Into Italy: Alassio

October 24, 2026 / fgrtommo / 1 Comment

From Menton, we travelled further east to Alassio in Italy via a change of train in Ventimiglia, coastal views and many tunnels (and with our luggage full of clean clothing again).

In many ways, Alassio felt similar to Menton but here the vibe is more focused on tourism and the restaurants are as much on the sandy beach as it is in cafes further back in the Old Town. And, of course, we were now in Italy; Jane’s invaluable semi-fluency in French was now irrelevant and both of us have minimal Italian. How lucky we are that English is such a universal language! How lucky too that the weather was still so brilliant.

We walked from the train station to our hotel through narrow streets including the the Budello, a historic street that runs parallel to the coast. Between the lanes running off it and the ochre coloured houses, there are attractive glimpses of the Mediterranean.

Views East And West From Our Hotel Room

Our hotel (Diana Grand Hotel) was on the edge of the town centre and adjacent to the beach. This was the plushest hotel we stayed in during our French and Italian Riviera trip. Our room and the bar downstairs have great views along the coast. One of two main dining areas is on the beach just below the hotel under vast stretches of canvas. Our very relaxed breakfast was in the bar area and was, as was the case for most hotels on our trip, included in the package. Apart from the challenge of getting someone to bring coffee at breakfast, all the service, food and drink was excellent.

Diana Grand Hotel Bar - Very Comfortable! — *^{Diana Grand Hotel Bar – Very Comfortable!}*

Like Menton, there were steep hillsides behind the town with exotic gardens. We booked some of the limited tickets to attend a guided tour of one such garden attached to the Villa della Pergola luxury guesthouse. The tours are quite restricted for those not staying in the villa, booking was essential, and Jane did a good job of getting us tickets.

The gardens are another example of Brits buying up land in the 19^th century and creating gardens that remind them of home. In this case, General McMurdo bought the land in 1875, built two villas and began laying out and planting the garden with both local and more traditional British species that thrived in the mild, Mediterranean climate on a south facing hillside. His work was continued by a Scottish baronet, and then the English Hanbury family who had other gardens further along the coast.

*^{Views In Villa Della Pergola Gardens, Alassio}*

Post the Second World War, British land owners along the Riviera began to sell up. The Villa della Pergola gardens gradually fell into disrepair and wilderness. The land was nearly sold for housing developments in 2006 but was bought by an Italian family who restored the gardens to their current splendour. Indeed, there are plans to expand the property very considerably and we could see some of the extravagant building work underway across a deep valley.

*^{Villa Della Pergola Gardens, Alassio}*

The gardens are already lovely and offer huge views over Alassio and the Ligurian coast. They include some rare species and very large collections of citrus, agapanthus and wisteria plants. None of these were in flower during our visit but in Spring these collections must be spectacular. Our guide was excellent and our tour was unhurried; it was a great way to spend a couple of hours.

We wandered through Alassio centre a couple of times and saw the apparently famous Muretto. This is a wall, adjacent to a pleasant park, that is encrusted with small ceramics signed by celebrities (mainly Italian) that have attended a local café since the 1950’s. The wall is intriguing, and it was fun for a few minutes to try and spot names I recognised (for example Louis Armstrong, Ernest Hemingway). However, the wall is continuing to be populated with small decorative ceramics, the quality seems to be decreasing, and the overall look is now a little messy.

*^{Views In Alassio Including The Muretto (Bottom Right)}*

We also visited a couple of churches in the town and they were as peaceful and pleasant as others we had visited elsewhere on our trip. The Town Hall looked impressive and, on the coast in the Old Town there is a handsome 16^th century defensive tower called the Coscia Tower.

*^{Chiesa Di Santa Maria Immacolata, Alassio. Quiet And Relaxing}*

I also really enjoyed a sunset walk I undertook to the east of the town to La Cappelletta. This is a small, 100-year-old chapel built to commemorate those lost at sea. The promontory on which it sits and the chapel itself were deserted apart from some young boys diving off nearby rocks and a few swifts in the roof space.

The view of Alassio and beyond became particularly beautiful as the sun set. I sat around for quite some time watching the sunset behind the mountains north of Alassio. I contemplated our very enjoyable stay in the town and our good fortune at the timing of our visit to this part of the world, and our ability to do so.

Alassio From La Cappellatta — *^{Alassio From La Cappelletta}*

Genoa next.

Menton And The Machine Wash

October 21, 2026 / fgrtommo / 1 Comment

The memories of our French and Italian Riviera trip are, inevitably, fading as post-holiday activities have resumed and taken up head-space. But reprising the experience of our trip in these blog posts is keeping memories of the holiday fresher than would otherwise be the case and so I’ll continue…. On to Menton.

I’d not heard of Menton before the itinerary of our trip became clear. It is one of many towns along the French Riviera with a long history, a small fishing industry, some beautiful historic buildings and a mild sub-tropical Mediterranean climate that supports exotic plants and gardens.

The centrepiece and main tourist attraction in the town is the Les Rampes Saint Michel. This is a series of steep, stepped, cobbled ramps that rise directly from the cafes and bars on the coast to the core of a square bounded on two sides by the Basilique Saint Michel Archange and the Chapelle des Pénitents Blancs. The very attractive zig zag ramps were mostly built in the 18^th century but, following the Second World War, were restored well near the base.

Menton Old Town — Les Rampes Saint-Michel

To the immediate north of the square at the top of the ramps is an incline with a labyrinth of narrow lanes lined by tall, ochre buildings. At the top, sits Le Cimetière du Vieux Château. It has an interesting history as a re-purposed site of the ancient citadel protecting the town. It was developed as a cemetery in the 19^th century after Napoleon had decreed that churches could no longer be used for burials and the spare land around Menton’s Basilica ran out. Today it hosts dramatic family vaults and tombstones and provides peaceful but tremendous views of the coast and the Old Town below.

