Top Events To Attend In The UK -Chelsea Flower Show

We are fortunate at home to have a fairly large garden, about 120 feet long which currently is mainly laid to lawn. Now I’m retired, however, I’ve become more interested in growing flowers, plants and vegetables and creating something a little more modern but easy to manage.
With my garden project in mind last year during our three month exploration of Europe we attended Keukenhof which is the famous flower gardens in Holland. They only open for a short period of time during Spring each year and I was absolutely blown away -see previous post “Keukenhof -Beauty, Imagination and Inspiration”. From this grew the idea of attending Chelsea Flower Show here in the UK to maybe glean some more ideas.


Held in London every year it is organised and staged by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It first opened in 1912 and has always been attended by the royal family every year on the opening day. The Queen attended fifty times during her seventy year reign and this year King Charles III and Queen Camilla attended.
Hosted by the Royal Hospital Chelsea this prestigious event has continued to captivate audiences and is one of the most eagerly anticipated horticultural events on the gardening calendar. Despite its presence in Central London every May it isn’t actually the largest flower show in Britain that honour goes to the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival being held this year in July. This horticultural festival, which opened in 1993, has actually grown into the largest flower show in the world, stretching over 31 acres and attracting around 120,000 visitors.

Chelsea Flower Show attracts about 170,000 visitors each year all keen to experience the latest and very best in horticulture across the 11 acres of the site. Tickets are all sold in advance.
The first two days of the show are normally restricted to RHS members only who receive reductions on ticket prices. Thus having explored the cost of membership and looked into the benefits of joining the RHS we decided to join. With my individual membership, hubby and I have free access to all five of the RHS Gardens in the UK plus I normally get in free at any of the 200+ associated gardens in the UK and we just have to pay admission for him. Each associated garden has its own restrictions and sometimes this includes the days they allow reductions with an RHS membership so you do have to check before going. Additionally you also get an informative regular magazine, free gardening advice, access to their app and much more.

Utilising my RHS membership I bought two tickets for the Chelsea Flower Show for the third day. I had wanted the half day tickets which run from 1 p.m. until 8 p.m. but they were sold out so I had to buy the all day tickets giving access from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. I also ordered a brochure which is mailed in advance and is roughly the size of an A5 fairly thick book! That in itself introduced me to the magnitude of this show. It is worth buying this if you wish to read a bit in advance and plan out the sections you really want to see.
The booklet also suggests that it is worth planning your attire!
The weather has been very changeable of late, Spring has never fully sprung and if the run up is anything to go by rain may well come to play.
While there is no specific dress code, researching photos of previous Chelsea Shows will show there is a tendency to dress at least smart casual. While there’s no actual ban on jeans for example, it’s felt that something like linen trousers would make a more sophisticated alternative to jeans. Plus, linen trousers, I’m led to believe from the narrative, can be paired with just about anything; matching blazers, broderie blouses, cotton shirts or fitted tees, to name a few. Are you starting to get the vibe?
I probably should have thought about this more in advance instead of pulling out two or three outfits the actual morning of the event. Not possessing linen trousers it was a choice of a summer dress with three quarter sleeves and trainers or a fitted t-shirt and very colourful cotton trousers. I can’t quite get to grips with wearing trainers with a dress so I opted for the latter.

The intention was to go with my hubby but with his pending operation he waved me off instead at 8.15 to pick up my friend Debbie who lives about thirty minutes away. I chose to drive to the outskirts of London (remaining outside the Ulez zone) which took about two hours, planning to then park up and jump on the fairly new Queen Elizabeth tube line (known in our house as the Lizzy line) into Paddington.
Unfortunately where I normally park has been segmented off into an area of “Permit Owners only”. No doubt the advent of this line and increased Ulez charges have brought more London commuters into the area to park for free on side streets, like we were intending to do. Having driven around to fully understand the restricted area we had to pull over and book a “Just Park” spot on someone’s drive.
Trains run every thirty minutes so we arrived into Paddington at about 12.15. From here we could have taken the tube and then walked the last fifteen minutes from the tube station to the nearest entrance to the show, the whole process taking us about another hour. However to save time we jumped into an Uber.

The first impression on arrival was mixed. There was no real queue despite there being a ticket and bag check area. However once you enter the show proper it felt like being swallowed up by an army of ants.
The Chelsea Flower Show is known to be busy during the day, especially in the morning but this was slightly insane! There is no rushing, you spend a lot of time walking at a snail’s pace. Everyone is either walking towards you or away from you and you have to join this mass movement to navigate your way around.

We had decided to make our way to the show gardens first. I had prepared myself for these and fortunately they had arranged them in the same order as the brochure so reading about them as we went around was made easy.
That being said I arrived, maybe very naively, thinking they would each be about the size of my own garden at home when in reality they were smaller than this and more importantly I thought you could walk around them. No you only get to admire them from behind a post and rope barrier around the outside.
Each garden costs about £180 -£200,000 to stage, has to be built in a three week time frame before the gates open on the first day and has to be dismantled within five days once the gates close on the final day.

I took plenty of pictures but was slightly disappointed not to be able to see them closer up. Additionally you are competing with everyone else there to get your photo so there is a fair amount of standing around, chivying to the front etc involved. Debbie was in her element, being a much more knowledgable and experienced gardener than me spotting plants and shrubs she liked and/or was familiar with.
There were eight gardens to admire and another eight sanctuary gardens on display. This year’s best in show winner was the Muscular Dystrophy UK – Forest Bathing Garden. I’m a complete novice and didn’t really get this display at all. I guess I still have a lot to learn.


However I was pleased to find out afterwards that the People’s Choice Award, voted by attendees, was The Octavia Hill Garden by Blue Diamond with the National Trust. This I could relate to. It is described as “a beautiful plant filled wildlife garden designed to stimulate physical, mental and social wellbeing set within an urban setting.”
There’s no prize money at Chelsea Flower Show – only the prestige of the medals.

Time had crept on and having finished admiring the gardens we headed off to find sustenance. Food outlets are clearly marked on the detachable map within the pre-bought guide. Chelsea offers something for every price point from expensive pre-bookable lunches right down to “street food style” stalls and this is where we decide to head off to. Contained within the Courtyard and Potting Shed areas we are immediately met with another onslaughter of human beings. Every step, garden wall, chair and table are taken and you can barely navigate your way around the food displays for the amount of congested mankind.
The Potting Shed is where the tables and chairs are sited and we both agree to park ourselves in the midst of it all ready to jump on the next available table in our vicinity.
I guess we probably wait about twenty minutes before our stalking pays off. Debbie offers to go off and buy lunch while I sit myself down next to an unsuspecting couple, who very kindly begin to chat to me and even offer me some of their strawberries!
Both from Eniskillen in Northern Ireland they have travelled to London to visit the great city and partake in the show. They had bought a picnic in advance at Marks and Spencer but the picnic area is apparently flooded and thus closed, which might explain the amount of people crushed into this eating zone. It seems we have been very fortunate as despite the rain deluging the event from about 2 p.m. on the first day (Tuesday) right through to teatime on the Wednesday, our day has turned out mainly sunny.
You are allowed to bring food into the show although alcohol is not encouraged. I have quite the chat with this couple before Debbie returns bearing lunch and they offer their good wishes and depart.
Lunch is a wonderful bowl of jerk chicken with various Caribbean style side dishes and I must admit I’m majorly impressed. Dessert comes in the form of a cake bought with a coffee. We later discover that the cake selection is uniform throughout the site at any coffee dispensary. I’m assuming one company covers all the outlets which is a shame because one thing the British are very good at is cake! I tend to feel this limited choice is not only disappointing but also not showing us, as a nation of cake makers, in the best light.

It’s nearly three o’clock by the time we head out and into the Grand Pavilion. Now this is more my style. Avenue after avenue of plants, flowers, floral displays etc. My brochure explains that “It holds over 500 exhibitors from around the world. It houses the All About Plants gardens and the Monument installation, the Discovery Zone as well as all the floral exhibitors and sits at the centre of the show with numerous entrances/exitways.”
The displays are truly beautiful and I’m entranced by the colours, the quantity of different types of flowers on display and even the amount of different species of one flower. There’s a display of delphiniums, for example, in every colour imaginable.

Flower Arrangements have also been created for this section of the competition.

Tropical plants cover another exhibit, a multitude of lillies are displayed, roses, climbing roses, clematis to die for. It is a real attack on the senses.
I’m really impressed with how friendly and helpful all the exhibitors are when you approach them with questions or queries. Debbie is keen to inspect both of the hosta stations and walks away happy with a new drench she can use to ensure the slugs don’t munch their way through this year’s plants.

From the Pavilion we head out to the Balcony and Container Gardens passing several shops and displays en route. I didn’t think this area would necessarily be of interest to me but there are some wonderful ideas that you could easily translate into your own garden.

From here we make our way to the stage area. Yes there is live music throughout the day. En route we pass some great willow huts covered with flowers and plants with some clever ideas for growing vegetables etc. Lettuces in wicker baskets for example which we have both decided to give a go. Debbie managed to pick up a couple of baskets from a local charity shop the. following weekend and when I was out walking a few days ago someone had three wicker baskets on the end of their drive to give away. It seemed like an omen so I will be shopping for lettuce plants this weekend.

