend and her daughter, about the same age and both called Honey - (for petes sake, how american is that). They have been very easy guests tho - out every day early and home late at night. Havn't even cooked a meal here, although there has been a trail of wet towels that we have had to collect daily.
Hope we have met their expectations - I baked a luscious apple cake which they are enjoying and have put fresh flowers in the rooms daily - but for 5000 pounds for the weeks rent, you almost want to start polishing their shoes!! His rental car is the very latest and largest merc.
We spent a wet Tuesday last week at Sudely Castle with the Hills. Sudley was the home of Katherine Parr who was Henry VIII last and surviving wife. She remarried two months after his death a Thomas Seymour and has a child to him, but died 5 days after childbirth. Thomas did not cope and fled the castle and headed into London to try to gain favour of the young Elizabeth (Henrys' daughter by Anne Boleyn. Sadly there is no record as to what ever happened to the baby. Another twist in the tale is that Thomas Seymour was a brother to Jane Seymour - 3rd wife of Henry.
The castle was bought in the early 1900's by a wealthy merchant family who have restored it beautifully and kept fantastic records and artifacts. (In fact as John and Barb were leaving their place of work they said they were off to Sudley Castle. The reply was from their boss - Oh my Godson owns that!!) One of the latter owners was an Emma Dent - her family headed the silk production and manufacture in England - so quite wealthy - but she had a gorgeous and vast collection of embroidery. One piece of lace and silk work, was worked on by Anne Boleyn and was made for the christening of Princess Elizabeth who of course became Queen Elizabeth I.
The castle gardens were absolutely gorgeous and I even braved the rain and went over to the rose bed to bury my nose in all the old fashioned blooms. They smell utterly gorgeous and I just cant get enough of them. The knot garden was pretty gorgeous too as was the secret garden. Poor John, I have so many ideas for Gargan Road when we return!
Last night (Sat) we went along to the Secret Auction held at the Hall. It was designed as a fundraiser for hall refurbishment and was great fun. The team had managed to get all manner of things donated and they were then auctioned off. Each item was numbered and displayed, but the auctioner had a bunch of envelopes with an approximate value on it so you did not know what you were bidding for. She, however would give you the approximate value of the item inside so you did not bid £300 for a £10 item. It was such fun - one couple had been particularly quiet for most of the night and when we stopped midway through the evening for desert and pimms we mentioned to them that they had not said much. One of the items for auction was an artifical christmas tree which they DID NOT want so they were waiting for it to go before they called. Funnily just after desert they put in a bid and ended up with the f......g christmas tree - as he put it. It bought the house down. One guy won a trial Zumba class, so we are waiting till Monday to give him the big welcome at class. I won a £20 beauty voucher so was very happy with that. John got a bottle of Lindauer and a signed book by Jeremy Clarkson. I donated a bouquet of flowers, and our favourite Rita got that. I think they raised about £700 so were very pleased with the evening.
Will watch the mens final of Wimbledon thisafternoon and then want to visit some local artists who have work on show. There is a two week term of artists opening their studios all through the region and three are in Knightcote so can walk to them. We found a fabulous artist yesterday who did stunning mixed media stuff - her work was a combo of Timo Rannali and Louise Prastiti - In fact she looked up both artists on Google. We loved one of her originals of Tenby which is a beach resort in Wales that we loved. Ummm might be returning to buy it!!
Well I hope this week brings some better weather - we are off to London for a night on Wednesday so might next chat will be about that. Love to you all The Cook and the Gardener.
Last Monday morning I looked out the window and the rain was horizontal so called my neighbour to see if she was walking (3 doors away) down to Zumba. She was shocked that I should ask - of course she said!! I did feel a little pathetic, so put on the coat of off I went. Just love Zumba - its just like dancing and you can jiggle as much or as little as you like - and it is such a novelty to be able to walk there.
We have been working hard and fast on fine days to keep up with the maintenance and gardening. Have gotten right round the garden now, so most things are under control. John has been strimming widly all the woodland areas and mowing any fine moment that the grass is dry enough. Still picking gorgeous bouquets of roses and starting to enjoy some lovely little gem lettuces, strawberries, heaps of rhubarb, broad beans and corgettes.