An interest from British aristocracy over the last couple of hundred years in buying up land along the French and Italian Riviera to provide holiday homes with exotic gardens attached was apparent throughout our holiday. Menton has several great exemplars of such houses and gardens. Some of these are open to the public.

We visited the delightful Val Rahmeh-Menton Botanical Garden which was up a steep hill behind our harbour-side hotel. In 1905, Sir Percy Radcliffe started to transform a former farm into a villa and surrounding garden and named it after his wife. In 1957, May Campbell, a wealthy woman from England, bought the estate and enhanced the planting to create an exotic garden full of floral and other horticultural treasures.

There are now over 1,600 different species of planting the garden including a wide variety of bamboo and unusual citrus plants. The current microclimate supports this temperate, sub-tropical and tropical arrangement but I wonder if climate change is going to increase the need for further adaption in the future. For now, it is a lovely place to visit.

*^{Four Of The Many Bamboo Species In Val Rahmeh Botanical Garden}*

Another highpoint in our sight-seeing was a visit to the Hôtel de Ville. This is the Town Hall and it houses the famous Wedding Hall decorated by Jean Cocteau in 1957. The audio tour of the hall that was provided was useful to help us pick out some of the themes in Cocteau’s murals. Certainly, it would be a memorable location for any wedding.

Jean Cocteau's Murals In The Wedding Hall, Menton — *^{Jean Cocteau’s Murals In The Wedding Hall, Menton}*

The Jean Cocteau Museum and the Cathedral were both closed for renovation and repair but much of Menton – the Old Town, the best buildings of the New Town, the palm strewn beach – were very pleasant. We ate well too and especially at Tony Restaurant which had great sea views.

*^{Inside Basilica Saint-Michel Archange}*

Our enjoyable stay was much enhanced by the renewal of our laundry. How to get our laundry done while hopping from one location along the Riviera to another had been bugging me from the time we first booked the trip (I’m a worrier). In Menton, Jane located some public laundry machines near our hotel and we gave them a try.

We survived failing to read the instructions about absolutely not adding our own detergent to the wash – there was too much foam but at least it didn’t burst from the machine. However, when we opened the door at the end of the cycle, our clothes smelt a lot worse than when they went in. We piled the stinky, damp washing into a bag and retreated to our hotel. Fortunately, the bathroom there was large with two sinks and a bidet, our balcony was also spacious, and the weather was breezy and sunny. We handwashed and dried our laundry and I loved the fact that, as we left Menton, I had a bag full of clean clothing again.

Hot Garden at Lasborough Park

July 2, 2026 / fgrtommo / 1 Comment

Last week, in the height of the latest heat wave across southern and central England, we visited Lasborough Park Gardens. Local schools had closed for the day because of the heat and we wondered if the open day at Lasborough would be cancelled due to the heat. Hah! Was it Noel Coward or Rudyard Kipling who said ‘mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun’? Neither we or the National Garden Scheme who had organized the garden open day, were to be deterred.

It was, in truth, too hot for loitering beyond the shade offered by the garden (and, particularly, the woodland area which is currently being redeveloped). However, moving from one patch of shade to another offered very rewarding views of a beautifully colourful garden. The huge walled garden, overlooked by an elegant greenhouse that is full of diverse geraniums, was especially impressive.

*^{Parkland Surrounding Lasborough Park Gardens And The Wonderful Walled Garden And Greenhouse}*

The garden was developed by Julia Rausing, the wife of Hans Kristian Rausing. He is a Swedish billionaire and the son of packaging industrialist Hans Rausing. His grandfather founded the food-packaging giant Tetra Pak. Hans Kristian has a somewhat chequered past but, after marrying Julia, set up one of the largest philanthropic trusts in the UK and was knighted in 2025.

Julia collaborated with the famous garden designer, Tom Stuart-Smith from 2016 until her death in 2024. Money was clearly not much of a constraint in developing a wonderful garden and both the garden and the surrounding parkland continue to evolve.

One Of The Avenues In The Walled Garden., Lasborough Park — *^{One Of The Avenues In The Walled Garden, Lasborough Park}*

The current head gardener explained to us how Julia had insisted on including a huge number of roses rather than the grasses that are apparently the signature plants of most Tom Stuart-Smith gardens. He also explained how the current upkeep and enhancements of the gardens are continuing in line with Julia’s wishes and objectives and that Tom Stuart-Smith continues to provide periodic supervision.

Lasborough Park Gardens — *^{More Views of Lasborough Park House And Gardens}*

There were much appreciated and needed refreshments after the walkabout around the gardens. We left very satisfied with the afternoon and the rare opportunity to see up close the gardens only previous glimpsed on past walks in the area. We were glad of the air-conditioning in the car though!

The outing to Lasborough Park had capped a good week. Early June had included a number of various health scares (now resolved) for two of our daughters in law and my wife, Jane, and life started to return to normal and have a welcome uptick with arrival of Jane’s birthday. Middle Son, his partner and our Second Grandson (SG) came over to our house and I managed to serve up lunch using a great, and well tested, Coronation Chicken recipe from Thomasina Miers. We had a great time in lovely weather entertaining SG in and around our house and a stream adjacent to our garden.

My Coronation Chicken Salad - I Was Pretty Proud Of This! — *^{My Coronation Chicken Salad – I Was Pretty Proud Of This!}*

And the fun continued after Lasborough with a trip to Edinburgh to see Eldest Son and his family. More on that later…..