Talking about shops, the map clearly shows endless amounts of places to shop at Chelsea Flower shop if this is your vibe. Being new to the show we have focused solely on gardens, plants, flowers etc today and finding a seat by the stage we have a last coffee taking time to chat about our experience. It has been obvious that as the day wore on the crowds dispersed so both of us feel that next time it would be worth ensuring tickets are purchased immediately they go on sale to ensure we can buy half day tickets. The sun is starting to drift away and we finally take our leave at 7.30 p.m.

NB:
This is my second post on key events to attend in the UK. I have plans to visit additional famous events over the next 12 months so look out for additional posts in the future. Please like and/or comment at will.
Maybe there is somewhere you’ve always fancied going and would like a preview, just let me know

Top Events To Attend In The UK -Badminton Horse Trials

As a nation we love to get out and attend key events across the calendar year whether that is the Cheltenham Race Festival in March, the Grand National or the Boat Race in April or Wimbledon in July. Certain dates get marked off on calendars at the start of each year and people turn out, sometimes in their thousands, to support these wondrous spectacles.

Badminton Horse Trials features amongst these and in 2024 it celebrated its 75th Anniversary. First started in 1949 by the 10th Duke of Beaufort, Badminton has since grown to become one of the world’s greatest equestrian events. Classified by the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) as a five star event, it draws the top three day event riders from across the globe.
Located in South Gloucestershire, every May thousands of spectators gather in the 1500 acre grounds of Badminton House, the current home of the 12th Duke of Beaufort, Henry John FitzRoy Somerset, to watch this magnificent test of horse and rider unfold.

Badminton is one of only six competitions in the world to have the CCI 5 Star rating. The season starts with the Kentucky Three-Day Event in the USA on the last weekend of April closely followed by Badminton in early May. Horses and riders then travel to Luhmühlen Horse Trials in Germany in June, before returning, in early September, to the UK for the Burghley Horse Trials. Crossing the channel they then compete at Pau in France in October and then finish the season at the Australian International Three Day Event in November.

2024 is even more significant given it is an Olympics year so worldwide riders are under scrutiny as they take on firstly the dressage test across Thursday and Friday before the cross country course on Saturday and finally the showjumping on Sunday.
Three combinations and a travelling reserve will be selected to represent Team GB in Paris – all three combinations will contest the team and individual medals. A list of twelve nominated combinations, including three reserve combinations, will be announced in late May. From this list, the final squad of three plus the travelling reserve will be chosen in June.  

Prior to the start of Badminton Oliver Townend, the current world number one, was favourite to take the win on his horse Ballaghmor Class. Having won Burghley the previous September on this horse and then secured a win at Kentucky on Cooley Rosalent he was up for the Rolex Grand Slam. Only two other riders have previously achieved this feat by winning all these three five star events in succession. Unfortunately Oliver had to withdraw his horse before the dressage due to an ailment leaving the three day event wide open for other competitors.

I have been going to Badminton since I was a child. When my interest in horses began at the tender age of eight it wasn’t long before I was competing locally in showjumping competitions and starting to become interested in cross country. I still remember my first Badminton, it’s ingrained in my memory, because my heroine, at the time, Lucinda Prior-Palmer (later Lucinda Green) won her first Badminton on Be Fair. She was only nineteen years old! She went on to win the event five more times and still holds the record for the most amount of wins here.
I had no idea what to expect on that first visit but my Dad took me along and together we walked the course. There are around 45 individual jumps, including the combinations, across four miles. In those early days of visiting Badminton wandering around the shopping village was not on the agenda. We didn’t live in that price bracket. It was solely about watching the horses, drinking in the atmosphere and looking out for your favourite riders. I’m pretty sure my Dad didn’t pay for our tickets back in the day. His brother -Michael lived nearby and worked on the Badminton Estate so I’m guessing he helped my Dad and his pony mad daughter out with some complimentary tickets.

Once I left home at the age of eighteen my visits to Badminton became a rare occurrence and I didn’t return to the sport until I was a Mum myself and took my own children along. Since then I’ve tried to go as often as possible and this year was no exception.
The cross-country day at Badminton attracts crowds of up to a quarter of a million and is the second largest in the world for money made (after the Indianapolis 500) but despite this for those wishing to attend it isn’t a cheap day out. Tickets this year were £52.50 per person plus £21 for car parking =£126 for a day out for two!
All tickets now have to be bought in advance. They are slightly cheaper if bought before April 1st but with UK weather being what it is you can be taking a huge gamble if you do this. Walking around Badminton in soggy jeans, muddy boots and an all weather style jacket isn’t much fun in my book.

As it was, the sun finally made an appearance and the day dawned bright and warm. Over the years since I’ve been an adult myself I’ve got into a bit of a routine and tend to get there by 9 o’clock when the shopping village opens.
I make a direct beeline for a programme, closely followed by a check on the up to date score board to see who the overnight winner is following the dressage. This year the reigning Badminton champion Ros Canter (GB) on Izilot DHI delivered a brilliant dressage score of 25.3 to secure first place, followed by Bubby Upton (GB) with 27.3 and then Tim Price, from New Zealand with 27.7.
Next to the scoreboard you can then pick up the list of horses and riders for today’s cross country. Armed with all the necessary information I then tend to go and explore the shops. Most of these, as you can imagine, are geared around the world of horse and rider, which for me is now a distant memory but I will drift in and out of some of the clothing merchandisers and always make a point of visiting The Craft Tent.

Allowing enough time to return to the main arena for the start of the cross country at 11.30 a.m. I finish my tour in the Food Area. There is usually a wide variety of foods to pick from. This year there were over 100 street food vendors serving dishes from around the world. Options included woodfired pizza, tacos, bao buns, Greek wraps, Japanese street food and much more!
Again this wasn’t always the plan, in the past Dad and I wouldn’t arrive so early. We were there purely to watch the horses and riders and would usually retreat to his vehicle to eat our home made sandwiches and flask of tea around lunchtime whilst taking a short break from watching the cross country.

Having watched the first ten riders set off from the main arena hubby and I set off to walk part of the course. With hospital and a major operation still looming for him we didn’t want to overstretch ourselves and commit to the whole thirty two fences.
The cross country at Badminton this year is governed by the great British weather. It feels like it’s not stopped raining since October, as a result the ground is saturated. Despite a few sunnier days in the run up to today the ground is still sticky. Riders will need to take care and, as previously mentioned, with the Olympics looming they won’t be taking any chances. Badminton may be a five star event but nothing overshadows the chance to compete for your country at the Olympics or the welfare of your horse! A rider and their horse are very much in tune with each other. They know each other inside and out and the riders will, no doubt, be totally on their game in terms of horsemanship so they make the right decision for their horse.

Fences One and Thirty Two are in the main arena whilst the rest of the fences loom thick and fast as the course takes an anti clockwise route around the grounds. We head out to fence twelve with the intention of then following the course to jump twenty nine before returning into the arena to watch the remaining competitors come home. The first thing we notice is that the change in weather has brought thousands of spectators out. It seems a lot busier than normal. My interest is in watching the skills of the horse and rider as they attempt to jump the fences and I love to get at least one photo at each fence. Hubby loves photography and has brought a longer lens so he can snap off some real action photos.

Maybe because we aren’t committed to walking the whole course this year, and thus are in no great hurry, I start to notice elements of society behaviour that I would perhaps normally walk past without a glance. Firstly I’m slightly bewildered by the amount of people that are having picnics on the grass in between the fences. They aren’t watching the action at all. I understand the need to take a break, stop and eat but it’s obvious that a lot of these picnickers have been there all day. The empty bottles of wine and champagne, the leftover food lying around, in some cases the sunburning bodies and general frivolity. I must be getting old because I just don’t get it. What’s the point in being here if you have no interest in the primary reason for Badminton -world class horsemanship?

My second observation is the dress attire of some visitors. Maybe I’m old fashioned but Badminton to me has always been about the “country look”. Whether that is a pair of old jeans, last year’s Badminton polo shirt and a good pair of boots or the more classy Tatler uniform of an old family Barbour, muddy Le Chameaus and a black Labrador in tow.
Today I see less country set and more summer dresses. White cotton old English lacy dresses with flat strappy sandals for example. This isn’t a beach in Koh Samui it’s a series of grassy and sometimes muddy fields! Twice during the day I am inadvertently given a full sideways view of a breast where the young lady concerned hasn’t ensured that her top is close fitting enough to avoid such a malfunction. Again I’m bewildered, this is not the Badminton I’ve come to grow and love?

Making our way back to the arena as planned, we walk past the southern end of the tented shopping village and are quite frankly amazed by the amount of people sat around the Big Screen. Again I’m at a loss. Why pay over £100 per couple to come into Badminton to sit, eat and drink (often to excess) in front of a Big Screen watching the cross country unfold. Why not invite a group of friends around to your house, lay on an extravagant buffet complete with unlimited booze and watch it on your 65 or maybe 98 inch television screen at home?

Winding our way past the parked cars “tale gate picnics” are in abundance. This I understand but on the odd occasion we pass a large picnic table with seats for 6-8 people, the table laden with a massive lunch of every conceivable delicacy obviously purchased from Marks and Spencer, Waitrose or the local village delicatessen or purchased in Chelsea that morning. Champagne flows freely, the chat and laughter loud and sometimes boisterous. Again any thoughts about the horsemanship being delivered on the course is far from their minds. Why are you here? Why don’t you set up your picnic on the vast lawn at home and save yourself the entry fee or maybe the entry fee is so inconsequential to them it’s irrelevant.

