Favourite Places - Plymouth

View from Plymouth Hoe 

Some time ago I put up a photo of the view from Plymouth Hoe of Drake's Island and Mt Edgecumbe on Christmas Day. I spent some time there again this week and found many more beautiful views and places full of fascinating history. It's a city that deserves to be better known. For more photos, click here

Favourite Gardens - Wherwell Village Gardens

The Old Rectory, Wherwell

Ten gardens were open in Wherwell, Hampshire on 3oth June 2013 in aid of the Red Cross. Click here for some more photos.

Favourite Gardens - 5 Burbage Road

5 Burbage Road

I have long wanted to visit the garden at 5 Burbage Road, open only once a year under the National Gardens Scheme, but have never succeeded. This time I decided to e-mail the owners and ask to visit privately, and was extremely happy when they agreed. Rosemary Lindsay herself showed us around, which made the visit even more fascinating, and I was able to take lots of photos.

The garden is brilliantly designed to seem far larger than it is, being divided into many distinct areas with trees, paths, terraces and strong planting so that one can never see the garden as whole, but is drawn further and further in while only guessing at 'what lies beyond'. It's a masterpiece of rich planting and intriguing design.      

Favourite Gardens - Bere Mill

Bere Mill

For more photos of this lovely garden beside the Test, click here

Favourite Gardens - Mottisfont

Mottisfont

For more photos of this lovely garden and the rose garden in particular, click here

Mottisfont Abbey June 2013

Mottisfont Abbey

A visit to the magnificent rose garden at Mottisfont Abbey in June 2013. Click here for more photos 

Destruction of the Winchester College Wingnuts

One of the mature wingnuts

The base of one of the smaller wingnuts before felling

I love to walk in Winchester College water meadows and over the playing fields beside the Itchen Navigation Canal in the area where Keats is supposed to have composed the 'Ode To Autumn'. In one part alongside Brandy Stream that borders the Falloden Nature Reserve, there is a line of magnificent trees, Wingnuts, that I have seen nowhere else. They were apparently planted by Graham Drew, the art master at Winchester in the 1960s; one of the school's iconic dons.

In the past few days most of them have been felled, apparently as part of an attempt to return the area to cattle grazing, a humdrum activity of little interest and originality, and certainly insufficient justification for cutting down such magnificent rare and beautiful specimens. Why could they not have been left? Cattle could shelter under their huge branches. They will apparently be replaced with willows - in which the area already abounds.

Click here for an excellent piece on the destructive work of Natural England and the Hampshire Wildlife Trust in this area by Mark Fisher in September 2009

Click here for some more photos

After writing this piece in June 2013, I discovered Chris Calidcott's beautiful book on Winchester* in which this photo and the lines attached appear as the final end piece.

Chris Caldecott writes: There is an avenue of huge old Wingnut trees along a small brook between the Itchen and the canal that I think is the most perfect place on earth, where I want my ashes scattered. 

* Published by Frances Lincoln Ltd in 2012

  

Chelsea Flower Show 2013

The Arthritis UK Garden

The M&G Garden

The figure from the Arthritis UK Garden - Anna Gillespie - 'To The Limit'.

Click here for some more photos from the centenary show

Farewell Tempo

Tempo, the stylish Italian restaurant owned by Henry Togna in Curzon St, has sadly been sold. Inspired by the restaurant he admired most, the River Cafe, and with a Japanese chef, (Yoshi Yamada, who won the Barilla Pasta Championships in 2012), Tempo became a haven for those who enjoyed its inventive and relatively inexpensive food, its beautiful Rococo upstairs bar and the invariable presence of the owner whose genuine charm and patent good nature (in an industry somewhat lacking in both), made one want to return time after time.

A delicious salad tiede made for a vegetarian friend

The staff were very good too - elegant and friendly (and that includes my daughter; Kei, who worked there for six months and loved it).  Although Yoshi last year returned to Japan, his successor carried on his stylish cooking while the waiting staff continued to perfect their art so that the experience got only better and better.

It's a great pity that it has been sold, and we can only hope that Henry decide to will spread his magic elsewhere.

Ananda Ledoux and Angela Altini

Click here for some a selection of photos taken at Tempo over the years     

Glorious Spring At Last

Cherries in bloom against a blue sky