Sunday, 24 June 2018


24th June 2018

Dear All,
Last weekend we travelled south with Over Garden Club for five days in Dorset, staying in Bournemouth and visiting six gardens plus a day in Winchester. On the way down we stopped at Greys Court in Oxfordshire which is a National Trust property with an unusually comfortable house and a garden enhanced by a sculpture display. The main eye catching feature was a rose walk.


Greys Court
On the second day we called in at Bournemouth Tropical Garden which did not amount to much and was in need of a little TLC and then spent the afternoon at Compton Acres where the outstanding feature is their Japanese garden.


Compton Acres Japanese Garden
The following day it was Abbotsbury Tropical garden in the morning and Bennett’s Water Garden in the afternoon. The Water garden is a huge area of flooded ex brickwork ponds filled with hundreds of waterlilies.


Abbotsbury Tropical Garden


Bennett’s Water Garden
On Monday we had a guided tour of Winchester which we did not know very well and were very impressed.


Winchester Cathedral
On the way back the scheduled visit was to Wisley which was not a novelty for me but fortunately a meeting of the Vegetable Panel was planned for that day to inspect summer cauliflowers, shallots and aubergines so I was able to save a drive round the M25.
On Wednesday I took some of my cricket colleagues to Lloyds at Letchworth to view pitch mowers. They are the state of the art for cricket wickets but new ones start at £5,000! They offer reconditioned versions for as little as £3,000 so we will have to save up!
Thursday’s walk was rather different from the usual in that we travelled to London and walked the Regents Canal path from Little Venice to Limehouse Basin. It was an excellent walk through Regents Park then Camden Market, Islington to Canary Wharf where we caught a boat to the Embankment and the tube back to Kings Cross. Some of the buildings en route are spectacular especially the gas holder s converted to flats at Kings Cross.


Camden Lock


Kings Cross Gas Holders


Canary Wharf
I was judging Stapleford Fruit & Veg Show yesterday but it was a fairly poor turn out. Both Over cricket teams won again yesterday and the first team are now top of their league.
Love
Mike & Kate

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