Art, Gardens and a Big Anniversary

August 4, 2025August 7, 2025 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

Our time in Edinburgh – the bread on either side of our Fife sandwich filling – was busy.

We did some of the usual things with First Grandchild (FG); going to the playground, visiting the National Museum of Scotland and meeting his hopeful requests: ‘can you play with me?’.

^{Playing Cards With First Grandchild (FG)}

We also went to the Museum Of Childhood for the first time. FG loved the activities available and we liked the nostalgia of seeing the toys from our own childhoods and those of our sons. Entrance to the museum was free and we will definitely be going back with FG.

Construction Toys From My Youth Including Betta Builder, My Favourite — ^{A Display of Toys From My Youth At The Edinburgh Museum Of Childhood, Including Betta Bilda, One Of My Favourites}

FG also had a tremendous time at the Newhailes Gardens and Adventure Park near Musselburgh. This is owned by the Scottish National Trust and is a wonderful facility. I wandered the grounds while FG loved all the activities. I then joined him to build towers, and to watch him get some experience of sack and egg and spoon races.

We did spend some time away from our Edinburgh family so they could get back to something resembling their routine. A huge highlight of this was a visit to the Andy Goldsworthy exhibition at the National Gallery of Scotland. Based on reviews I had seen, I was expecting great things and it truly was an excellent display. The exhibition was so good, I’ll cover our visit in a separate blog post after this one.

Jane and I visited a few other galleries while in Edinburgh. In the basement of the National Gallery was an exhibition of work by Paul Furneaux who we know our Eldest Son admires. I liked his paintings too.

'Temple Path' By Paul Furneaux At the Scottish National Gallery — *^{‘Temple Path’ By Paul Furneaux At the Scottish National Gallery}*

Furneaux also featured in the Open Eye Gallery which is always worth visiting as was The Scottish Gallery opposite. The latter had an exhibition of paintings by Alexander Goudie who I enjoyed getting to know a bit.

Another Painting BY Paul Furneuax, This Time At The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh — *^{Another Painting By Paul Furneuax (‘Rain City’), This Time At The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh}*

One afternoon, I slipped off and went to a free show of Post-Modern art at the City Art Centre. A little embarrassingly, I got told off for taking a photo here (see below, top) – I just didn’t see the signs prohibiting photography. Otherwise, my visit was very satisfactory as previous shows there have been. I particularly enjoyed the rather macabre painting by John Bellany of men gutting fish (also below). Bellany had a separate (but not free) exhibition at the centre but I didn’t pop in.

*^{Scottish Post Modern Art At The City Art Centre, Edinburgh}*

Jane and I also visited the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art briefly to see three or four rooms of works by Louise Bourgeois, Robert Mapplethorpe and Helen Chadwick. This was mildly diverting but only Bourgeois’s spider, which we had both seen variants of before at the Hayward Gallery in London, and the famous photo of Mapplethorpe’s disembodied head (see below) left much of an impression on me.

Beyond the art and beyond Edinburgh, we also took some time out to explore some gardens. Recalling these visits now reminds me that I failed to mention in my last blog post a very pleasant hour or so spent in the St Andrews Botanic Garden during our time in Fife. It was a longer walk out of the St Andrews town centre than we expected but well worth a visit to see a rather wild and experimental garden that is investigating how gardens, and the insects that live in them, can cope with our changing climate. Semi-wild gardens, busy with insect life, can be very attractive at this time of year.

Now we travelled south from Edinburgh to the Pentland Hills and Tweed Valley to Dawyck Botanic Garden. This is a 65-acre arboretum with a lot of mature indigenous trees and a large number planted using seed collected a couple of centuries ago in America by a traveller called David Douglas. He met a sticky end in Hawaii after falling into an animal trap already occupied by a bull, but his legacy at Dawyck is impressive.

The setting is lovely with gorgeous views across heavily wooded valleys to open hillsides beyond. It would be worth visiting again in Spring when more of the azaleas and rhododendrons are in flower.

We then went on to Little Sparta, the home and garden of Scottish poet and artist Ian Hamilton Finlay whose work I have often seen in various places in and around Edinburgh including, during this visit, the City Art Centre. This year is the centenary of his birth.

The garden is in the middle of nowhere. It is both a little chaotic and very sweet. Throughout the garden are little paths and about 200 individual art works from golden heads to simple inscriptions and stone sculptures. I particularly liked the open area beyond the wooded garden which included an attractive lake.

Of course, we ate and drank well while in Edinburgh as usual. A highlight was a drink at the Newbarns Brewery and Taproom followed by an excellent dinner at Ardfern. We will be going to both (and Ardfern’s sister restaurants) again.

Our stay in Edinburgh was completed with a rather splendid lunch at Timberyard. This was with our extended Edinburgh family including ES’s wife’s parents and was to celebrate Jane and my 40^th wedding anniversary. FG provided the rubies from his toy treasure chest and then got on with some drawing, leaving us to enjoy a splendid three courses. The restaurant is a lovely space and the service and food are top notch.

ES’s wife asked what advice we had, given we have achieved 40 married years together. I mumbled something about needing patience to adjust as circumstances and each partner change at different times. I’m not sure if retirement brings a requirement for more patience. Certainly, intermittent contact with grandchildren and no work to worry about allows much more time to think about getting along than full blown parental childcare and employment ever did!

We took our time over Timberyard’s food but there was still time to take in England Woman’s Football Team winning the European Championship after extra time and penalties. It was a thrilling end to a lovely week and a half in Scotland.

Outings, Outings, Outings!