Finally just before we reach the entrance to the main arena we hear endless barking, whining and whimpers and realise there is a dog creche. Open from 9am until 5 pm each day this tent of dog crates is evidently on offer to those who, for whatever reason, choose to bring their dog with them but don’t wish to actually walk them around.
The cost is £5 per dog per hour up to a maximum of four hours. This turns out to be my final astonishment. Not the cost or even the noise emanating from within but why? Just why? Badminton is full of dogs on leads and always has been. I don’t really understand why you would give your dog the excitement of being here and then lock it up in a dog crate? Wouldn’t the poor canine have been better off at home?

Making it to the main arena we manage to watch the final half a dozen horses go out onto the course before returning afterwards. Not one horse makes it round on time. 62 horses started the cross country but by the end of the day, 9 combinations were eliminated and 12 retired, including the dressage leader Ros Canter so only two thirds make it to the end.

Tim Price (NZ) goes into the final showjumping phase on Sunday as the overnight leader, followed closely by William Fox-Pitt (GB) who at the age of 55 has announced this is his final curtain. 25 years after he made his first appearance here and having come back from a major head injury less than nine years ago he is stepping aside.
In contrast in current third place is 27-year-old Badminton first-timer Lucy Latta from Ireland, a one-horse rider who holds down a full-time job in a drinks marketing company; she rose from 46th place on RCA Patron Saint after dressage with the fastest round of the day, finishing just one second over the optimum time of 11 minutes 19 seconds.

Tomorrow’s showjumping takes place in the main arena, no doubt with a capacity crowd. Tickets for this final phase are bought in advance in order to secure a seat in the arena.
As we drive away I actually feel quite tired but, at the same time, there is that inner sense of having watched something momentous and, at times, amazing as together the horse and rider produce a carefully created partnership. Until next year………………………………….

NB:
This is my first post on key events to attend in the UK. I have plans to visit additional famous events over the next 12 months so look out for additional posts in the future. Please like and/or comment at will. Maybe there is somewhere you’ve always fancied going and would like a preview, just let me know


The Meal Challenge- Making Conversation?!?

As part of our little foray into Cornwall and despite making promises to ourselves to cook and eat in our cottage, we did opt to eat lunch/dinner out on one occasion.
We quite like to eat outside an English pub when the weather is good and have done so on endless occasions during hot weather but it’s a whole different ball game when the weather is as changeable as it has been this Spring here in the UK. Saying that, we were lucky as the sun did pop out for a little bit which meant we were able to shed our coats and actually feel some warmth on our skin.
We chose to eat at “The Tinners Arms ” in Zennor which was recommended by some friends who own a cottage on this peninsula. It’s a lovely little pub built back in 1271 which has sat at the heart of the village of Zennor for over 700 years.

Arriving about 2pm we found the garden quite busy despite it having more tables outside than we probably expected. There are great views across to the sea in the distance, it’s in a lovely rural location and we were soon happily ensconced in conversation.
It has a fairly predictable pub menu but we liked the fact that they utilise local produce. Their website boasts that “with Newlyn fishing port, acres of arable land, and lush grazing pastures on our doorstep, naturally our menus make the most of the local produce grown, reared and landed here. 
You’ll find crab, fresh off Stevenson’s boats at Newlyn, mackerel from Mount’s Bay, meats all reared on local pastures and Moomaid of Zennor ice-cream, churned down the lane at Tremedda farm, all fill the menu with delicious dishes.”

We opted to share a bowl of nachos to start and to be fair this felt like a meal in itself before embarking on our main courses. Hubby opted for the burger and I thoroughly enjoyed a crayfish and avocado salad.
Eating as a couple is one of those adventures that we actually enjoy but have you ever looked around you, done a bit of people watching and clocked what other couples are doing, particularly those in midlife?
Some are like us and never stop chatting. Others don’t say a single word. It’s as though they’ve been together for so long that they have run out of conversation. I guess they could just be happy in silence and in each other’s company but personally I feel those couples are a rare breed and the case is often the former!


In this age of social media, conversation is often substituted by an attachment to a mobile phone. Can you spot the career driven guy who cannot possibly go to lunch with his wife or family without turning his phone off? Sometimes the shoe can be on the other foot and it’s the lady who doesn’t seem to be able to put her phone down.
Many years ago I actually walked out on a guy who answered his phone twice during what was suppose to be a pleasant Friday date night. I just figured I obviously wasn’t that important to him and, therefore, went home. Incidents like this always remind me of the film “Pretty Woman” when Julia Roberts throws Richard Gere’s phone away to ensure he actually switches off from his business.

Then there are those who desperately need to check the phone for messages and social media updates. Often this will be a group of friends usually millennials or GenZ but couples do it as well.
We sat adjacent to a young couple once in a lovely tapas restaurant in Edinburgh. They both arrived looking fabulous, evidently on a date night and then spent their entire meal on their phones texting and taking selfies! At one point we were convinced they were going to text each other across the table what their choices to eat were!
We also witnessed a couple older than us recently sat on on their phones throughout their whole meal as if that was preferable to actually talking to one another!

Finally there are the family groups where Mum and Dad may actually talk to one another, when they can prise themselves away from their phones, but their children are sat at the table, in their buggy or in a high chair with a phone or a tablet in front them watching a children’s programme or even Disney movie. I’m guessing this is to keep them amused. What happened to parenting? Teaching your children table manners and integrating them into society.
I still remember being sat in a restaurant in Tenerife and a family of four sat down at a table opposite us. Before ordering anything from the menu the little girl who was only about two remained in her pushchair and was given a child size tablet and the little boy who was about school age was given a handheld computer to play on. Hubby and I just looked at each other in amazement.

Sorry but I brought two children up on my own. Our first holiday was when my daughter was eighteen months old and my son was just turned three. We went to Fuerteventura for two weeks in June. I thought it was a good idea until I was 30,000 feet up in the air on the way there and we hit turbulence. My daughter was on my lap as she wasn’t entitled to a seat and desperate for a wee my son wasn’t allowed to leave his seat with the seatbelt light on and so he wet himself and the seat! The guy on the inside of us was disgusted and made his views known!
I just wanted to get to the airport and jump on the next plane home. How on earth was I going to manage two children on my own in a foreign country that I’d never been to before?
I didn’t turn tail and run, however, instead I started out slow taking them to a local cafe on our first night complete with plastic tablecloths and a menu with everything and chips and then worked my way up from there. It wasn’t always easy but I persevered and on the last night I celebrated by taking us to an Italian restaurant with proper tablecloths, linen napkins and no childrens’ menu. As dinner wasn’t served until about 7.30 p.m. when my children were usually asleep in bed my daughter actually fell asleep in her spaghetti bolognese but I didn’t care. We’d made it. My children left that holiday knowing how to behave in any restaurant, with proper please and thank you manners and able to use cutlery.

What has happened to having a meal as a social occasion? Chatting and laughing and having fun as a couple or family.
My challenge to you is to make an adventure of your next meal out together, leave your phones in the car and see if you can talk to each other throughout your meal and enjoy each other’s company !

I’d like to finish this series of four posts about Cornwall and our mini break with a wonderful piece of narrative written by D.H. Lawrence which I admittedly “nicked” from The Tinners Arms website but only because I feel it fits not just Zennor but the landscape of the Cornish coast so well.
“At Zennor one sees infinite Atlantic, all peacock-mingled colours, and the gorse is sunshine itself. Zennor is a most beautiful place: a tiny granite village nestling under high shaggy moor-hills and a big sweep of lovely sea beyond, such a lovely sea, lovelier even than the Mediterranean… It is the best place I have been in, I think”

– D. H. Lawrence, 1916.

NB: This is part of a series of four posts I have written about Cornwall. Why not read the others? Please like and/or comment at will

Cornwall -The Amazing Place that is Trebah Gardens

Trebah Gardens is one of the most amazing places I’ve ever visited! Even when I compare it to some of the most famous parks and gardens in the world, that I’ve been lucky enough to frequent, it is up there in my list of Top Ten places to go.

My first ever foray to this beautiful world, tucked away on the Helford River between Helston and Falmouth in Cornwall, was back in 2012. It was the year of the Olympic Games in London, when I stayed with my children in a cottage in Mousehole.
Since then I returned again with my children, for my fiftieth birthday, despite it being around Valentine’s Day and the weather not being so great. There was just nowhere else I wanted to spend my special day which included a fabulous lunch at their on site cafe.

I then dragged my hubby-to-be along to photograph it when we went to Cornwall in February 2016. It was our first ever holiday away together and like me he fell in love with it. I now return there every time I am staying in Cornwall.

Historically Trebah was originally purchased by the Fox family in 1831 and laid out by Charles Fox. Charles was a Quaker and his breadth of knowledge spanned a substantial number of subjects. He was able to draw on this knowledge in order to solve problems as they arose during the planning stages paying particular attention to the exact positioning of every tree. His family had already built Glendurgan Garden just a four minute walk up the road although this garden was later, in 1962, given to the National Trust by his future descendants Cuthbert and Philip Fox.
In 1907 Trebah was sold to Charles Hawkins Hext and then inherited on his death in 1917 by his wife, Alice who died in 1939. Alice was a Cornish philanthropist, garden developer and magistrate and the gardens thrived under her stewardship. She was a keen horticulturist and a frequent exhibitor at county and local garden shows and in her support of these she did much to help allotment holders and small gardeners. The grounds at Trebah were always open to the public and were often used for fetes and garden parties.

