Interesting Gardens to Visit

Mendocino Garden Tour

Visit the web site www.Mendocino.com and then go to Mendocino Art Center, sign up for their new letter.   They offer more than the Garden Tours; they have many varieties of Art classes from Artist that you could enjoy taking.  I was able to take a welding class from them.  I also took a class on how to build light weight concrete sculpture.  Both classes were to help me add variety to my garden views.  Of course procrastination  has been active and I have not finished all that I want to get done.

I just visited the site and did not see the Garden Tour that they have sponsored in the past.  Maybe I was browsing the site too fast and missed it.  If you subscribe to their newsletter you might see the Garden Tour offered and be able to take it.  You will enjoy the time spent.  I am including some of my photos from the different tours that I have gone on in the past.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clothesline of Quilts
In my county like many, each of the towns in the county is known for something special, Lakeport has a free celebration called Music in the Park on weekends during the summer. Middletown has a Western celebration during the summer. In Kelseyville they have a Pear Festival every year, and now they are the first in the state to have organized a Quilt Trail, it now completes the coast to coast “Clothesline of Quilts” that decorate barns and business walls, wall of all kinds. The idea is to capture the spirit of the area.
The history of the Quilt Barn started as a dream by one family. In 1989 the family purchased a farm in Adams County, Ohio. A promise was made to the mother of the family that they would paint a quilt square on their barn. In 2001, an offer was made to the family to help paint a quilt square and the idea grew into painting more on other barns to stimulate opportunities for local business and artist. It has taken a lot of work and the idea has blossomed into a National Quit Trail across Ohio to Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Iowa and North Carolina and beyond. Well we have on in Lake County, California to help support the trail.
Friends of mine went to visit some of the quilt squares in our community and I thought you would enjoy seeing the photos. Check on the web for a quilt trail close to you locate a map and visit them. It was a fun day we discovered areas in our county that we had not been to before, and we made a stop for a late lunch to finish the day.

Please go to this site to learn more about how the quilt squares on  buildings started.  http://www.randesignscustomjewelry.com.
I wish my barn was able to be seen by more than myself and my neighbors I would want one also.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

London with Hanging Baskets, Store Entrances
Adorned with Plants and a Secret Garden

I was lucky enough to go to school, many years ago in London, at the Imperial College in South Kensington and I took courses on English Gardens at the University of London.
I lived in a four story walk up not too far from High Street in Kensington. The Queens Guards horses would wake me up in the morning clip clopping down the street; I never learned where the stables were, too my sorrow. With four stories to climb in my walk-up, 5 times a day going to and from school, then to work and home again I lost a good deal of weight. Darn, I need to do some more walking.
Living in the Kensington area was exciting as everything was available to you by walking. If I did need to travel outside the area the tube was just around the corner. What I enjoyed was looking at the store portals and the hanging baskets or window boxes that decorated all the stores, even the police station had window boxes. It was wonderfully filled with color. I was told that the Queen Mother would judge the best display and a tea would be given to the winner. Being able to see most of the streets I have read about in novels and history, 10 Downing Street, Piccadilly, Hyde Park and the Harrods delivery van, and so much more was like a dream, and I am not English.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even though it was a long time ago, I am sure it would be just as exciting today, if you have a chance to go, do so.
The most exciting discovery was from my class room windows. I could see a roof top garden, it looked very large and I was curious to see it. I went in search of the garden and discovered it on top of the Derry & Toms building on Kensington High Street. I have since found out that the garden is 1.5 acres, with 500 species of plants. It has ducks, flamingos, fountains, ponds and a stream, with large trees and shrubs creating scenes playing with perspective. The designs of the garden change from Moorish in flavor to Gothic and English woodlands. It is beautiful. The garden was designed by landscape architect Ralph Hancock in 1936/38 and it is now owned by Richard Branson. I wish I could show you all of my photos of the gardens; I am going to show a few of them I hope you enjoy them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Ham House & Garden the Enjoyable Travel Getting There

My Memories in going to see the 17th century Ham House and Gardens

My friend Penny  and I took the train to Richmond from there we walked through Marble Hill Park, there some people enjoying the lovely day and others in the excitement of playing a game of soccer. As we walked I could smell this heavenly sent coming from an old garden I had to explore and found a verbena large in bloom.  The aroma was wonderful and I have always wanted to put this shrub in my garden just for the memory and aroma, I have not discovered it as yet, it is difficult as I only know the genus not the species of which there are a hundred and fifty.

We continued walking towards the Thames River in search of a man who would row us over to the other side.  We had been informed that he had been given this work by the Queen, he could only charge 10p. to row anyone who wanted to get to the other side of the river. We made sure to ask him the fee just to make sure we were told correctly and he verified that 10p was the fee. He said that it was his privilege to have this charge from the Queen, as it gave him time to work on his painting with a reasonable abode to boot.  He and his dog rowed us across, and said to holler out when we were ready to return.

When we reached the other side of the river it was a short walk to the Historic Ham House. The entry is outstanding. I have very few photos of the expansive entrance, and wished I knew more about the sculptures decorating the walls leading and guiding you to the entrance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We toured the house upstairs, the living areas were kept dark to keep the sun damage to a minimum.  It was interesting that the bed rooms had no privacy.  We looked at sitting rooms, viewed paintings and bric-a-brac, but for some reason it was the basements kitchen and the pantry that stored the game for the days meal I was impressed with.  The servants had to be extremely efficient to cook for a large household and the domestics in such small quarters.  From there we walked around and viewed the kitchen gardens.

On our return trip to the train station we stopped and visited the Marble Hill House, Twickenham (have a photo that is from Wikipedia of the riverside of the house), I was studying the poet Pope and his home and gardens (which are interesting) at the time and was intrigued to learn that he was a frequent visitor at the Marble House. It is a lovely Palladium Villa that was built in 1720 for Henrietta Howard, mistress of King George II when he was Prince of Wales.