Yesterday I wrote about Sissinghurst’s famous White Garden so, today, I thought you’d like to see the world beyond white – or, rather white, grey and green as its creator, Vita Sackville-West insisted. I’m devoting my regular blogs to Sissinghurst…
I’m writing about gardens this week excited that our delayed English June has finally got into gear in my own garden in Lewes, UK, but mostly because I’ve been inspired by a visit to the great gardens at Sissinghurst,…
I spent most of last Sunday visiting the horticultural mecca that is Sissinghurst Castle in Kent. It was created by the novelist, poet and garden designer Vita Sackville-West (1892 – 1962) and her writer-diplomat husband Harold Nicolson (1886 – 1968).…
I spent a week in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, recently. It was my first time in this interesting country, the only Western European state that I hadn’t visited before. I wasn’t really there on holiday, enjoyable though it was, I…
Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon Portugal When I was in Portugal the other week for a poetry workshop, I had a free Sunday and decided to spend it at the impressive Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon. This dramatic Modernist…
It all started last summer when I booked a two week holiday in Venice but let my finger slip on the British Airways website only to find that when I went for my return flight I had mistakenly bought a…
I didn’t go to Venice for the wisteria last week. I didn’t know about it. April in Venice has many wonders but these wonderful plants, in full bloom, were more than just an added bonus. Take a look at…
Here in my final blog about a splendid week’s holiday in the South of France, I’ll let my camera do the talking but it should be sufficient to tell you that I spent a memorable Monday visiting the beautiful city…
My week in Sète, in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of Southern France, was quietly pleasure-filled. There was a lot to do and to see including the glorious city of Montpellier (the subject of a later blog) but there was also…
Le musée Paul Valéry, Sète One of my greatest pleasures in travelling is visiting different towns and exploring their art galleries. It was no different on my recent trip to Sète in the south of France and I soon found…