After her death and as World War II loomed, Trebah Estate was sold off in small packages, of which the house and garden was one. They fell into decline until 1981 when the then “lost garden” at Trebah was rescued by the Hibbert family, who established a charitable trust to enable the garden to be open to the public once again. It reopened to the public in 1987 and by 1989 visitor numbers had reached 36,000. These continued to increase and following a major grant in the year 2000 the nursery was restored, further major landscaping and garden improvements were made and a cob and thatch arbour in the garden was restored and given the name “Alice’s Seat”.

It’s just such a special place. Paths meander downwards from the entrance towards the private Polgwidden Beach. During the war, Trebah was used for military purposes and the assault on Omaha Beach in Normandy was launched from here.
Every corner you turn something else hits your eyeline and makes you smile or fills the air with a lovely flowery scent that actually stops you in your tracks. There is just so much to explore in this 26 acre, subtropical paradise with over four miles of footpaths. The gardens have been very cleverly managed and established so that there is something to see here whatever the season. Their website sums this up really well……
” In spring, Trebah comes alive with a colourful array of 100-year-old rhododendrons, magnolias and camellias. In summer, the giant gunnera is a must see for young and old.
In autumn, Hydrangea Valley casts clouds of china blue and soft white across Mallard Pond. In winter, our spectacular champion trees dominate the landscape, whilst plants from the southern hemisphere start to flower.”

There are so many things I love to do here:
Try just sitting -do a bit of people watching or just close your eyes and listen. Really listen, to the sound of the birds up in the high treetops or the lonely little bee buzzing nearby as it stops for it’s nectar feed.
Take a book with you – sit for a while and just lose yourself in your book surrounded by nature at its glorious best. There’s a great seat up on the eerie overlooking the beach at the bottom of the garden on the right as you look out to sea that just seems to be meant for this purpose.
Sit yourself down in one of the shaded glades and lose yourself to your own imagination. I find this place so magical I can almost hear the whispers of the fairy folk as they go about their day carefully avoiding being seen by us super humans!

Next time you are in Cornwall pay Trebah a visit, luxuriate in your surroundings and see, if like me, you fall under it’s spell.

NB: This is part of a series of four posts I have written about Cornwall. Why not read the others? Please like and/or comment at will

Walking The South West Coast Path From Penzance to Mousehole in Cornwall

The South West Coast Path is the UK’s longest and best-loved National Trail. Stretching 630 miles from Minehead in Somerset it runs along the coastline of Exmoor, then North Devon and into Cornwall. It follows the entire coastline of Cornwall, goes across the mouth of the River Tamar and continues across to Devon. After running along the south coast of Devon it then follows the Dorset coastline before finally ending at Poole Harbour.

Many years ago when my son was seventeen and in Year 12 at school, which in the UK is that interim year between GCSE’s and A’Levels, we had planned to walk part of the Cornish section from Hartland Quay near the Devon/Cornwall border to Lands End, a total of 150 miles. I made all the plans, I trained at the gym, I even did some practice coastal walks. My son then got accepted onto a summer programme at a prestigious Drama School in London and we never went. I was somewhat younger then and a lot fitter than I am now. A dream unfulfilled.

Wherever you live in the world, if you love hiking, enjoy coastal walks and the associated flora and fauna think about this challenge. You don’t have to do the full 630 miles, just choose a section that meets your needs, I promise you won’t regret it! southwestcoastpath.org.uk has all the details you need to start planning.

This walk that we did from the centre of Penzance to Mousehole is only a six mile round trip. It’s a gentle stroll but has stunning views. We were lucky with the weather, the sun was finally peaking out through the clouds and we started by first taking a look around Penzance itself.
The town is famous for being an ancient market town and historic port with a settlement dating back to the Bronze Age. There are some lovely architectural buildings dating from the Georgian and Regency era and the Market Building, which dates back to the 1830’s, was built in the Greek Revival style.
Despite being the most westerly town in Cornwall it is unfortunately, in my opinion, turning into one of those forgotten seaside towns. There are many scattered around the UK which appear lost in time. Local councils seem to be failing in their efforts and financing to sustain any vibrancy and the towns just seem to become sad and dejected.
The centre of town does, however, have that cobbled street, olde worlde vibe with historic buildings, where you walk down the pavement and can imagine sailors from times of yore falling out of ale houses whilst the gentle Cornish folk go about their daily lives.
There are several big name brand shops and some smaller independent traders as well as several Cornish pasty shops so it is worth an hour of your time to wander around.

Penzance is a major transport hub being the final terminus for GWR trains from London Paddington. Cross Country rail also run out of Penzance, connecting the town to many other cities stretching from Birmingham to Scotland with a daily service operating from Aberdeen on the north east coast of Scotland into Penzance; a journey time of over 13 hours, this is the longest direct rail service in the United Kingdom.
I love the exterior welcome sign at the station which is written in Cornish. Adjacent to the
railway station is the bus and coach station where National Express operates coach services into London Victoria, a journey that takes nine hours via London Heathrow Airport.  
The A30 road also passes just north of the centre of town as it makes its way from London to Lands End.
The town also offers a ferry across to the Sicily Isles with a sailing time of about two and a half hours or alternatively you can fly by helicopter from the local heliport. Your third choice is to catch the Skybus Airline Service which connects with Land’s End Airport for fixed wing flights to the Isles of Scilly. 

We started our walk from Penzance at the Quay next to the ferry terminal walking around the corner to Jubilee Pool which is one of the oldest surviving Art Deco swimming baths in the country. Following Battery Road which soon becomes the Western Promenade we remained on the left hand side of the road, on the esplanade which becomes wider the further that you walk. Effort has been put in to provide a variety of seating options along the route, including some giant pebbles, should you wish to stop and rest or take in the magnificent views out to sea whilst also watching the world go by.

Further along the route you will come across the Wherrytown Skateboard Plaza where we stopped to watch the antics of the local youngsters as they took advantage of this installation. Shortly after this we came into the fishing town of Newlyn.
This is one of the busiest fishing ports in the UK with more than 600 vessels at 49 landing stations. It has its own Fish Market auctioning the day’s catch of up to 40 different fish species. Apart from admiring all the fishing boats in the harbour it’s definitely worth stopping to look back across Mount’s Bay to your left where the majestic St Michael’s Mount is clearly visible topped by it’s castle dating back to the 11th century. The island can be visited but access is somewhat governed by the tide if you wish to walk across. Information can be found on their website.
There are a few shops and places to eat in Newlyn if you fancy a browse. The Mackerel Sky Seafood Bar is definitely worth a visit if you, like us, love fresh fish and seafood. It is only small inside though with most of the seating outside. It does also get busy and they don’t take bookings but the food is honestly worth it.
We chose to move on and navigated our way through the little white stone houses onto The Strand, which we then followed out of town in order to head on towards Mousehole. You will pass a few fresh fish shops on your right hand side. We managed to purchase some for our dinner and they kindly kept it until our return journey to save us having to carry it throughout the walk.

Leaving Newlyn behind you have to walk along the pavement of the main road for a period of time until the pathway meanders off to the left, initially making its way through a quiet grassy area and then back out onto the coastline with rugged rocks appearing below you. Nestling close to the water’s edge the sea stretches off into the horizon before the path takes an upward turn to the aptly named Cliff Road.
The Old Penlee Lifeboat Station will soon appear just down on your left. It was closed for active service back in 1983 following the Penlee Lifeboat disaster. Sixteen people, including eight RNLI crew on the lifeboat Soloman Browne, lost their lives in hurricane conditions while trying to rescue passengers on board the cargo ship Union Star, which was on its maiden voyage on 19 December 1981. The walk continues on into Mousehole via The Parade.

Mousehole (pronounced Mowsul) itself is just a quintessentially beautiful Cornish fishing village with its own cute little harbour and surrounding narrow streets with shops and places to eat. You have to take a meander and lose yourself amongst the mazelike pathways. My mind wanders gladly to a bygone era when pirates possibly marauded through these streets having made their way up from Penzance. Yes the opera is based upon real life when the area was affected by what was called Barbary Piracy.
Returning to the harbour, if the tide is out you will be blessed with a small but safe sandy beach on which you can sit and relax. If you fancy a swim Mousehole has its own Rock Pool which is a natural tidal pool and a great spot for a wild sea swim. You may even see some seals out in the bay beyond.

No visit to Cornwall for us is complete without partaking of at least one Cornish pasty and a cream tea, On this occasion we stopped on our way back out of Mousehole at The Rock Pool Cafe. This cafe perched just above the shoreline reopened in 2023 under new Management and has spectacular views over the bay. Basking in the long awaited afternoon sun we happily munched our way through our scones with clotted cream and jam (Don’t forget you are in Cornwall the jam goes on first) before making our way back to Penzance.

NB: This is part of a series of four posts I have written about Cornwall. Why not read the others? It is also the first post I’ve written about walking. More to follow.
Please like and/or comment at will

Does The Ideal Holiday Accommodation Actually Exist?

I’ve been hiring cottages since Christmas 1988 when I went with my then boyfriend to a cottage overlooking a lake in Snowdonia somewhere.
Over the years your needs change and as I now find myself retired and holidaying on the whole with just my husband, we continuously strive to find that unique but elusive place to stay that we want to return to again and again. Unfortunately it still currently alludes us.