Took a visit up to Coventry which is about half an hour away. The town is pretty ordinary as it was one of the major hits by the Germans during the war and there are very spectacular ruins of the cathedral. They have cleverly designed and built a fabulous new cathedral which joins on to the ruins, but the old one would have been very impressive. We walked up St Stevens Spire which is 181 steps and you get a very good 360 view of the landscape. We could almost see Banbury.
Invited our new Kiwi friends over - Kate and David - they tend the property for James Murdoch and his wife Katherine. (Yes that is the media magnate guy who has been in the new alot - well here anyway - because of the phone hacking scandal. Kate is an ex Tauranga girl and her husband David an American, but they are such fun and enjoying other Kiwi company too. The property they look after is just gorgeous, but their term will end in November as the Murdochs are off to live in New York permantely. We have met them for coffee and they were the folk who asked us to join them at the quizz night.
Attended Carmen at a theatre in Cheltehnam last week with John and Barbara Hill. It was a modern take of it and in english, so easy to follow if your Italian is not too good. We had a gorgeous meal at a Turkish restaurant first - lovely flavours in the food. This week John and I will join them again for another show called Top Hat. Is song and dance - 50's style and we are going to eat at Jamie Olivers Italian restaurant there. It looks fantastic - is a gorgeous huge stone building and the entry has a large tub all planted with lovely fresh herbs. Will keep you posted!!
We have had for the past week our first paying guests to stay. They are from the US, although the gentleman went to prep school in Oxford, so I think is really English. His daughter, about 17 and his girlfriend and her daughter, about the same age and both called Honey - (for petes sake, how american is that). They have been very easy guests tho - out every day early and home late at night. Havn't even cooked a meal here, although there has been a trail of wet towels that we have had to collect daily.
Hope we have met their expectations - I baked a luscious apple cake which they are enjoying and have put fresh flowers in the rooms daily - but for 5000 pounds for the weeks rent, you almost want to start polishing their shoes!! His rental car is the very latest and largest merc.
We spent a wet Tuesday last week at Sudely Castle with the Hills. Sudley was the home of Katherine Parr who was Henry VIII last and surviving wife. She remarried two months after his death a Thomas Seymour and has a child to him, but died 5 days after childbirth. Thomas did not cope and fled the castle and headed into London to try to gain favour of the young Elizabeth (Henrys' daughter by Anne Boleyn. Sadly there is no record as to what ever happened to the baby. Another twist in the tale is that Thomas Seymour was a brother to Jane Seymour - 3rd wife of Henry.
The castle was bought in the early 1900's by a wealthy merchant family who have restored it beautifully and kept fantastic records and artifacts. (In fact as John and Barb were leaving their place of work they said they were off to Sudley Castle. The reply was from their boss - Oh my Godson owns that!!) One of the latter owners was an Emma Dent - her family headed the silk production and manufacture in England - so quite wealthy - but she had a gorgeous and vast collection of embroidery. One piece of lace and silk work, was worked on by Anne Boleyn and was made for the christening of Princess Elizabeth who of course became Queen Elizabeth I.
The castle gardens were absolutely gorgeous and I even braved the rain and went over to the rose bed to bury my nose in all the old fashioned blooms. They smell utterly gorgeous and I just cant get enough of them. The knot garden was pretty gorgeous too as was the secret garden. Poor John, I have so many ideas for Gargan Road when we return!
Last night (Sat) we went along to the Secret Auction held at the Hall. It was designed as a fundraiser for hall refurbishment and was great fun. The team had managed to get all manner of things donated and they were then auctioned off. Each item was numbered and displayed, but the auctioner had a bunch of envelopes with an approximate value on it so you did not know what you were bidding for. She, however would give you the approximate value of the item inside so you did not bid £300 for a £10 item. It was such fun - one couple had been particularly quiet for most of the night and when we stopped midway through the evening for desert and pimms we mentioned to them that they had not said much. One of the items for auction was an artifical christmas tree which they DID NOT want so they were waiting for it to go before they called. Funnily just after desert they put in a bid and ended up with the f......g christmas tree - as he put it. It bought the house down. One guy won a trial Zumba class, so we are waiting till Monday to give him the big welcome at class. I won a £20 beauty voucher so was very happy with that. John got a bottle of Lindauer and a signed book by Jeremy Clarkson. I donated a bouquet of flowers, and our favourite Rita got that. I think they raised about £700 so were very pleased with the evening.
