Whitstable - A Visit To The Seaside

My Mum and I took my very French cousin William and his very French friend Kevin (Not such a French name) on a very English seaside trip to Whitstable. We had packed a picnic and despite the weather being a little overcast, windy and about to rain we put down the picnic rug and carried on regardless. I'm not sure what Kevin and William made of all of this, but they did seem to be rather relieved when we retreated to the car for a cup of tea and home-made flapjack. I had been to Whitstable a couple of time before, but only to the beach, so I had not really explored the rest of the town. I really love a trip to the seaside, but what I love about Whitstable is that it has retained to many of the old features and whilst it does have lots of "mod cons" the high street still has a unique character and has not been turned into the generic high street that so many towns now have.



After our tea and flapjack, we set off to explore the harbour which is still very much a working harbour.



There were posters up campaigning to keep the harbour as a place of work and not to turn it into a shopping district. There were several beach hut style buildings that looked like they housed craft shops, but as we were there on a week day they were not open. I am a vegetarian and do not eat fish, but I think it is important to keep local industries working. Many of the restaurants advertise the fish on their menu as having come from straight from the sea, fresh and local. And whilst I don't eat it myself, I bet it tastes so much better than something that has been sat in a freezer for a few weeks. So with none of us sampling the local catch, Kevin didn't like that look of the cockles, we headed off to the high street.

It is very exciting to wander up the high street, many of the shop fronts have kept their original features but inside are all sorts of wonderful shops.


The ice cream parlour, Sundae Sundae... a Seaside Store, is a real treasure trove. Selling local handmade ice cream, it also has lots of souvenirs that look back to the days when people used to go on holiday to the seaside. I bought some 1950's inspired liquorice allsorts napkins. Another shop selling lots of lovely things, bags, tea towels and books had a lovely garden at the back. None of these shops had very much room, but every last little space was filled with something pretty and interesting to look at.



We continued up the high street, through to the Horseybridge arts centre which hosts a whole variety of things and back onto the beach where we saw this pile of crates.



It is actually an oyster shell recycling point! Whistable really does seem to be proof that trade and tourism can live and work side by side, with a bit of recycling thrown in for good measure. I'm sure I will be back there again and again...

The Chelsea Physic Garden

A few weeks ago I visited the Chelsea Physic garden with my Mum. I had bought her a membership to the garden for her birthday but did not have any idea what the garden was. So I took a day off work mid week and we met in London



The garden is a short walk from the busy shopping street of The Kings Road. On the way you pass some lovely old houses, all beautifully maintained with painted railings and window boxes full of flowers. The garden is surrounded by large walls on all sides and the entrance is through a small gate off a little side street. As you step into the garden you suddenly forget that you are in London.

The garden was founded in 1673 as a garden for apothecaries to train their aprentices in identifying different species of plant. Over the years it has been taken over by various people and many different varieties of plant have been brought here from all over the world. You can read more about it's history here... http://www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/garden/index.html

We started off by having lunch from the small cafe that they have. It was a refreshing experience as the cafe is not at all commercial. There is a table at the end of a room where there are various salads, quiches and cakes laid out for you to choose from as well as homemade lemonade. I had a delicious goats cheese quiche with a sundried tomato base. I think I will be trying to replicate this myself as it was really rather good. There are tables outside so we were able to have our lunch whilst looking out into the garden.

The garden is divided up into different areas that are home to different types of plant; Pharmaceutical Beds, Systematic Order Beds Dicotyledons, Systematic Order Beds Monocotyledons etc. When you go into the garden you are given a "Points of Interest" sheet with information that is relevant to that month. It is definately a garden to go to throughout the year and see how it changes with the different seasons.

We set off into the Tropical Corridor and Glasshouses to start with as it was just starting to rain. The heat of these is the first thing that hits you, and then you can apreciate the detail of the houses. They are probably of victorian era, wooden doors with detailed brass handles, and great big brass levers for opening the air vents. (I stupidly didn't take my camera so I will just have to visit again to take some more pictures)

The Pharmaceutical beds are fascinating as I had just not apreciated how many plants have some sort of medicinal property. Close to these beds is the fibre bed which has a collection of plants that are used to make rope and textiles. It is surrounded by the ropes and has an explanation of where each one is used. It is funny to see the plant where the ropes come as it is not obvious from looking at the plants what they would be used for.



The most fascinating area for me was the Cool Fernery. It was similar in construction to the glasshouse. but it was in the shade, cool and just had different varieties of ferns in it. Mum said that she has a fern that she can give me, so I will have to find a suitable place in the garden for it. There was also a Wardian case in the cool fernery. It is a simple idea, it is like a mini green house and you don't need to water the plants as the closed environment keeps it moist. I have a large glass sweet jar that I am going to try to make into a Wardian case.

