Hypatia's Grande Tour - Part Two
Created | Updated Apr 20, 2006
Day Two – To Everything There Is A Season1
Morning in a New Land
In trees still dripping night some nameless birds
Woke, shook out their arrowy wings, and sang,
Slowly, like finches sifting through a dream.
The pink sun fell, like glass, into the fields.
Two chestnuts and a dapple gray,
Their shoulders wet with light, their dark hair streaming
Climbed the hill. The last mist fell away,And under the trees. Beyond time's brittle drift
I stood like Adam in his lonely garden
On that first morning, shaken out of sleep,
Rubbing his eyes, listening, parting the leaves,
Like tissue on some vast, incredible gift.Mary Oliver
Saturday, 21st May
I woke up at 5:30 to daylight and singing birds. There is more daylight in England in spring and summer than I am accustomed to. I decided that it was far too early to get up and tried to hit the mental snooze button. That was easier said than done. I knew that Teuchter was taking me to London to Kew Gardens. It was a dream come true. I was like a six year old waiting for Santa Claus – much too excited to sleep.
Teuchter had left a guide book of Kew on my bedside table. I had seen so many films over the years about the famous garden that the photos seemed familiar. I don't watch documentaries about gardens as much as devour them. One of the major reasons for my trip to England was to finally see Kew. I felt like standing outside her bedroom door banging on a cooking pot with a wooden spoon.
Breakfast was an adventure. Teuchter cooked real Scottish porridge. It neither looked nor tasted like any oats served in the US. It was pellet shaped – sort of like vermiculite. Same colour. Same shape. Probably same chewy texture. (Just guessing here, never having eaten vermiculite.) And instead of it being in a bowl with milk poured on top, the milk was served in its own little bowl. Teuchter demonstrated. Take a spoonful of oats and dip it into the bowl of milk.
Now you have to understand that I don't dislike oats. Quite the contrary. A nice bowl of creamy rolled oats with brown sugar and cinnamon and a few raisins hits the spot on a cold winter morning. Oatmeal cookies are my all time favourite. And my mother's old-fashioned oatmeal cake is to die for. My staff at the library make fun of me for munching on granola in the afternoons and I always substitute toasted oats for most of the flour when making crumb toppings for my apple and cherry crisps. I'm an oat person – really! I have not one, but two cookbooks devoted just to oats. But I won't go out of my way to have real Scottish oats again. It was much heavier and drier than any I had eaten before. It must be an acquired taste. Like Bran Buds. Teuchter obviously enjoyed hers.
After breakfast we set out for London and Kew. Since it isn't located in central London where the traffic is so dreadful, Teuchter drove her car. We made the trip in under an hour. Kew is located on the south bank of the Thames in southwest London. I knew before we got there that it is huge, but I was still surprised at its size. It is 300 acres. In the city. With houses backing against it. Can you imagine having Kew for your back garden!
It rained off and on all day, but we were prepared with brollys and tissues to wipe the water off of our glasses. I didn't really care if there was a monsoon – I was going to Kew. The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew is one of the most beloved gardens in the world and for good reason. It also has the distinction of being a World Heritage Site. The glass houses are spectacular, the formal gardens are amazing, the walks are inspiring. We spent about six hours there and could have stayed longer, but for some reason they expected us to leave at closing time.
Since it was late May, we got in on the end of the spring displays and the beginning of the summer ones. Each season has its own beauty, but I think I was at Kew at a wonderful time. Special walks are laid out to feature seasonal plants. I was sorry to miss the crocuses and other spring-flowering bulbs, however. Kew has over two million crocuses as well as millions of scillas, wild daffodils, bluebells and fritillaries. There are over 900,000 flowering bulbs on one walk alone. I was able to see the lilacs, camellias, azaleas and rhododendrons and there was an impressive wisteria in full bloom on an old pergola. Spring visitors are also treated to magnolias and flowering crabapple. And there is a large bedding area outside the Palm House that is a joy in spring.