June 18, 2025 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

A few times since I retired, Jane and I have resolved to break up our routines (my retirement routine especially) with more frequent outings and trips. This has resulted in short bursts of trips away from the house and we have had one of those brief bursts of outings recently. A combination of summer weather and a little more determination this time, may mean we sustain the run of outings for a little longer than previously.

*^{Hard To Tear Us Away From Our Garden This Summer?}*

Jane kicked us off by organizing our rather impromptu trip to Basel and then we had a trip to Belfast and Derry. Those were followed up by a visit to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford which had originally been conceived as a birthday treat for me before the grander idea of a weekend in Basel intervened. Then we had a day out in and around Bath and finally, before Jane headed off for a few days in Southern France with her book group, we pottered around more than a dozen open private gardens a nearby Cotswold village. I love my daily and weekly retirement routine but it has been fun to give it a jolt.

The main reason for visiting the Ashmolean Museum was to celebrate my birthday by visiting the current exhibition of paintings by Anselm Kiefer. I hadn’t heard of him until I saw an incredible exhibition of his work about five years ago and I have sought him out since.

His subject matter and resultant paintings are often dark. At the Ashmolean, we read about his early preoccupation with post-Second World War thinking in Germany and his ambition to expose some of the cultural and artistic taboos of that time. One of the first pictures in the exhibition – and the only one for which photographs were prohibited – was an image of Hitler.

'At Night The Heavy Earth Is Falling' By Anselm Kiefer — *^{‘At Night The Heavy Earth Is Falling’ By Anselm Kiefer}*

Actually, the exhibition started with some typically monumental, deeply layered works that were very recent. I confess that it was these of those on show that resonated most strongly with me. Perhaps this was because they were so reminiscent of Kiefer’s works that I had seen in previous exhibitions and were in a style I was familiar with.

*^{Paintings By Anselm Kiefer Painted In The 1970s}*

The rest of the exhibition lived up to expectations though. Kiefer is an interesting artist and a couple of his watercolours were as arresting as the larger, more obviously impactful oils. I’ll continue to look out eagerly for his exhibitions.

'The Adige' By Anselm Kiefer — ‘The Adige’ By Anselm Kiefer

'Interior' By Anselm Kiefer — ‘The Adige’ By Anselm Kiefer

We spent an hour of so wandering through the Ashmolean before a very nice lunch on the roof terrace in the sun. It was good to come across a section of the museum dedicated to its founder, Elias Ashmole, because it reminded me of an excellent book by Phillipa Gregory (called ‘Virgin Earth’) about Elias’s friend and colleague, John Tradescant, that I read last year.

*^{Section Of The Ashmolean Dedicated To Elias Ashmole}*

The museum’s rooms are full of a wide huge variety of exhibits from Egyptian mummies to cabinet after cabinet of ceramics.

*^{Ashmolean Museum: Apollo From The Temple of Zeus, Greece (About 460BC)}*

There was also a short more temporary exhibition of portraits of leaders and the Iranian elements of this show were well presented and explained. Then lunch beckoned….

We took in another dose of art during a trip to Bath. We visited a well-reviewed exhibition at The Holburne Museum of watercolours by J.M.W. Turner – another of my favourite artists. I enjoyed this even more than the exhibition of Turner watercolours I had seen earlier this year in Edinburgh. The room was a lot less crowded, Turner’s watercolours were more varied and, in some cases, more interestingly abstract. Plus, there were several lovely paintings by his friends of the time which showed how they influenced – indeed, competed with – each other.

'A Rough Sea Bearing Against Margate Jetty' By J.M.W. Turner — *^{‘A Rough Sea Bearing Against Margate Jetty’ By J.M.W. Turner}*

We had a stroll through the adjacent Sydney Gardens. Despite visiting Bath many times, it was the first time I had walked through these gardens and was surprised that they spanned both the Kennet and Avon Canal and the Great Western Railway with lovely bridges and impressive vistas. In the dappled sunshine, we could somehow imagine the mix of Jane Austen romance, toll path horses and Victorian railway steam as we wandered about.

Views In Sydney Gardens, Bath — *^{Views In Sydney Gardens. Bath}*

We had an excellent lunch at our favourite bakery in Upstairs at Landrace. We are so lucky to be able to just drop into restaurants as good as this and take home what we still think is our favourite sourdough bread.

Then, to complete the day, Jane took us down some very windy and narrow lanes into deepest East Somerset to Caisson Gardens where she had booked a tour. The sun was shining still and the gardens were a delight. Visitor numbers were restricted and so the views of the flower beds and the backdrop of the house were largely unimpeded and aspect after aspect was beautiful.

There was some interesting history too in that the remains of Somerset Coal Canal runs through the gardens and adjoining fields. This once had innovative, but ultimately flawed, Caisson Locks. The remains of the waterway now supplement ponds full of tiny black frogs, a small lake and a pattern of rivulets running down from the house.

The garden has only opened to the public recently but is well-established and is already a wonderful spectacle at this time of the year.

Less spectacular but enjoyable nonetheless, was an afternoon spent on the Box Open Gardens tour in a village near to our previous house. It’s always interesting to peek into other peoples’ lives – or at least, their gardens. We picked up a couple of ideas for our own garden and met a lot of people who we hadn’t seen for a long time. We also were able to wander around the extensive, organic gardens of the local special needs school which you can only get a glimpse of from the road. Again, the sun shone and we had a very pleasant afternoon.

We have plans for more outings. We just need to keep breaking the routine.