I think it is important to establish exactly what you are looking for. Once upon a time I was a marketeers dream being seduced by pictures of “chocolate box” cottages covered in pink roses with low ceilings and that olde worlde charm throughout.
Now we have both hit midlife there are far more practical considerations to take into account and I find myself often trawling through copious amounts of adverts on sites only to be disappointed at the end.

Firstly where do you look? I’ve narrowed it down to VRBO, Booking.com (who are now branching out into this type of accommodation) and Holiday Cottages.co.uk ( who have always been my provider of choice in these circumstances). I also sometimes look at cottage websites local to where I wish to stay. The free cancellation and book now, pay later options with Booking. com are really tempting plus I can also earn Avios (the new name for airmiles).
Previously I would have always looked on Air BnB as well but after our six months away travelling last year I’ve started to veer away from them. We stayed in many different Air BnB’s throughout Western Europe and America and to be honest overall we weren’t that impressed. We scored our accommodations from 1-10, the lowest scored a 1 and the highest reached a 7. There was nothing outstanding that we would return to again.


I think the problem is you are relying upon the owners’ honesty. Honesty in terms of their description and photos and often more concerning we found were their omissions.
The internal photos and description might be accurate but they fail to tell you, for example, that there are seven apartments above the shop and not just your one. Seven apartments with wooden staircases and six of those are above you so you hear everyone coming in and out at all hours of the day. I won’t dwell on this because I wrote about our European accommodation in detail on my post entitled “Lessons Learnt On Our European Adventure”.

What are we looking for?
On this occasion we are looking for a cottage in a village in Cornwall. We are not “open plan type folk”. Don’t get me wrong there may be the odd occasion in the future where this type of set up will suffice but on the whole we like to find somewhere with it’s own living room, kitchen and preferably dining room although this isn’t a prerequisite as long as there is adequate room for a table.
Ideally we need two sofas. Why? Because hubby is 6 ft 3 and likes to stretch out and despite being only 5ft 2, I don’t want to spend my holiday scrunched up in a corner.

It would be nice to have a bath and a shower. We both shower every morning but when I’m away relaxing I also like to chill out sometimes and relax in a bubble bath or in hot bath-bomb scented water with a good book or a magazine. After all what are holidays for?
The bathroom needs to be upstairs. None of that getting out of a hot shower and having to run barefoot up the stairs, usually across a tiled floor or trying to find the loo in the middle of only a star lit night sky!

Being tall hubby also needs a bed with no upright base at the bottom otherwise he has to sleep in the fetal position throughout our stay and won’t be able to stretch out. A double bed is fine, anything bigger is a bonus. I must admit you do get spoilt in America where everything comes kingsize or even super king!
Goodness knows what they think when they come over here on holiday? We had to smile recently when watching a programme on Paramount+ where US couples were house hunting for holiday homes and found it strange that the places they were looking at in the Caribbean didn’t have double sinks in the bathroom! They don’t in the UK either and we often don’t have mixer taps either!

Finally there has to be somewhere to park Conan.
Conan is my bright red Barbarian L200, bought seven years ago. I had wanted a Barbarian ever since I had sat in one at Badminton Horse Trials on the Mitsubishi stand many years ago and so finally after my career ended and I left my company cars behind, I found him.
He is my best mate and doesn’t like small tight parking spaces . He has his own character like all those in the film “Cars” and we look after each other. I make sure he gets a good clean inside and out if we are going away, that the oil, water and tyres are fine and that he has plenty of food and he makes sure we get everywhere ok. Together we are a partnership and he will be with me until the end. We celebrated going on an eight week UK tour in 2021 together with me buying him a tattoo. It’s on the drivers door!

So armed with all this information I finally found what I hope is a nice cottage in Cornwall for a period of relaxation and recuperation. On arrival we find that the “parking outside” is actually across a kerb. Conan can just about fit but if you had a car with a low chassis you would not be impressed. We did try parking across the other side of the road but a lady came out and asked us to move. Apparently in this particular Cornish village she decides who parks on that side of the highway! A great way to start our holiday.

The description states the cottage is in a village and it is but the road that goes through the centre of it, directly outside our temporary home, is busy with cars, lorries n buses, so not the quiet country idyll we thought it would be.

Worse is inside! We discover our bedroom overlooks the road so I guess we won’t be sleeping with the window open. The photos on the listing have also been adapted, shall we say, to make everything look bigger and brighter. Hubby is into photography and takes great pleasure explaining to me how the photos have been staged to make it look like the summer sunshine is sparkling through the windows. The reality is that we will be spending our whole time with the living room light on whenever we are chilling on the sofas.
There is also no mention of height restricting doorways, the famous omission I was talking about earlier. The laugh is these are not olde, worlde door frames, they have been put in purely for aesthetics as above each one is plaster board wall! Hubby is not happy, banging his head several times on the first night and threatening to go home before our holiday even begins! He does adapt, however, walking around the cottage like a hobbit in a permanent crouch. I guess I shouldn’t laugh!
So finally settled into our temporary home our holiday begins………………………………

NB: This is part of a series of four posts I have written about Cornwall. Why not read the others? Please like and/or comment at will



Weston-Super-Mare -The Great British Seaside

Like most people in England, at the moment, I’m wondering whether climate change has finally hit the country hard. The rain just doesn’t seem to stop falling! In fact rainfall over England in the last six months has been the wettest on record.

The average UK winter has become around 1C warmer and 15% wetter over the past century, new Carbon Brief analysis shows.
This analysis covers more than 100 years of data on temperature, rainfall, wind speed and snow, to assess how UK winters have changed.
The data shows that extremely warm and wet winters are becoming more common. Six of the ten warmest winters on record were in the 21st century, and four of these also rank in the top ten wettest years on record.

As a consequence of all this rain it feels like Spring has not sprung! Here we are starting May, the third month of Spring and only now are we seeing some warmer weather.

With the first rays of sun finally poking through the sky we ventured down to Weston-super-Mare in North Somerset for a nostalgic day out at the great British seaside.
We parked at the Uphill beach car park in order to be able to walk the full expanse of the beachfront. Weston is famous locally and even sometimes nicknamed Weston-Super-Mud because of how far the tide goes out. It has the second highest tidal range in the world, only being beaten by the Bay of Fundy, located in Canada, between the provinces of Nova Scotia and Brunswick.
The town’s name is made up of two Old English or Saxon words meaning the west tun or settlement. Because there are several places called Weston in Somerset descriptions were added to tell them apart. Super (with small s) means on or above, and mare is Latin for sea.

The weather forecast didn’t include any rain but alas it wasn’t correct yet again and during our first venture across the sandy bay we soon got caught in a downpour.
The extensive beach is incredibly clean despite often featuring in the Top 10 Dog Friendly beaches in the UK. Dog walkers at Weston are evidently very careful and happily clean up after their pooches.
Dogs are not allowed on the area of the beach between the Grand Pier and Royal Sands from the start of May to the end of September, but are free to go on the rest of the beach.

The views out to sea are quite captivating with Bream Down off to our left and Steep Holm island in front of us.
Whilst visits can be made to the island from Spring to Autumn organised by the Trust who now own it, the island is now uninhabited, with the exception of the wardens. It is protected as a nature reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) with a large bird population and plants including wild peonies.
Just tucked off behind and to the right of Steep Holm is Flat Holm. This island is just four and a half miles from Cardiff, the bay of which we can spot on the horizon, but the island itself is only half a mile wide. Flat Holm is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and Local Nature Reserve. Run by Cardiff Council, the Flat Holm Project conserves the island’s natural and cultural features, from maritime grassland to Victorian barracks, from seabird colonies to wartime bunkers. There are pre-organised boat trips to the island that depart from Cardiff several times a month. The trips allow you up to three hours on the island, depending on tide times. Longer stays, retreats and workshops are also available.

Walking on across the sand there is no sign of the donkeys for which Weston is also famous. Donkey rides have been available since 1886 in Weston Super Mare and certainly feature amongst my childhood memories. The tradition started in Victorian times, but is now much less popular.
When I was a child Weston was my local seaside resort and my Mum would organise day trips by coach and on occasion, when money would allow, even a whole week away at Weston during the summer. Weirdly I never remember it raining. My memories are just full of hot summer days.
Being fair of skin my Mum used to slather us with suntan cream, pay to hire a couple of deck chairs (my sister and I had to share one) and the day would be spent building endless sandcastles, trips in and out of the sea and picnics complete with sand in my sandwiches. As we became older we were permitted to go to the ice cream kiosk alone for an obligatory cone with a flake. Then as late afternoon drew in we would pack up our belongings and head off to the nearest chip shop for our fish and chip supper, eaten out of old newspaper of course whilst sitting on the cold concrete balustrade watching the tide come in.

I often smile at today’s coffee culture and reflect back on those seaside trips when tea came in a flask and not out of a cup. On the odd occasion that we were on holiday for a week my Mum would walk along the sea front in an attempt to find the cheapest cup of tea for sale at a cafe. Children didn’t drink coffee back in those days, it was tea or maybe as a treat pop. Mum would honestly turn in her grave at the prices now charged at Starbucks, Costa and the like!

The pier, although clearly visible from the onset of our walk is about two miles on from our starting point. No visit to Weston or in fact any British seaside resort is complete without a spin on the slot machines. We pay our pound to enter the pier and venture out to the Grand Pavilion at the end. The pavilion has, in fact, been destroyed by fire on two occasions, in 1930 and 2008. This latest version was opened in October 2010 having cost £39m to rebuild.