The Palm House and The Temperate House are probably the best known features at Kew, but there are actually 39 listed buildings. And no, we didn't manage to visit all of them. I enjoyed The Waterlily House immensely, especially as it offered shelter from one of the many showers of the day. We visited The Evolution House and The Bonsai House. I would have liked to spend more time in The Princess of Wales Conservatory, one of the newer glass houses which commemorates Princess Augusta who married Frederick, Prince of Wales, in 1736 and who was the founder of the Gardens. We arrived at it shortly before closing and were unfortunately ushered out before we had a chance to see it all. An Alpine House is the newest addition and wasn't open yet when we toured.
The final touches were being put on the major exhibition of 2005 - 'Gardens of Glass: Chihuly at Kew' was scheduled to open on May 28, just one week away. Fortunately for us, most of the glass was already in place for us to oooh and ahhh over. Not only was the glass itself wonderful, but the placement inside the glass houses and around the grounds was masterful. The exhibition has since closed, but not before it attracted over 860,000 visitors.
An absolute delight at Kew, one both Teuchter and I enjoyed enormously, is The Marianne North Gallery. This small building is a veritable treasure trove of botanical paintings. There are 832 paintings showing over 900 species of plants. They are hung so closely together that the walls are solid with them. They were painted by North between 1871 and 1878 and were presented to Kew along with the gallery that houses them in 1879.
It was a lovely day even if it was wet at times. We admired the Pagoda and Japanese Gardens, the Queen's Beasts outside the Palm House, the Arboretum, the Broad Walk, the Cherry Walk, and the Holly Walk and the world famous vistas. We had tea at the Visitor's Center and lunched at the Pavilion Restaurant.
Everything at Kew is on a grand scale, including my favourite residents of the Gardens. Kew has fabulous trees. Some of them are ancient. Most are enormous. All of them are magnificent. There are mighty oaks, chestnuts, pines, plane trees and many other species. There are trees planted in 1762 and trees planted last year. There is something very special about mature trees and it is wonderful having so many preserved at Kew.
If there is anything to complain about at Kew, it has to be the noise from the seemingly endless procession of airplanes leaving Heathrow, something that couldn't possibly have been imagined when the Gardens were laid out. But it made me wonder what Princess Augusta would think of her Gardens today and whether her spirit has flitted about the great conservatory named in her honour, taking a wee peek.
I went to Kew wondering how it would compare with Wisley and came to the conclusion that it is unfair to try to compare them or create a ranking. Each garden I was fortunate enough to visit during my stay in England, large or small, was unique, as all good gardens are. Looking back, I would be hard pressed to select a favourite.
Teuchter and I climbed back into her car for the return trip to Teuchter Towers, slightly damp and windblown, but with that feeling of satisfaction all gardeners will understand.
Mr T, a prince among men, had returned home and offered to take us out to dinner. So, after a bit of freshening up, we were on the road again, this time heading for Reading. Although a world apart, Yateley and Webb City have something in common. Both are pretty much bedroom communities. If you want to do anything, you have to go someplace else.
It was a pleasant, picturesque drive. Parking is a bit of a problem in many places in England, but Reading has a multi-story car park. I was rapidly discovering that everything in England is more expensive than the Midwest prices I am accustomed to paying. The cost of the car park would have paid for my dinner at home.
Reading has a shopping/entertainment district built alongside a canal that is still in use, the Kennet and Avon Canal. It reminds me somewhat of San Antonio, where the river meanders through the city and upscale shops, restaurants and hotels line its banks. Not that the canal gives the impression of meandering. It is much more regimented. And the afore-mentioned shops, restaurants and hotels aren't quite as upscale and are more above the canal than alongside it. Plus the gorgeous landscaping is missing, along with the sidewalk cafes, the tinkle of glasses, and the sound of mariachas. Okay, Reading isn't like San Antonio at all. But the canal creates a relaxing atmosphere and is a pleasant place for a stroll.
We ate at Wagamama's, which was crowded – always a good sign when entering a restaurant in an unfamiliar landscape. So there we were, an American and two Scots in a Japanese restaurant in the south of England, enjoying our dinner and each other's company. It seemed the most natural thing in the world.
The long awaited trip to Stonehenge and Avebury was on the schedule for the morrow. I turned in contented with my day, happily anticipating the meet-up with a wizard, a flapper and a manky pirate.
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