Botanica Tour 1

Dear all,
We are now in Oxford well into the tour but this blog looks back to the start of this stage of our journey. It has been so exciting for me to see so many remarkable gardens.
We are so fortunate with our UK guide Sara. She is so knowledgeable and fits in well with everybody. Roger and I successfully negotiated wheeling our luggage from Henley House in Barkston Gardens to Harrington Hall, a much classier establishment a few blocks away. We met at 8.45 am and were surprised at the small numbers on the tour. We were so fortunate that it hadn't been cancelled.
Our small Mercedes coach enables us all to have a couple of seats and spread out. The first morning was spent having a guided tour through London. This enabled us to see much which we had missed. We walked to Buckingham Palace and on the way saw the beautiful sculptured reliefs that commemorated the life of the Queen Mother. The Queen is in Canada at the moment. Walked past Buckingham gate where I stayed in the 70s and past St James Park which is looking quite dry. The rest of our tour was viewed on bus but we travelled through Knightsbridge and around Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square and down the Strand to St Paul's where we had lunch in the crypt. We then viewed the new developments at Docklands and saw landmarks such as London Bridge and the start of redevelopment for the London Olympics. We travelled on the Motorway till we reached our first garden - Great Dixter, the famous garden of Christopher Lloyd. This featured clipped hedges like science fiction shapes standing out from unkempt meadows. Attractive borders of colourful plants surrounded
the house with its distinctive striped architecture. Christopher Lloyd was regarded as the wild boy of horticulture and he delighted in breaking established rules. We also viewed the interior of his house which was furnished with a weird eclectic mix of contemporary hand crafted furniture with antiques. To me this was not a successful mix and pieces seemed plonked rather than thoughtfully arranged. After lavender ice-cream and a quick sketch we travelled in Kent to The Spa hotel in Tunbridge Wells near the Pantiles. This is an area that I have known of only through Marguerite's many travels to this area as her home base with friends in UK. This hotel was very grand built in the time when it was fashionable take the waters. We dined in style in a majestic dining room with very large arched windows draped with exquisite curtains. The food matched the surrounds and culminated with my favourite Summer pudding. The bedroom and the bed in particular was huge. We had a bath which was most helpful for my swollen ankles. We slept like logs. Breakfast the next morning was a grand buffet as well as the traditional English cooked fare. Just as well we are doing lots of walking.
The Internet cafe is closing hopefully there will be an update for you tomorrow. We have seen some superb garden, particularly
Hidcote today which is my favourite spot so far.
love
Jo and Rog