It is, in fact, one of two major piers in the town. Birnbeck Pier, known locally as the Old Pier is situated further along the coast beyond Knightstone Island and was built between 1864 and 1867 some 37 years before the Grand Pier. Birnbeck is a unique structure, being the only British pier that links the mainland to an island. It unfortunately closed in 1994 and now stands derelict.
Thirty years later this old pier is starting to make a comeback. Purchased by the local council in 2023, architects and engineers were appointed in September 2023 and restoration work is planned to be carried out in phases between 2024 and 2027. A planning application for the first phase was submitted in April this year.

Back on the Grand Pier which features indoor rides and arcade machines year round as well as the ubiquitous candy floss stall, ice cream kiosk and a tearoom also has a land train during peak holiday season. The attraction for us today, along with being inside out of the less than hot weather, is a trip down memory lane on the old two pence machines. Like all those around us we slip out two peas into the slots and watch them whisk themselves down the tube to the moving step at the bottom. The knack is to ensure your two pence falls flat on the step so when the machine next pushes all the coins forward your two pence falls down onto the step below. This is turn is then pushed forward in the hope that the coins on the step all move forward releasing those teetering on the edge of the bottom step to fall off and into the tray below. It’s hard to believe that all these years on these machines are still in popular given the movement of arcade machines towards ever more modern equipment in line with games played at home on X-boxes etc.

Hubby, who has far more experience than me on these machines, having been brought up within easy travelling distance of Southend-on-Sea, another large seaside resort on the Essex coastline soon hits the jackpot and loads of paper of tickets start flowing from the machine he is playing. Whilst he gathers up the reams of tickets I try and find an attendant to discover what we actually do with these tickets. We are directed upstairs to the gift/prize shop. I can’t believe like two excited school kids we are rushing upstairs to spend our bounty!
Despite having 600+ tickets we soon realise our only option is to exchange them for sweets. But laden with several white mice, maom packets and a couple of large sherbet lollies we still leave the arcade happy and feeling as if we have won something.

Turning left out of the pier we head towards Knightstone Island and Marine Lake. This is a lovely little part of Weston seafront. Knightstone Island was the location for Weston’s first purpose-built seawater baths. A public pavilion, theatre, and swimming baths were added in the early 20th century. it was underused for many years and when I used to visit as a child, I don’t remember much about it. The buildings were then revived in 2007 with the whole island being redeveloped primarily as flats and offices.
As noted on their website “Marine Lake is nearly 100 years old, it was originally equipped with a diving stage, rafts, rubber boats, water chutes, and children’s paddle boats. There were hundreds of bathing tents and dressing enclosures to protect bathers’ modesty. When it opened the lake was an instant success, being used by more than a quarter of a million people during 1929.
It still offers a safe and clean method to swim whilst visiting Weston seafront. At its deepest point it is about 15 metres deep but it varies according to the tidal height. Occasionally the whole Lake will go underwater. If you look carefully at the sea walls along the lower walkway you can see the height markings.”

I still get an odd bolt of happiness going across the walkway. For some bizarre reason it always takes me back to RE at school and the story of Moses parting the sea.
Reaching the other side if you turn left you can make your way around to the old Birnbeck Pier but with tummies rumbling we head off, instead, to “Papas Fish and Chip” shop. Highlighted on a programme we watched featuring Pam Eyres called Cotswolds and Beyond we felt that a day out at the seaside wouldn’t be complete without finishing it off with a fish and chip lunch. Papas was founded by Photio’s Papas in 1966 and boasts many other seaside outlets around the UK.

We chose to sit in the restaurant rather than to pay for takeaway, purely because we felt in need of a rest and the wind on the seafront was beginning to blow. We couldn’t fault the service, staff or food and on leaving we were ready to walk back along the seafront to the car.

There are many seaside resorts around the coast of the UK we have visited on our travels. We’ve walked from Ramsgate to Margate down in Kent and revisited Southend in Essex when Jamie Oliver was making his programme “Jamie and Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast” . Southend boasts the longest pleasure pier in the world. We popped into the seaside and university town of Aberystwyth when visiting West Wales, stopped off at Saltburn by the Sea in North Yorkshire en route from York to Edinburgh and spent a weekend when we first met down in Brighton. These are only a few memories that I’m mentioning here. The point is we live on an island and the seaside is such a great part of our traditions, it’s worth making the effort and paying a visit.


Retirement -How Do You Get It Right?

Whenever I thought about retirement when I was younger and it seemed a long way off, I just imagined a time when work was history and I would be totally free to wander at will. Do what I want, when I want.
However what I’ve discovered is that retirement isn’t that easy.

My first thoughts about retirement occurred when I was 45 years old. Work was getting harder and harder. As a company, and I’m sure we were not unique, people were being lost through natural wastage and not being replaced. I found myself doing more and more and working longer hours.
I worked in an environment ruled by legislation whether that was Health and Safety at Work, Employee Legislation, Health and Hygiene Legislation or more specific laws relating to Customs and Excise and Gaming. Any major change was always accompanied by a one day workshop or if more complicated and in-depth by up to a week away being retrained. Suddenly the internet and more importantly powerpoint displays and email replaced these in person training sessions with missiles of training material displayed on the computer to print off and read or just read and store. There was no interaction and more importantly no one to answer your questions. This was apparently evolution. I began to question for the first time ever whether I wanted to be part of this anymore but with two children depending on me it felt like there was no escape so I plotted my exit. Ten years and counting……
My children by then would be 21 and 23 and, therefore, hopefully off hand. I dreamt of selling my house and buying a two bedroom flat and more importantly a motorhome. Off I envisioned going, in my motorhome, to explore initially the UK and then Ireland and ultimately Europe and beyond. That dream kept me going until two major changes occurred. Firstly I left my career before my planned retirement and secondly five months after this I met my now husband.

I retrained and began a new work life in a completely different arena ultimately working for myself. However it became so successful that hubby and I became like passing ships in the night and never really saw each other except sometimes at weekends. As a result with very little notice we booked a week off and took ourselves off to Cornwall to take a breather and to dedicate one entire day to the future. Could this current lifestyle continue? Were we happy? How could we change it?
Completely out of left field we realised we could survive without my income and that my pension pot could temporarily remain untouched whilst hubby worked for another five years to pay the bills. His financial contribution over those five years meant that this money combined with his pension pot was nearly in line with my own and so, with just two weeks notice to my clients, on February 19th, only six days after I had originally planned to retire all those years ago, I stopped working.

I had no plan. I’d not thought about what I was going to do as a lady of leisure. Suddenly it had happened and my paid working life was behind me. The lists that had ruled my life in order to keep me on track both at work and at home could perhaps now disappear.
Initially it felt like being on holiday but this feeling soon wore off. There was an element of guilt that he was going out to work each day and I was at home. There was that old fashioned view in my head that now I wasn’t working I should be filling my time being a dutiful housewife so he could come home to a home cooked meal, a neat, tidy and clean house and that I was somehow accountable to him for my time.
Instead of ditching the “to do lists” I found myself filling my time with them. Tasks that I’d always meant to do when I was working but never got round to. Those jobs when you are working where you say to yourself “oh I’ll do it on my next day off” or “When I have a week off from work I’ll get that done”. But you never do get them done because life is already hectic enough and weirdly when you get time off you actually want to spend it being happy and enjoying yourself.
It began to feel like I was working at home for no pay. After six months this all came to a head and I actually began to talk about going back to work.

Just as we were beginning to unraffle all these feelings, life took another turn when my sister became ill and I had to take on her care. Suddenly my time was being filled travelling up and down the motorway, ensuring she was fed and comfortable whilst picking through the end of her ten year relationship and securing her somewhere new to live. Time at home was spent chasing the social services, mental health team and learning about her ailment -disassociative amnesia, which I’d previously had no knowledge of. Professional support was sporadic and I found myself falling back on my management skills to devise strategies and implement aids to make her daily life easier and of course there were the inevitable lists. I didn’t want to “drop the ball” so to speak balancing her care alongside our life at home.

Fast forward eighteen months and Covid took over the world and suddenly both hubby and I were at home and our lives took on another new dimension. In terms of my retirement it forced me into relinquishing some of the responsibility for my sister as I couldn’t visit so she had to take more care of herself, within a supported style living environment, with me solely on the other end of a telephone.
Hubby returned to work after three months but Covid rolled on with the final lock down releasing us back to normal life another thirteen months later.

I did manage to take up some exercise once local leisure facilities reopened but with a wedding to plan, that had already been postponed twice due to Covid, the lists came back into play. Returning from the honeymoon having decided that we should head off travelling for six months in less than a year’s time, the lists came back again. “Microsoft To Do” was my fallback zone. Add it to a list so you don’t forget Tina!

Wedding and honeymoon over and travelling complete, hubby then retired. Suddenly we were both at home full-time. It felt odd. The reality of retirement seemed to be staring me in the face. We planned to go out once a week to enjoy ourselves and revel in this new found combined freedom but the weather or some other seemingly urgent task meant we didn’t have time and the lists kept being ticked off.

