July Holiday 1997 - 4

My final day in England is spent driving from Devon across country to Heathrow. I am well-planned, with a couple of famous English gardens and an ancient historical site to visit. And I'm so much closer to going home to my own (not-so-famous) garden...

Friday 25th July

Today I drove to Hestercombe, which (strangely) I really, really liked. It was a formally designed garden, but totally honest, and on a splendid scale. Wandering by Pear Lake I discovered that my last film had stuck and wasn't winding on. Phew! I managed to fix things and get some photographs.

The Somerset Fire brigade live in the house here - strange! The garden is a famous Luytens-Jeckyl collaboration. Purple cornflowers - I want some!

Then I drove on to Marjory Fish's garden. It was messy, and I didn't really like it. But Marjorie Fish was a really important gardener, historically. Anyway, I suspect my thoughts were too focused on going home.

I got hopelessly lost in Devizes. Interestingly this is 'twinned' with four towns, one of which is New Zealand's Oamaru - so the word should perhaps be 'quadded'? But then I found Avebury, and was pestered by an elderly gent with lecherous overtones. What a pity he hadn't met me earlier - we could have taken a tent on top of the Ridgeway - good grief! He almost spoiled my visit, but I threw him off. He'd only started talking to me about the Ashes cricket (Australia playing England) because he thought I sounded Australian.

And finally I hit Heathrow, returned the car, and bought a travel pillow. I'm going home!

Gardener's Comment 2009

I did manage to buy some seeds of those purple Hestercombe cornflowers when I got home. Now I grow them every year in memory!