Will watch the mens final of Wimbledon thisafternoon and then want to visit some local artists who have work on show. There is a two week term of artists opening their studios all through the region and three are in Knightcote so can walk to them. We found a fabulous artist yesterday who did stunning mixed media stuff - her work was a combo of Timo Rannali and Louise Prastiti - In fact she looked up both artists on Google. We loved one of her originals of Tenby which is a beach resort in Wales that we loved. Ummm might be returning to buy it!!
Well I hope this week brings some better weather - we are off to London for a night on Wednesday so might next chat will be about that. Love to you all The Cook and the Gardener.
Saturday, 7 July 2012
Better Weather
Well at last we have had some sunny days so have been able to do some work around the property. John is barely keeping up with the mowing though - the growth is rampant. One huge chore this week was to cut the main hedge, which is an all day job. It looks very tidy now though and I have been able to get into areas of the garden which were a bit junglefied.
Finally the peonies are flowering along with the rugosa roses which smell heavenly.
Saturday morning I attended a womens breakfast which our neighbour organises. John and I helped her and her hubby set up the hall the previous afternoon - I got to do the table flowers. Luckily their house is right next to the hall so about 6 men cook (john included) and serve the breakfast. It is such fun and runs really smoothly.
Saturday afternoon we caught up with Barbara and John Hill over at Oxford. They had some time off were able to come back here for dinner and stay the night. Oxford was teeming with people and it was the last exam day, so you can imagine the parties that were about to happen. Pubs and bars were filled with students. They had to attend formal dinners at their colleges in the evening and as we left on the bus we saw row of kids all dressed formally lined up ready to go to dinner.
Sunday John and I took a drive over to Wrest Park - about a hour and 15 min away and met with my brother and his wife. Wrest Park has undergone a 20 year restoration and is quite magnificant. The property was owned initially by Earl de Grey and his wife Henrietta in the 16oo's and has had a succession of family own it up until just after the first world war. As always it is filled with lavish pavillions, long water features, and orangies which are designed to show wealth. The cutest part was the dog cemetry in the woods, which has proper headstones for about 30 dogs over the years.
Saturday 23rd June we joined a few of the locals here in Knghtcote for a Safari Supper. This is usually organised by Sarah - Barley and Maisey's Mum. It was such a fun night. There are three parts to the meal and everyone is mixed up for each course. The lovely thing about having it in the village is that you just walk to your next destination. You are told where to go for your starter, and then you do not open the envelope until 15min before the next course to find out where each of you go for the main and so on, but then end up at one place for coffee, cheese, port etc. Was a fabulous way to meet some more villagers and we have even found some tennis players and are going to have our own Wimbledon with lots of pimms and strawberries. We hosted a main course, but went on to another place for desert and aTina had made carameled porridge with honey and whiskey and a gorgeous pavlova with berries galore. Was delicious.
We joined a couple of other Kiwis for a pub quizz night over at Broughton - that is also where I have been going to art classes - The questions were very tricky and even though we were lots of points down on the winners we displayed the usual good kiwi spirit and sportsmanship!!
Veronica, one of our neighbours suggested I might like to go to art classes with her. Our teacher is just lovely and makes you have a go at anything. Last class we had to study black, white and grey so had to mix to get different shades of grey - and had to copy a black and white picture. She asked that we use quite wide brushes - I felt like Rolf Harris!! but was surprisingly pleased with what I turned out. Sadly the classes finish next week for school holidays for 8 weeks.
Sorry still for no pictures - those of you who dont like reading without pictures will be getting a bit frustrated, but our computer has died, so need to remedy the situation somehow, but promise pics next time.
Hope you are not too freezing over there. Lot of loves The cook and the gardener.
Monday, 18 June 2012
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.
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.
Wednesday, 6 June 2012
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.
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.
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. |
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 |
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 |
Sunday, 3 June 2012
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)