Roll forward to hubby’s recent serious illness and it was as if nature was once again taking control and making me take stock. With hubby in hospital all those things to do on those lists were suddenly my sole responsibility. Trying to balance visiting him which took a minimum of two and a half hours a day, maintaining my exercise schedule to help my own health issues, keeping on top of everything at home whilst also ticking things off the “to do lists” very quickly became a strain. It was as if once again the universe was talking to me and telling me something needed to change.
What happened next sounds so simple but whilst hubby was in hospital I took myself off to visit a friend one Sunday. Whilst we had worked in entirely different careers she had also experienced the balancing act of hitting deadlines at work whilst overseeing her home and family and understood “the list” phenomenon.
She is still working having retired for three months and then taken up a temporary position for three months that grew into six months, nine months and beyond. Her one question to me was “who is putting this pressure on you to deliver on these to do lists?” The realisation was “Me”. I was doing this to myself. It was the way I’d worked for nearly forty years. It was ingrained.

When I got home that day it was as if I had truly had an epiphany. One of my philosophies in life has always been “Everyone deserves to be happy and if you aren’t happy then only one person can change that, you!’
Here I was in charge of my own happiness, my own destiny and all I needed to do was change my outlook. Stop using to do lists and just do what I want. I set about condensing the lists, then removing any dates attached to the tasks and weirdly just this process changed my mindset. This wasn’t a to do list anymore this was merely a reminder of things I needed or wanted to do. No one was controlling me. I could actually be retired as I had planned, doing what I want when I want and so six years on from retiring I now actually feel retired. My life is happier, definitely has less pressure and time spent on my hobbies increases each week.

Life is a continual learning curve and there, no doubt, will be many people out there reading this and thinking “Why did it take her so long to realise this?” or ” that’s hardly revolutionary”. But I’ve learnt that retirement is an evolution not a revolution. There is no right or wrong way of doing retirement, it’s about creating a new world for yourself that you are happy with. That allows you the freedom, having shaken off the shackles of work, to be happy in your own new world.

I do appreciate that some people would consider us lucky to have visited the places we have already and done some of the stuff we’ve done. But we are not lucky, we were just sensible. Money buys you freedom and we both worked hard to pay into a pension fund so that we didn’t have to rely solely on the state pension. The UK OAP pension scheme doesn’t pay us out anything until we are 67 and yes it, on its own, will give you freedom from work but not necessarily happiness and a stress free lifestyle.

The lesson that the universe has recently taught both hubby and I is one we thought we already had under our belt ” life is not forever”.
When you are listening to a heart surgeon tell you “had you not collapsed you would never have had these tests and you would never have known about this anomaly you have with your heart and in two years, three years tops you would have collapsed and died” is a sobering, some would say, life altering moment.

It makes you stop in your tracks and really ask yourself the question “If this is your last day on this earth, what would you regret?” It sure as hell isn’t that you failed to mop the kitchen floor today or forgot to empty the dishwasher. It isn’t the wall you never got around to painting in the bedroom or the lawn that never got mowed on its two weekly schedule. It’s missing out on what makes you happy. It’s not being able to create any more memories with the people you love. If you are like us and enjoy holidays and travelling, it’s running out of time to tick off all those places you wanted to visit and explore.


The Cotswolds – The Gardens of Blenheim Palace

On the far right or Eastern side of The Cotswolds, only nine miles from Oxford, is the wonderful English Baroque Palace of Blenheim. It is the only non -royal, non -episcopal country house in England to hold the title of a Palace.
Sited adjacent to the village of Woodstock, which in itself is worthy of exploration given it was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, the Palace was built between 1702 and 1722.
Named after the 1704 Battle of Blenheim it was originally intended to be a reward to John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough for his military triumphs against the French and Bavarians in the War of the Spanish Succession which culminated in the Battle of Blenheim and the Palace has housed the Marlborough dynasty ever since.
 It is currently the home of the Twelfth Duke of Marlborough, Charles James Spencer-Churchill. Historically the Palace was also the birthplace and ancestral home of Winston Churchill, whose father Randolph Churchill was the third son of the 7th Duke of Marlborough.

With the sun finally making an appearance following what feels like months and months of rain we utilised our annual membership, received as a result of tickets purchased for their Christmas Light Show back in December 2023, to visit. Our original plan was to explore both the interior of the Palace and then its grounds.
We discovered, however, the day prior to our visit that the Palace was closed due to filming commitments. This is not a rare phenomenom. In fact a survey in 2021 noted that Blenheim made 71 appearances in film and television, more than for any other English country house, so it is worth checking their website before making plans to visit.

Armed with a paper leaflet complete with map we were quite happy to walk off our lunch purchased at the onsite Oxford Pantry which sells salads, sandwiches, hot savoury snacks, hot and cold drinks and wonderful cakes. We do love a cake!
We began our wander of the extensive grounds, which cover 150 acres, with an exploration of the Formal Gardens walk and it wasn’t long before we came across The Secret Garden.

Designed originally as a private garden for the 10th Duke of Marlborough it is now open to the public. Despite the multitude of cars we had seen and experienced on arrival the gardens appeared, on the whole, to be pretty empty. This gave us the opportunity to sit and really enjoy the peace and tranquillity that this small oasis allowed. We would have quite happily sat and read a book in the sunshine had we come prepared.
Leaving the Secret Garden behind we walked onto the Temple of Health. This Corinthian temple was designed by John Yen and built in 1789. It celebrated George III’s recovery from illness.

Branching off on a slight tangent we ventured off to the left and entered The Walled Gardens. This immense kitchen garden surrounded by a 14 ft high wall to protect the fruit and vegetables from hungry deer is one of the original features of the Palace Gardens designed by Henry Wise. Today this area incorporates the Butterfly House which opened in the 1980’s and is home to many species from around the world. Refreshed this year they have endeavoured to make it an even better environment for both the tropical butterfly species present and the zebra finches.
Spring flowers abound including Amaryllis and Fritillaries which happily sit alongside exotic plants from Africa, Madeira and South America. There is a greater emphasis on tropical fruits including pineapple, mango and papaya for the butterflies’ diet, to closely resemble what they would eat in the wild.
Alongside the Butterfly House you can also visit The Lavender Garden which has been specifically set out to enhance the native butterflies and you can spot plenty of nectar enriched plants growing here.

The final highlight of this area is the Marlborough Maze, the world’s second largest symbolic yew hedge maze. Two miles in length and made up of hundreds of yew trees, the design was inspired by the history of Blenheim Palace. We decided to give it a miss on this occasion but will definitely come back here on a future visit and hope we don’t get lost and can find our way out.

Exiting the walled garden back through the same way we had entered, we made our way to The Roundel. This was originally a statue, but was converted to a water feature in 2012. Another lovely place to sit and rest awhile or to unpack your lunch and take a break.

Heading past the South Lawn with a beautiful view of the Palace off to the right we came across a recent installation -“The Walking Men” figures. Cast in bronze by British sculptor Laurence Edwards they made me feel like they had somehow been born from the Palace lawn. Astonished and confused with branches, leaves, and clods of clay woven through them the leader is hell bent on escaping the area whilst the final figure of these five, eight foot Neanderthals is mesmerised by the Palace and lags behind .

Reaching a crossroads we opt to go left and follow the Lake Walk. It is less than a mile in length but takes you down past the Rose Garden and arboretum. The former is unfortunately currently shut , no doubt in preparation for the summer display. You can branch off to the right and actually walk through the trees but we opted to remain on the path and visit the Grand Cascade and Pump House. Designed by the famous landscape architect, Capability Brown, in the 1760s the flow of the River Glyme over the cascade is augmented by pumps.
I love waterfalls, there is something about the water thundering over the rocks and down stream, the natural and sheer scale of the water’s power forming foamy islands below that entrances me. This is definitely another place to take a few minutes rest or if you haven’t done so already to unwrap your lunch.

The path then meanders back up the hill past the Boathouse which only opens seasonally and looked a little dejected on our visit. The remaining formal gardens soon come into view and we stopped to admire The Water Gardens. These, along with the Italian Gardens next door, were created by the French landscape architect Achille Duchêne who was employed by the 9th Duke of Marlborough. His marriage in 1896 to wealthy American heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt, allowed him to make further changes in and around the Palace. The Water Gardens were begun in the late 1920’s and involved moving many tonnes of earth to create the two terraces complete with statues and topiary which we admire today.
The 10th Duke added moving water to the Water Terraces by creating fountains in the basins of the upper terraces.

I am a big fan of beautiful gardens such as this and really enjoyed our walk. I did capture the spring flowers in bloom with cherry blossom, daffodils, cowslips and even bluebells starting to make an appearance.

 

Whilst the map details the distances of each trail we actually walked four miles. We have a tendency to wander off piste to admire the flora, fauna and additional statues etc. This contributed greatly to “Project Knee Recovery” -see previous post (New Year’s Resolutions Have Come Early This Year!).
Walking whilst being able to admire the views etc always makes the miles evaporate. We will return to Blenheim during the summer in order to view the interior of the house and more of the gardens.

NB: This is the eighth post in my series about the wonderful “Cotswolds”. An area that you really shouldn’t miss out on visiting if you are coming to the UK. It’s full of olde world charm, history going back to the Roman era and beautiful architecture. Check out previous posts in this series plus more to come soon. 
Please don’t forget to comment and/or like. I love to hear what my readers think. and also look forward to your recommendations of places to see in the Cotswolds for my future adventures Thank you
Thank you

The Cotswolds: Shopping in Burford

Burford sits on the River Windrush, just inside Oxfordshire.
The Cotswolds cover 800 square miles and is the largest Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty ( AONB) in England and Wales.
Burford sits at the Eastern edge of this area and is quintessentially Cotswold with beautiful honey coloured houses, dating back to the mid Saxon period, between the 5th and 11th centuries.