Resolutions And Houghton Hall

July 26, 2024 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

I have made patchy progress in adhering to my 2024 New Year resolutions during the first half of this year. I’m ok with alcohol targets and weight management. As planned, I’m spending more quality time reading books and I’m listening to less (largely agitating or depressing) news on the radio and television. However, I’m not doing enough back exercises despite grumbling about a stiff back. Also, my resolve to step up my creative activity has been weak since my visible darning of a load of socks and my devising of an Easter treasure hunt for First Grandchild.

Additionally, since a good start early in the year, Jane and I have not been consistent in addressing our joint aim of embarking on more short trips away from home. We set this target with the intention of responding to periods of good weather and our relatively flexible diaries to see bits of the UK we are not familiar with. In part that has been because the abnormally cool, wet weather hasn’t been particularly conducive to such thinking. Also, my diary has been less flexible since I took up a new commitment on Wednesday afternoons to listen to children read as part of the local ‘Read With Me’ scheme.

We have done much better as the weather has improved and the school term drew to a close. We have followed up our trip to Sissinghurst, Rye and Lewes with another lengthy excursion to Houghton Hall and Gardens in north Norfolk, and then on to visit friends in north Suffolk. On all these travels this month, we were blessed with very good weather.

Houghton Hall was impressive, the gardens-cum-sculpture park there were interesting and it was great to see our longstanding friends again.

^{Houghton Hall West Wing (From The Cafe)}

We left early with the intention of arriving at the Houghton Hall at opening time but, after encountering tedious traffic jams around Kings Lynn, arrived a little after midday. The car park was already extending into the overflow area but the grounds of the house are so huge that, once we got into them past the café and exhibitions (including a truly remarkable exhibition of the Cholmondeley Collection of Model Soldiers) in the splendid West Wing, the crowds seemed to melt away.

^{The Remarkable Model Soldier Collection of the 6th Marquess of Cholmondeley Spanning Two Densely Packed Rooms}

The gardens double up as a sculpture park and, immediately, we could see Antony Gormley statues dotting the acres of lawn. Jane explained that the 100 statues comprising his work called ‘Time Horizon’ had been installed so that they were all standing at the same height above sea level. Given the undulating land of the gardens, this concept meant that some statues barely were barely visible – with just their heads showing – while others were on tall plinths. We have seen the multiple statues (of himself) several times before in a variety of settings but this idea of consistent altitude was a new and amusing one for me.

^{Antony Gormley Statues – All At The Same Height Above Sea Level – At Houghton Hall Gardens}

In the South Wing there was a small, temporary exhibition of Magdalene Odundo’s work called ‘Metamorphosis and Transformation’, an installation of blown glass vessels apparently based on an ancient Egyptian ear stud found. That was impressive although I found some of her other work set out in the main house elegant but a little distracting in its contrast with the heavy furnishings and wall art there.

*^{Metamorphosis and Transformation (2011) By Magdalene Odundo}*

Elsewhere in the gardens, we saw sculpture by other artists we have encountered before such as Richard Long, Sean Scully and Rachel Whiteread, plus several others I wasn’t familiar with. I particularly enjoyed ‘Sybil Hedge’ by Anya Gallaccio. This was an unusual ‘sculpture’ made from a large, winding beech hedge that worked well in the large scale of the garden.

*^{A Section Of ‘Sybil Hedge’ By Anya Gallaccio At Houghton Hall Gardens}*

The Palladian style house was bathed in sun but, inside, the rooms were dark to preserve the furnishings, tapestries and artworks. As Jane remarked, despite the size of the rooms, they felt almost claustrophobic after the expanses of the grounds. The tapestries that adorned many of the walls contributed to that feeling but they were remarkably well preserved and had interesting content. The sumptuous rooms, with their blurry views out onto the lawns and deer park though original, handmade glass, were well worth the extra visit fee.

The highlight of the visit for me was the Walled Garden. This was beautiful at every turn and a riot of colour. An interesting twist was that vegetables were grown between the flowers and, here too, Gormley’s statues (on plinths here because of the lower altitude) were watching over us. It was clear that the volunteers and gardeners that manage the garden are not blighted by the multitude of slugs and snails as we are back at home; everything looked vibrant and healthy.

From Houghton Hall we drove south to Eye in Suffolk. By this time, we needed to charge up the car. We have noticed a huge improvement in the availability of electric vehicle charging points during our last few trips around the United Kingdom. Certainly, both our charge ups on this trip were very quick and easy.

*^{Another of Gormley’s Statues, This Time In Houghton Hall Looking Out At Others (Incredibly, Given The Amount Of Work Involved In Setting It Up, The Installation Is Only Until October 2024)}*

We arrived at our friend’s house in time for drinks in the sunshine. There was also time for an evening tour of their garden, the private allotments adjoining the garden which they own and manage, and the entrance to the woodland/wetlands beyond the allotments that are now owned by our friends and others in the community. The various types of land they look after are lovely slices of nature. They are also a labour of love although one task not needed is slug management – their chickens prodding around in the allotments seem to deal with that!

The excellent and copious hospitality we were given in terms of food and drink put my New Year resolution targets for weight and alcohol consumption under pressure but, as ever, it was great to catch up with old friends. Plus, our target to have more days away from home exploring the UK was helped along.

Sissinghurst Castle Gardens

June 30, 2024 / fgrtommo / 1 Comment

Jane said she didn’t want a present for her birthday – I had one planned, honest! Instead, she wanted to go on a trip to Sussex and, specifically, to Rye. She booked a hotel there and sorted out an itinerary of things to do. Part of that itinerary was to visit Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent on the way.