The great thing about the garden is that it is a working garden and on show all year round, so it is not comeplly neat and tidy. It has also got me interested in the academic side of gardening. I love the sound of Systematic Order Beds Dicotyledons, but I do not really know what this means, and I am hopeless with the latin names of plants. I think I will try to learn more about this over the coming months. The other thing that I loved was that no matter how large or small a plant was, almost all of the potted plants were in terracotta pots, not plastic here.

I really enjoyed my visit, and I think that The Chelsea Physic Garden is possibly my favourite place in London. I am going to become a friend of the garden and visit it as much as I can.

My Own Garden

My own garden is really starting to come along and I feel that I am getting more confidence. It has managed to recover from the arrival of the chickens last year, who as lovely as they are, can really cause a lot of damage in a very short time if they are not watched.

My borders are quite poor this year and I have had a real problem with slugs, but I have (so far) been a lot more successful with my vegetable growing. I am starting be able to enjoy going out into the garden and picking things to take inside to eat.

This was my haul the other evening

Tiny but certainly moving in the right direction. The strawberries were delicious and I have been able to have a small vase of sweet pea for several weeks now. I have had a couple of courgettes too and the tomatoes and potatoes are thriving. I am not quite ready to live from my own produce (I think I would be rather hungry) but it is one, all be it small, step closer.

So much of gardening ins unknown, how will a plant work in your soil, will the slugs or the chickens destroy it. But when it does work there is something quite magical about seeing a flower, fruit or vegetable that you have nurtured from seed grow and mature.

A Room of One's Own

Last Autumn I went on a Bloomsbury tour of Sussex and visited the country houses of the Stephen sisters Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. Monks House in Rodmell was Virginia's house. It is a small, understated cottage with a large garden that stretches out into the Sussex downs where Virginia used to go on regular walks. It is owned by The National Trust, but is lived in by a couple who occupy the upstairs rooms but have left the downstairs areas as Leonard and Virginia would have had them. Monks House was very much a retreat from London for the Woolf's, especially in the late 1930's when London was in the middle of the blitz. It may have been safer to be in the countryside, but it was very much at the centre of the conflict, with The Battle of Britain being fought in the skies above.

My favourite part of the house and gardens was Virginia's writing room, which is a small shed at the bottom of the garden containing a desk, chair and a few simple items.



Just behind the writing shed are the huge vegetable patches that are bigger than my entire garden. I really enjoyed visiting Monk's House because it is was where Virginia Woolf had lived and written some of her novels from. Virginia Woolf is one of my favourite writers, but I only began to enjoy reading her work after I had read about her life. I am fascinated by the connections between her life and her writing and I don't think that you can truly appreciate one without the other. Being able to see some of the places that she writes about in her diaries adds a whole new depth to reading them.



The visit to Charleston, Vanessa Bell's house, was very much an after thought. The trip itself was another mother/daughter outing and it was my mum who suggested that we call in at Charleston as well. It made sense as it was just down the road from Monk's House, they have a lovely cafe where we were able to have lunch and it was very much a central part of the Bloomsbury Group. I am really pleased that we did this as it is the most beautiful farmhouse and it has been preserved just as Vanessa left it, so it is full of all of the art work she did. Each of the rooms of the house has been decorated by Vanessa, with bold patterns on the walls, doors and fireplaces and contain objects made by various of her artist friends. My favourite room was Vanessa's bedroom which is connected to the studio (which is a brilliant, light space) as well as having two double doors that open out onto the garden.



And it really is a fantastic garden. It is much less formal than Monk's House and the borders are full to bursting with brightly coloured, scented flowers.




Vanessa took her artistic talents outside and there are little touches of her art all over the garden such as these tiles.


I can't decide which house I prefer because I liked them both, but for different reasons. I know that I would love to live in either of them and I took lots of photos and found it very inspiring for things to try in my garden.

An English country garden

Whilst I really enjoy tackling my own garden, I also love visiting other people’s gardens for inspiration. In the last month I have been to several great places that I have really enjoyed and that have inspired me to try things in my own garden. Visiting gardens is something that I started to do with my mum a few years ago. It is a really lovely way to spend time together as we both appreciate the gardens and I can gain some knowledge by asking her questions. But we are also spending time together where we are not distracted by the hustle and bustle of day to day life.

We took my Mum’s friend Lee and her daughter Cathleen to Wyken Vineyards in Suffolk in May. Lee is American but regularly comes to the UK armed with a list of things she wants to do. She had been to the Vineyard some years ago on an organised tour, but the guide had only allowed her to have lunch there and not to see the garden. Needless to say this time she was not going to miss out on seeing them. It was the most perfect day. The weather was glorious, the sky was a really deep blue with not a cloud in the sky and it made the house in the vineyard, which is a deep terracotta colour, look even more stunning.

