The Grand Pavilion

I love the Grand Pavilion at Chelsea - its got everything from floral displays, exotic plants, orchids, fruit and veg displays - difficult to describe, so here's a few photographs.

Chelsea

Last week it was our annual visit to the horticultural event of the year - Chelsea Flower Show. Travel down on train afternoon before, with a good picnic lunch washed down by some nice wine. Quick hop across London to our hotel, where this year we were met by two of our friends who'd had their booking lost by the agency , we ended up with 6 of us in 2 rooms. The room with 4 in was quite cozy! Nice evening stroll through Pimlico down some lovely back streets where we saw evidence of WW2 shelters.

A couple of beers, a visit to the Ale and Pie House, and off to bed reasonabley early, for an early start - we made it to the main gates by about 0815.

That way we get to see the show gardens before the rush. One of my favourites was the M and G Windows Through Time garden which had luscious planting and a ruin that looked like it had been there hundreds of years, not 3 weeks.

Of course I have to mention the Blue Water Garden designed by our very own Professor Nigel Dunnett which was designed to be a sustainable city roof garden and won a well deserved gold medal.

A beautiful garden with a swathe of white cala lilies next to blue irises was the East Village garden - one of my favourites:

Its always interesting to see what flowers are popular, and this year the gardeners had huge problems getting things to bloom because the weather has been so bad. we saw lots of buds, especially of poppies and irises. One flower which had bloomed and was in many gardens was mecanopsis:

and quite surprisingly, cow parsley was there in abundance. Although perhaps not so surprising as you can guarantee it will be out at this time of year.

When we're looking at the gardens, it's nice to imagine what they would be like to have, and a must for me is somewhere to sit and eat, and this was the winning dining area for me:

As well as gardens, there's always a good display of floral arrangements, and this was one of the gold medal winners, quite complex but I quite liked it!

After a coffee and sit down we tend to start on the smaller gardens, of which there are several categories. This year there were Fresh ones, which illustrated more innovative gardening ideas. I liked the Jackson Pollack inspired one which was plated with splashes of colour

and one on a raised platform on a mirror which made it look as though the garden went right underneath.

Chris Beardhsaw's Arthritis research garden was stunning, and we were lucky to catch him in it.

There's always a bit of celebrity spotting goes on!

After a lunch stop, which was wine and fish and chips, there were Artisan gardens to see - more small gardens in a woodland setting. Highlights were a Japansese garden which won best in show for small gardens:

A Hebridean weaver's garden:

A garden call One Stone which had been made from one large stone from a quarry and had some great dry stone walling

And of course, A Yorkshire Garden, representing the start of the Tour de France in Yorkshire next year.

I'm really pleased that it won the People's Award - must have been lots of visitors from Yorkshire voting for it! Nestling in the corner of the garden was the rarest plant in the UK, the slipper orchid. We did wonder how long we'd last if we whipped out a trowel and a bag....

My favourite garden of them all was the one that won Best in Show - the Australian Billabong. Difficult to get good photos of it, but it was fantastic.

So, we had a jug of Pimms, a snip at £22.50, looked round the hundreds of trade stands at things we couldn't afford, and saw the gnomes which has been let into the show for the first time :-)

It was colder than normal, and not quite as colourful because so many flowers were still in bud, but it was still a great day out. Finished off as usual by a meal at St Pancras and a quiet train journey home!

The only thing I haven't mentioned is the Great Pavilion, but that will have to be another post. This one's too long already.

Testing.....

I use Twitterfeed to post my blogs to Facebook and Twitter, and just recently it's been playing up. Done some tweaks and this is a bit of a test post to see if it works. So, here's a picture of the Great Hall at Chatsworth I managed to take on preview day, without anyone else in view. Pretty impressive ceiling!

And there was a rather nice display of botanical paintings:

One last picture, we were allowed up the tower, where you get a view of some of the gardens that aren't normally open to the public:

OK, off to test if this has worked...

