RHS Wisley, Part 2

Here are some more pictures from RHS Wisley. I have to confess I had trouble remembering which pictures were from which part of the garden. I even printed out a map and tried to trace our route, but still ended up a little confused. I do remember that this is from Battleston Hill. At the …

RHS Wisley, Part 1

Wisley, I’m told, is the flagship garden  of the Royal Horticultural Society.  There are actually an amalgam of many gardens on its 240 acres. However, I could have spent the entire day swooning over the two ebullient mixed borders that seemed to go on forever, combining shrubs, perennials, grasses, and vines. Sometimes these borders seemed …

Scotney Castle

The first garden we saw outside of London was at Scotney Castle. Our friends John and Pauline drove us there after picking us up at the train station. Scotney Castle includes a one acre walled garden and a 19 acre park built around an old fortified manor house (Old Scotney Castle) and a pond.   …

London Miscellany

No, I haven’t finished posting about our trip last September. For now, I’d like to share some photos and impressions of the few days we spent in London. This is an interesting city for walking. The weather tended to be overcast with occasional rain, but we didn’t let that discourage us. One destination was Millennium …

Comical Koi at the Zilker Botanic Garden

We devoted one afternoon in Austin to exploring the Zilker Botanic Garden. There were very few blooms, but even in December it’s worth seeing. I especially like the way it is designed around the topography of a hillside overlooking downtown Austin. We enjoyed the Prehistoric Garden, which showcased ancient plants and a few dinosaurs. There …

Hamilton Pool

So yesterday we did a little hiking in Austin. A place called Hamilton Pool Preserve, part of the Travis County Park system, was recommended to us by Pam at Digging as a good place. The Preserve is located about half an hour from where we are staying. The landscape along the way consisted of a …

Holiday Nostalgia

I was feeling nostalgic the other day and started looking through old photo (pre-digital) albums. These photos, which are around 20 years old, remind me of how holidays are best with small children. Not that we don’t greatly enjoy the company of our grown up kids, now 26 and 23 (and 6’1″ and 6’3″, respectively). …

London’s Kensington Garden Flower Walk

Back to our September trip. So Judy and I took a train from the Loire to Paris, and then another from Paris to London, passing under the English Channel. For people in that part of the world this is not a big deal but it made us feel so very sophisticated. One of the first …

Bound for Austin. Any Suggestions?

The last few years our immediate family has followed a new holiday tradition. Instead of buying each other gifts, the four of us take a trip together. Past trips have been to New Orleans, South Carolina, and Washington DC. This tradition has several advantages. For one thing, it allows me to  greatly cut down on …

Ignoring ‘No Entry’ Signs at Chateau de Chaumont

The last castle Judy and I visited on our September trip was Chateau de Chaumont. To me this Chateau looks suspiciously like the Walt Disney castle. However, the brochure claims that it dates to the 10th Century and the person in the gift shop insisted that Walt Disney never lived there. Many people go to …