*^{Approaching Sissinghurst Castle Gardens}*

We had visited the garden early in our relationship, a few decades ago. I barely remember that. Even when confronted with the garden this time, I could only recall the old brick buildings not the walled gardens. Jane thinks we went in a different season to this time; perhaps that’s why I don’t really remember the garden but my memory is like a sieve these days (as our local pub-quiz regularly demonstrates.) Anyway, the gardens looked beautifully cared for and uniformly splendid.

The garden has developed considerably over the last century. It was transformed from the 1930’s onwards by Vita Sackville-West and her husband, Harold Nicolson, until their deaths in the 1960s. In 1967 the garden, castle and associated farm were taken over by the National Trust. Since then, Harold Nicholson’s grandson and his wife, the famous gardener, Sarah Raven, developed the garden.

More recently, the original ideas to develop a Greek-style garden in one of its parts have been re-implemented under the guidance of yet another famous gardener, Dan Pearson, to create an area called the Delos Garden. We visited on a gorgeous sunny day with some real heat in the air and the Delos Garden was one of the great highlights of our visit. It really did have a Mediterranean feel.

^{The Delos Garden}

Elsewhere, in one of the several walled garden quadrants, was the White Garden. Here too, the timing of our visit was perfect. Not only was the sun shining but the old, huge, central climbing rose (rosa mulliganii) is apparently only in full bloom briefly and yet we saw its lovely blossom at its peak.

^{The White Garden}

We spent well over an hour meandering around the garden, investigating all its nooks and crannies. Then we retraced many of our steps to take another look. The variety and density of the planting is amazing. Every time I thought: ‘ooh I haven’t seen one of this or that species of shrub or flower’, one would turn up around the next corner. In all directions, the colours and sheer health of the plants was breathtaking.

To cap the visit, I ventured up to the top of the castle for an aerial view of the garden. In a way, I wished I had done this at the start. That way, the layout of the garden would have been clearer from the start. But perhaps that would have detracted in some way from the excitement I got in moving through an arch or turning a corner as I had moved through the sections of the garden. Either way, the views from the top of the castle were as spectacular as expected.

*^{Views From The Top Of Sissinghurst Castle}*

We were so fortunate to see the gardens on such a beautiful day. Surprisingly, there was not a huge number of visitors. The layout of the garden into walled sections also helped to give a feeling of seclusion and nowhere felt crowded.

The entrance cost may be a deterrent for many (£15/adult). Again, we are so lucky in that we were both given lifetime National Trust Membership by my parents when we were married. It was an extravagant gift but one of the best value and valued ones we have ever received – the cost of life membership now is eyewatering.

We had had another lovely day courtesy of that gift and the good work of the National Trust. It’s a really special garden and well worth a visit – especially in June. We drove on to Rye with a bounce in our hearts.

After An Irish Wedding

September 10, 2023 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

I got up a little gingerly on the morning after the wedding. My alcohol unit count and monthly quota had taken something of a battering the day before and my head was a little fuzzy. It was a blessing then that the relatives of the bride and groom had laid on a lovely lunch with more drinks, at the wedding reception venue at Ballycurry. I had enough scope in my alcohol unit quota for a ‘hair of the dog’ or two.

By now, after a damp start, the weather was gorgeous and the manor house and estate looked splendid. After an excellent buffet lunch, we had the opportunity to see one of the recent ventures the bride’s brother has initiated to diversify revenues into the estate farm. This was a substantial film set that has been used by the BBC and, latterly, for streamed series such as Vikings and The Last Duel. The scale of the set was impressive and now the trick will be to find new ways of using it for further dramatic series.

*^{The Film Set With The Estate House Beyond}*

The next day, our last full day in Ireland, again started with dreary weather. We considered abandoning ill-formed plans to visit local gardens and to visit Dublin’s galleries and museums instead. But as we left our Airbnb, blue sky appeared and we headed east over the mountains again to Glendalough.

This is an ancient monastic settlement, set in a glacial valley, and now a big draw for tourists. We arrived just in time to find a parking spot among hundreds of cars and a fleet of large coaches. The ruins of the towers, monuments and chapels are very picturesque. The quaintness of the scene was enhanced by the presence of semi-tame deer mooching between the gravestones despite the crowds.

*^{Deer Amongst The Gravestones At Glendalough}*

Rather than loiter among the throng of tourists, or embark on the suggested nearby woodland walks, we headed off to lunch at Powerscourt Gardens.

*^{Powerscourt Gardens (Including, Apparently, The Longest Herbaceous Border in Ireland)}*

The mansion at Powerscourt was destroyed by fire in 1974 and has been restored since as a tourist destination with a few high-quality shops (including a couple of Jane’s favourites) and a restaurant. We were able to bag a restaurant seat by the window overlooking the 47 acre expanse of formal gardens and arboretum. The view was great and the food was excellent quality and value.

*^{Powerscourt Gardens And Great Sugar Loaf Mountain}*

We worked lunch off a bit with an extended walk around the gardens. These are varied in format and large enough to absorb the large number of visitors, especially as we moved away from the main building. The sun was creating lovely dappled shade, the borders were full of colour, bees and butterflies, and the views were splendid. I enjoyed our relaxed time at Powerscourt very much.

Our penultimate excursion (apart from one final, smooth charging up of the car) was again to the coast. We visited Bray Head with the intention of walking along the coastal path for a while. Unfortunately, this was shut due to a recent rockfall so we ventured up towards Bray Head. This was a steep and stony climb that, until we reached the top, afforded none of the expected views of Bray or the coast to the north.

^{Looking South and North West From Bray Head}

Eventually I made it to the top of the tree line to get some long views up the coast and across to the Wicklow Mountains but I eschewed the final scramble to the imperious, concrete Bray Head Cross which was built in 1950 and from which, I imagine, the vistas are even more spectacular.