Wet Horse Trials

This weekend its the International Horse Trials at Chatsworth, and yesterday we went for the day. Last year's was cancelled because of the bad weather, and I suspect they were hoping for a nice hot weekend this year. Well, thy didn't get it. When we got there it was freezing. And then it started to rain. Having watched Eddie Izzard do a hilarious routine about dressage on Friday night (think trying to reverse a horse into a cupboard), I wanted to see some, but it really was very wet!

We managed to get very close to the falconry display, but the Barn Owl was very bedraggled, and didn't feel much like flying.

One of the harris hawks flew into a nearby tree, which was slightly confusing to her as she was a young one, and had never been in a tree before:

Luckily, she was hungry enough to fly down to the bits of baby chick being offered to her.

It was a shame about the rain, but we wandered round the trade stalls, craft tents, and food stalls, and just as we were leaving the sun came out, so we went down to the water jump (usually known as Queen Mary's Bower) to watch some of the cross country event. This is much more exciting I think.

Enjoyable day, despite the weather. I did feel I was lacking three things though. Brown wellies, a barbour jacket, and a dog.

Camping again...

It's the first May Bank Holiday - so it's our first camping weekend. Last year we had ice on the tent, but we were hoping for something a bit warmer this year! A new campsite  - Upper Hurst Farm near Hartington. A brand new site, only opened last year, and it was lovely. Small, with a facilities block with underfloor heating. Luxury!

Arrived Friday afternoon, had the usual tussle with the tent given it was the first time we'd had to put it up for six months, but got there in the end!

I love our tent - just the right size and very cozy.
Just one disaster - I'd bought a box of fruit for the weekend. But Stuart ran over it.

There was quite a group of us this weekend - 3 tents, 3 camper vans and a gazebo, and eventually everyone was there and set up, so after drinks and nibbles we walked to the nearest pub, The Manifold Inn, for a meal. Back for some nightcaps in the gazebo, and then to bed. Halfway through the night we realised there was something seriously wrong with our airbed - it obviously had a leak!

Saturday morning was a communal breakfast, and then a walk along Beresford Dale.

Half way along we reached Pike Pool so called, according to Charles Cotton, who spent much time fishing in the river here, because of its grey monolith or pike that rises out of the water.

Beautiful walk, and we were treated to all of the kids climbing a steep hill on the way, completely unnecessary, and they would have moaned like mad if we'd made them do it.

Lunch was in the lovely village of Hartington, and then we had a wander round the shops, and called into the famous cheese shop.

Also found a fab Buddha's head in an antique shop, but didn't think it would be sensible to carry it back. After an ice cream by the huge duck pond, and a visit to another pub, we set off back for a shortish walk to the campsite. Some of the stiles were a little narrow for some of the party....

In fact, they were Lily sized:

Back at the campsite the kids played football and ran around a lot, and the grown ups had a civilised rest  - together with some frozen lager:

Then a BBQ, with lots of good food - kebabs, burgers, gammon, sausages, salad, jacket potatoes. In the gazebo someone thought it would be a good idea to make Vampire WooWoos. Not sure entirely what was in them, but they had a layer of black vodka floating on top:

Next morning, with a slightly thick head, we had another communal breakfast and set off on another walk, this time to Whetton for lunch, and then quite a long walk along the Manifold Valley, past Thor's Cave

Past a very welcome ice cream van

and through a disused railway tunnel

Finally we got back to the Manifold Inn  for a welcome pint about 5pm. About 8miles in total, and not bad for our five year old grandaughter to finish. Back to the campsite where the kids were entertained by rides round the site!

Another BBQ, another set of nightcaps in the gazebo, and off to our flat airbed. Next morning was sunny, and we had a lazy breakfast and packed everything away. Our car is packed to the roof, and the tent always goes in first.  We then quickly slam the boot down and slam the doors, hoping they shut.

Normally we would then drive off, but this time we couldn't find the car keys. Till we realised they were still in the tent.  Oops. So, everything unpacked, and guess whose job it was to crawl into the unrolled tent?

Found them, so we eventually set off, and stopped in Hartington where I got my Buddha, and it's now sitting happily in my garden.

Great weekend - some good food, walks, sunshine and smashing company.