We travelled in from Gloucestershire but it is also easy to reach from Oxford being only 18 miles west of this university city. Parking is free – both on the street and in the public car park. Parking on the East side of the High Street is limited to 2 hours but there is no time restriction on the West side of the High Street. We parked on the left side driving in from the A40. Be prepared for it to be busy, this small town is popular with visitors and locals alike.

Burford, from a shopping perspective, is primarily made up of one street but don’t be fooled into thinking there won’t be much to see because this small town definitely packs a punch when it comes to browsing the shops. Considering how much the High Streets in England are generally on the decline there is little evidence of this here with a great variety of independent shops to choose from.


We began our explorations at the La Bulle. This beautifully laid out fashion accessories shop specialises in Italian leather bags at affordable prices and that wonderful fresh leather smell greets you as soon as you walk through the door.
Their new Eden Cross Body bag comes in at a very reasonable £39.95 in a variety of colours. There is no heavy salesmanship either, instead just a cheery “Hello” as you enter, some great quotes on the walls whilst you are browsing and a “Thank you” when you leave.

Keep your eyes peeled as you wander down the High Street as there are a few small alleyways that meander away from the Main Street that are worth exploring architecturally.

We passed by The Tolsey Museum, which is a museum dedicated to local history and housed in a Grade II listed Tudor style building, that was formerly the market and town hall of Burford.


Our next stop was instead The Madhatter Bookshop.
Anyone who knows me or has read my previous posts knows I cannot walk past an independent bookshop. Whilst most of my reading these days is on my Kindle, more for ease of transportation, I always like to support local businesses and particularly bookshops that were greatly effected by the evolution of the giant monster that is Amazon.
The Madhatter arrived in Burford some twenty plus years ago, whilst it’s current owner -Kim took up the mantle fives year ago just before the pandemic! The shop, itself, is cosy and inviting. It’s not huge but don’t be afraid to chat to the Assistant because even if they don’t have what you might be looking for or maybe don’t know what you want and need some help or guidance, they have a wealth of experience and are more than happy to help including ordering a book and having it delivered to your home address.
Additionally they hold Book/Bar evenings and a virtual “Book Club” that you can join wherever you are in the world!
Kim is also the founder of the September Burford Literary Festival which delivers a range of chats and talks. As Kim says on her website “Events take place in bijou rooms with their own special ambience. Numbers are kept small and personal to enable events to feel like a conversation between author and audience.” So if literacy is your thing why not include a visit to Burford while the festival is on?
On a final note don’t leave the shop before checking out the literary range of handbags, they are truly unique.

Leaving the bookshop behind we crossed over Sheep Street, which is home to various inns and places to stay, and made our way past Huffkins. This Cotswold tearoom is well worth a visit if you are looking to have elevenses, lunch or afternoon tea whilst visiting. We have been here before so didn’t stop today.
It’s been here since 1890 and has developed across time, producing such pleasurable cakes, and sandwiches etc that the business has expanded to envelop another eight tea rooms including locations in London.


A little further on, just down one of the side alleys I spoke about, our next stop was Craft & Curious. This pottery painting studio offers hand made, hand painted and personalised pottery keepsakes and homeware whilst also selling anything Christmas, year round! If you like to spend time doing something “crafty” whilst away for a couple of days it’s worth giving them a call in advance as you can paint your own pottery and they also run “Paint and Prosecco” evenings. I was personally tempted in though by a “gonk” which delivered on a forthcoming birthday gift.
Tucked away in the corner of this alleyway is also “Nutmeg & Thyme” a 100% gluten free and vegan cafe which we will no doubt try on a future visit.

Just past this alleyway is “Burford’s Traditional Sweet Shop”. For over ten years this shop has remained in business tempting it’s visitors into a “sweety wonderland”, with over 200 varieties to choose from alongside local handmade chocolates and gifts.
I love a proper sweet shop, with rows and rows of sweetie jars where you pick your favourite so the Assistant can weigh out 100g or more. Discovering old favourites like Sherbet Dips, Gobstoppers and Aniseed Balls alongside more modern introductions such as Fizzy Cola bottles, Giant Strawberries and Vegan varieties is fairly unique these days when most sweet treats are just purchased from the local supermarket.

Staying on the left side of the road we headed down towards the river stopping off at The Cookshop. I’m always tempted by a shop selling kitchen items. Not your run of the mill superstore style but small and independent, normally stocked to the rafters with unique items that you didn’t even realise you needed!
This shop doesn’t disappoint and I nearly left with a matching pair of beautiful blue hummingbird tins -one for biscuits and the other for cake. They would have looked great on my kitchen island but I was slightly afraid of then filling them with tempting goodies, no doubt full of calories and destroying my healthy eating habits forever!
Unfortunately they don’t have a website. I say this because a couple of the reviews I read mentioned how customers had purchased items whilst visiting and then wanted more of the same range on returning home but then couldn’t facilitate this.

At the bottom of the High Street is the bridge across the river. Take care because even though there are traffic lights to regulate the flow of vehicles it is quite busy. If like me you still want to gaze upon the river below, head to the right of the bridge as there are a couple of inlets where you can stop and take in the views whilst avoiding the traffic.

Heading back up the High Street, on the opposite side, there are some great views to be had of the traditional Cotswold stone houses. I also like to check out the doorways. Some of them are so old that they cleverly display the difference in stature that has evolved over time. Being quite a short person they don’t faze me but an average height person today would probably struggle to fit through!

Crossing over Church Street we pop into Hanley’s Lifestyle and Delicatessen. This shop offers “a clever combination of home design, bespoke furniture, cabinetry and upholstery, gifts and accessories, luxury homeware and a delicatessen”, which was the main attraction for us. The freshly baked pies and patisserie were tempting.

We pass by the 17th century building that houses The Priory Tearooms which again we have frequented previously. On that occasion it was a beautiful sunny day and we sat in the nicely laid out gardens at the rear soaking up the sunshine whilst eating a lovely lunch.

We pop into “Three French Hens” gift shop, check out the proverb on their sign, for a quick peruse of their quirky wall notices etc before heading on up the street.
We were hoping to stop at an Antique Centre which used to be housed in the Methodist Church but has now unfortunately ceased to exist as the building is up for sale.


Instead we move on up to “The Burford Farm Shop” and next door “The Cotswold Cheese Company”. The Farm shop is, unfortunately, closed on a Sunday but we normally pop in here when in town as they are part of the “Jesse Smith” group of butchers which I’ve mentioned before on my post about Tetbury.
The Cheese Company, however, is open. Founded 18 years ago, this specialist purveyor of cheese began it’s days in Moreton-in-the Marsh but following its success here, the company expanded to two additional shops -this one in Burford and another in Stow-on-the-Wold. Their shops stock over 120 different cheeses, obviously centred around Cotswold cheesemakers but with other British cheeses available as well as some continental diehards. It doesn’t stop at cheese you can also find fresh bakery items alongside a range of deli products.

Having not eaten all day we left the High Street behind and drove back up to the A40. Taking a left towards Oxford and then the next right turn off onto the B4020 we headed to the Burford Garden Company.
Despite passing this venue many times, as we traverse the country and head towards the M40 in order to connect into London and beyond, we had never ventured inside. Having now visited, the first thing I can tell you is this is not your normal garden centre!

The founder, Nigel Johnson, originally purchased a derelict farm just above Burford and transformed it into a plant nursery. In 1976 Nigel and his wife Louise then extended the idea and created Burford Garden Co. Since then, the company has gone from strength to strength.
It now covers over 15 acres of land, employs over 170 staff in peak season and, contrary to most peoples’ perspective of a garden centre being a large warehouse style cavern, this has an intriguing sprawl of spacious glass houses. These have changed greatly over the five decades since it’s inception, including the construction of behind-the-scenes warehouses and offices that were required to keep Burford Company ticking over.

The car park is huge, laid out with directional signs and with a childrens’ play area at the far end. As you walk towards the entrance you pass a bookshop, garden buildings company and a couple of coffee outlets etc
Inside you will find not just plants for sale but a veritable array of goods. The website proclaims “it has grown into a one-of-a-kind destination store for those seeking a unique, curated mixture of plants, gardenalia, home decor, furniture, art, clothing and food.”

Think of a garden centre fit for Bond Street and you won’t go far wrong. They even have a piano player set amidst the pots and clothing!
There is no doubt that this garden centre caters for the rich and famous that live within driving distance of it’s doors. Unfortunately despite keeping my eyes peeled I didn’t see Mr Beckham or any of his associates!

We did, however, buy lunch in their Glasshouse Cafe, which sits at the heart of the centre and offers fresh, healthy food made from scratch. We were impressed by the food but to be honest, perhaps because of its size and position it lacked the atmosphere and coziness we would have found in one of the many cafes and tea rooms in Burford itself.

Burford is a beautiful example of a Cotswold town and I urge you to include it in your itinerary. Spend a morning or afternoon here and you will, no doubt, leave as I did feeling joyous and happy.

NB: This is the seventh post in my series about the wonderful “Cotswolds”. An area in the UK that you really shouldn’t miss out on visiting if you are coming to the UK. It’s full of olde world charm, history going back to the Roman era and beautiful architecture. Check out previous posts in this series plus more to come soon. 
Please don’t forget to comment and/or like. I love to hear what my readers think and also look forward to your recommendations of places to see in the Cotswolds for my future adventures Thank you