We had lunch at the café before setting off into the vast four acres of gardens. It was interesting to see another mother/daughter pair enjoying the gardens and the four of us all agreed that we are lucky to be able to spend a wonderful day together. I also enjoyed seeing the different breeds of chickens they have roaming around. Since getting my girls I have become obsessed by all things chicken! This little cockerel was my favourite, I think he is a bantam. He tried to crow as loudly as the full size cockerels, he wasn’t as loud but he gave it his all!

Last Saturday was one of my favourite days of the year. A friend of my mum has a beautiful garden and for the last few years she has held a plant swap party. She invites all of her friends round and asks them to bring a plant that they have too much of, they can then wander around her garden (which is not open to the public), eat some home made cake and then at the end of the day everyone dives in to grab a plant or two to take home. It is a great garden and last year it won the Times back garden of the year competition! http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/gardens/article2473795.ece Despite not having anything to take, Sorrell insisted I went away with something so I have a strawberry plant, an artichoke and a geranium to add to my ever growing plot.

And as if that was not enough gardens for one weekend on Sunday I went to the Eye Open Gardens with my Mum and our friend Jess. The village of Eye in Suffolk is very picturesque and has managed to retain a really retro feel to it. This year the church and town hall had organised a weekend of open gardens to raise money for various repairs. We arrived at the town hall at 1:30, paid our entrance money and were handed a map of the town with the 18 open gardens marked. We set off to explore the gardens which were all beautifully numbered by the owners. The gardens we visited were a real mixture of planting styles and ideas. The first one we visited was very well thought out but also clearly loved by the owner. She was sitting in the garden ready to tell all the visitors about the gardens history and what inspired her.

We stopped half way through for tea and scones in the town hall, very 1950’s. The spread of sandwiches, scones and cakes was very impressive but as we were off to a tea party of our own we held back.

By the time we came to the next set of gardens the sun was blazing hot and we only made it through 9 of the 18 gardens on offer. We did manage to keep going until we got to the garden with the plant sale and I picked up a pot of purple sprouting broccoli. Jess and I even managed to get our picture taken by a reporter from the Diss Express. He thought that a picture of us taking pictures of the plants was an interesting angle to go with. You can see it here http://www.photostoday.co.uk/Gallery.aspx?GalleryID=18214 picture number 8DE0608042

At the back of the garden with the plant sale is the Eye allotments which are just wonderful. If I could live in a village like this I would be very happy. All in all a thoroughly enjoyable weekend.

Strawberries and cream

I have had my first crop of strawberries from the garden. Well, I say crop there was actually only three but they taste delicious. It is so satisfying to grow a plant, water and look after it and then be able to enjoy the produce.

I have been cooking with my home-grown basil and the flavour is just so much better than anything you can buy in the shops.

I feel like this is my first step to growing the majority of my own food. The other plants I have seem to be doing well. Some little courgettes have emerged, the tomato plants are flowering and the potatoes in bags look from the surface like they are doing well. I haven't grown potatoes before so I am not really sure what they are supposed to look like.

The onions have not done so well, but this is mostly due to me not being able to stop Mabel the chicken from jumping into the bed and digging them up. It is great having chickens in the garden, they are lovely creatures and there is nothing quite like a freshly laid egg for breakfast. Their poo is great for the compost and they help to keep the weeds down but they love to dig. Trying to keep them off my plants is a full time job and if they are not digging they are nibbling the leaves or tipping over flower pots. Naughty chickens... but oh so lovely!

I was so excited about the strawberries that I forgot to take a photo of them

The Day of the Triffids

I am attempting to grow some of my own veg this year. I have had a go in the past with mixed results but it is a really fun thing to do and if you do manage to grow something it tastes so much better than shop bought veg.

I have taken some pictures of my courgettes which are the most fascinating plant to watch grow. They seem to grow several centimetres a day and when they get a bit bigger look like something from Day Of The Triffids.

My garden isn't really big enough to have a proper vegetable patch so I am having to squeeze things in where I can find space. I am also making a raised bed to grow onions in, as these are set (excuse the pun) to have one of the biggest increases in price this year. I think my biggest challenge will be trying to keep the chickens away from all of the young plants, as even a few seconds munching from them can destroy a whole batch of seedlings. They do have their uses though, I am hoping that they will keep the slug and snail population down. I don't want to use any chemicals in the garden and I don't much like the idea of the various traps that you can use as you end up with dead gooey slugs. The chickens are a much cleaner way of dealing with them and they thoroughly enjoy it too!

It is really good fun to find a plant that you can grown in your own back garden and then be able to take it inside and eat it for lunch. Another step on the road to self-sufficiency... This weekend I am going to try to make my own butter.