*^{Bray Head Cross – It’s Bigger Than It Looks Here}*

Jane had one more thing on her bucket list for the trip before we left for Roslare and the ferry uncomfortably early the following morning. That was to visit a traditional, rural Irish pub. We popped into the one nearest to our Airbnb, Brennans in Kilteel, which was just inside Kildare rather than Wicklow.

*^{An Authentic But Rather Empty ‘Brennans’, Kilteel, At 6pm On A Monday Evening}*

As was befitting, I had a pint of Guinness (which took me fractionally over my 100 alcohol unit quota for the month but which was very nice and creamy). In a nod to our normal UK-routine we completed the Guardian newspaper Quick Crossword over our drinks. Then we headed back to our Airbnb to finish the Netflix Scandi-noir crime series we had started earlier in our trip, polished off the remaining chocolate and crisps, and had an early night. It was a pleasantly chilled evening to complete our busy day and our brief stay in Ireland!

Before An Irish Wedding

September 8, 2023 / fgrtommo / 2 Comments

At the end of August, Jane and I travelled by road and ferry to County Wicklow in Ireland to attend, and help celebrate, the wedding of a granddaughter of Jane’s aunt. This was a great opportunity to see a part of Ireland and a useful test of driving (and, critically, charging up) our electric car in a foreign country. We had decided to tack a free day on either side of the two days of the wedding events so we could get a feel for County Wicklow and space out the two 12-hour journeys to and from Ireland.

^{Leaving Fishguard, Approaching Roslare. The Ferry Trip Reminded Me Of My Childhood Trips To The Isle of Wight}

The only time I had been to the Republic of Ireland before was for a short conference in Dublin. I only really remember that trip for it being the only time in my working career that I was ever late for the start of a conference due to drink-induced oversleeping (I had previously prided myself on turning up no matter what). During this latest visit, the drinking was much more moderate, the wedding celebrations were lovely and we had a very good time.

We stayed in an Airbnb on the west side of the Wicklow Mountains – the opposite side from the location of the wedding. That meant more driving for Jane (since she didn’t really trust me in the narrow lanes) but it enabled us to see much more of County Wicklow and the eastern edge of County Kildare. Having our own car allowed a comfortable familiarity and charging it up was relatively easy, although more expensive than in the UK.

Our Airbnb was in a renovated and repurposed farm outbuilding amid a lovely garden that is periodically open to the public – June Blake’s Garden. At the time of our visit the flower beds were packed with colour. The dahlias (I have come to love this species of plant) were particularly gorgeous. It was lovely to stroll through the garden and among the restored farm buildings whenever we went out to the car or just to put the recycling out.

*^{June Blake’s Garden, Blessington, Wicklow}*

Armed with information from the Airbnb host, the bride to be and a travel blog I follow by someone living in Ireland (Marie at HopsSkipsandJumps), we ad-libbed our itinerary and set off on our first free morning to the National Botanic Gardens at Kilmacurragh. The meadows, trees and one long flower bed that was full of interesting plants and masses of bees and butterflies, were lovely and the weather was kind.

*^{National Botanic Gardens, Kilmacurragh}*

We then headed to the town of Wicklow for a perusal of the county town and lunch. Already we were finding the Irish people very friendly and, as we sat on the quayside with our fish and chips, a quip from a passer-by, “ahh, fine dining!”, made us giggle.

*^{Wicklow Town Docks – Perfect Spot For Fish And Chips!}*

We took a look at the remains of a Norman castle, (The Black Castle) on a promontory overlooking the town. We loved the views along the coast in gorgeous sunshine.

^{Views From The Black Castle, Wicklow Town}

Jane wanted to visit the hand weaving mill and shop at the ancient and pretty rural settlement of Avoca. Having negotiated our way down some very narrow roads to Avoca and wandered around the shop, we returned to the coast for a wander along one of the long and surprisingly empty beaches on the Wicklow coast.

We then headed home equipped with bits of fruit, nuts, chocolate and crisps for an evening in front of Netflix. To be honest we didn’t eat very healthily until we got to the wedding reception but we did enjoy The Lørenskog Disappearance, which is yet another European crime thriller in which we seem to specialise.

Next morning was rather grey and drizzly. We ventured a quick walk and a breath of fresh but damp air around a section of the nearby Blessington Lakes. These were formed over 50 years ago when the Poulaphoca Dam was built.

*^{Blessington Lakes And Low Cloud Over The Wicklow Mountains}*

Fearing rain, we headed back to the Airbnb to change into our glad rags. In my case that involved squeezing rather inelegantly into a morning suit that I hadn’t worn for decades and that I first wore at my own wedding over 38 years ago. It was a little tight to say the least!

Then we were off to the wedding ceremony. The wedding service, in Nun’s Cross Church, Killiskey, was lovely and cheering. The weather perked up for the photos on the way out and we made our way to the wedding reception.

This was in a giant marquee directly in front of an impressive country house owned by the bride’s family. The estate is managed by her aunt and uncle and, latterly, her brother. The setting and arrangements for the reception were both marvellous. The marquee was laid out for around 170 guests and we all enjoyed an evening of plentiful drinks, lovely food (especially the local lamb), dancing, mingling and celebrating.

It was a late night by the time we got back to the Airbnb, but it had been a thoroughly memorable day.

Spring Visits

April 1, 2022 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

Ok, so yesterday afternoon we had a brief blizzard of snowflakes, but Spring is well and truly here! Trees are starting to reveal their leaves and the blackthorn has been in flower for weeks. Cherries and magnolias are in full bloom. Lambs have arrived in the fields adjacent to and opposite our house. Their carefree gambolling about on wobbly legs is always a huge pleasure to watch at this time of year.

Worryingly, but not unexpectedly given the fact of global warming, Spring seems earlier every year. Even by mid-March I was starting to see a range of butterflies (including Brimstone, Clouded Yellow, Small Tortoiseshell, Orange Tip and Red Admiral). But, whenever Spring feels like it has arrived, it is always a joy.

Once again, during a trip to Edinburgh, the weather was very kind. One time in the future when we visit Edinburgh, all our sunny days there so far are going to be repaid by relentless rain and grey but… not yet!

*^{On Carlton Hill, Edinburgh With FG (Asleep And Out Of Shot)}*

On this trip there was the novelty and pleasure of picking up my Dad on the way and taking him up to Edinburgh with us. That enabled him to see Edinburgh again for the first time in a decade or so but also, critically, to meet his great grandchild (our First Grandchild (FG)). It was actually too, the first time he had me FG’s mother since previous attempts to meet up had been thwarted by train cancellations or pandemic restrictions. The building of new relationships even extended to my Dad meeting FG’s other grandparents over a lovely lunch at their flat.

Of course, Long-Suffering Wife (LSW) and I did our pram-pushing duties to send FG off to sleep while taking in the sights and smells of Edinburgh. (There is a brewery in the city and the smell of hops reminded me of the breweries in my home town of Reading when I was a kid.) Once again we visited the excellent Royal Botanic Garden which was perfect in the sun.

*^{Inside The Alpine Houses At The Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh}*

*^{The Obligatory (But Lovely) Slew Of Daffodils In The Royal Botanical Gardens}*

In the Botanic Garden entrance hall was a colourful and interesting exhibition (called ‘Forth Lines’) of local artists’ embroidery with each of 96 panels depicting a point along the Firth of Forth coastline. FG stayed asleep long enough for me to enjoy it and to encourage my thinking about future walks along that coastline.

*^{Sample Rows Of Embroidery Pieces By Local Artists And Residents Along The Firth Of Forth (The ‘Forth Lines’ Exhibition)}*

*^{One Of The Individual Panels From The ‘Forth Lines’ Exhibition (By Kathleen Wilson)}*

Another exhibition I visited while in Edinburgh was a major exhibition of John James Audubon’s pictures of birds at the National Museum of Scotland. My Dad has long been interested in Audubon and I tagged along since I love exhibitions of this sort and it was great to share the experience with my Dad. It is an excellent exhibition. Our only wish was that there would be more on the process of actually executing the drawings, engravings and colouration – it was clearly a substantial team effort. Regardless of this, the resultant prints on show are stunning and the explanations of them and of Audubon’s life were fascinating.

Audubon was certainly a rather strange character. He was born in 1785 in Haiti to French parents – a plantation owner and his maid – and became a self-trained naturalist, artist and hunter.

Audubon had many contradictions. He owned slaves and dabbled in ideas related to eugenics but took funding from slavery abolitionists. He shot thousands of birds in his life but was also one of the first to document how industrialisation and agriculture were destroying bird habitats. His lack of an academic background meant many in the scientific community in America denigrated him but he was – with his drawing talent, determination to succeed and his wild looks (complete with bear oil slicked hair) – a big hit in the academic and artistic circles of Edinburgh.

*^{Detail From Plate 26 Of ‘Birds Of America’ – ‘Carolina Parrot’ by Audubon}*

It was here and then London that he gained sponsorship for (apparently £2m in today’s money) and published his most famous and hugely popular work, ‘The Birds of America’. The huge volumes consist of 435 hand-coloured, life-size prints of 497 bird species, made from engraved copper plates of various sizes depending on the size of the image. One of the volumes was on show at the exhibition alongside numerous individual prints. The book was extravagantly large because, remarkably, each bird picture it contained was drawn at life size.

*^{One Of The Volumes Of Audubon’s ‘Birds Of America’}*

The prints on show were vibrant and wonderful and the lack of crowds at the exhibition meant that the stunning detail could be seen up close and at leisure. That many of Audubon’s prints boasted incorrectly of newly discovered species or were anatomically incorrect didn’t matter given the high quality of the overall impact.

*^{Detail From Plate 72 Of ‘Birds Of America’ – ‘Swallow Tailed Hawk’ by Audubon}*

The exhibition was also good because it told Audubon’s story about his talent (and the way the world responded to it) interestingly, and it was honest about his flaws. Most of all, it was great to have the afternoon with my Dad sharing something so memorable.

*^{Although We Didn’t Explore It Beyond the Audubon Exhibition This Time, The National Museum of Scotland Is In a Lovely Building}*

To round off March, LSW and I visited The Newt Garden in Somerset for the second time this year. Spring has definitely come to this 350 acre garden and woodland. Already, the myriad varieties of cordon and espaliered apple plants are starting to come into flower.

*^{The Newt Gardens – The Parabola Garden}*

As reported in this blog several times before, it is a wonderful garden which continues to evolve and grow. This time we were able to visit with two friends from our village which added a lovely extra dimension which was topped off by a delicious lunch in the Garden restaurant. I’m looking forward already to visiting again later in the year.

*^{The Gardeners Cottage And Magnolia From The Victorian Garden At The Newt}*

Before that, we have April to look forward to: a re-warming of the weather, the Football League run-in of the final games of the season (I go in hope for Forest Green Rovers), more blossoming of plants and shrubs, thriving seedlings (again, I hope), and Easter with Youngest Son and his partner. Not a bad prospect but what a shame it is the global context of Russia’s dire attack on Ukraine. Spring is sprung but not everyone can appreciate it right now.