Shared garden spaces and connections

* I was invited to the Gardeners’ World Live show and provided with a pair of tickets to the show, therefore all my posts will be marked as 'Ad’ though as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

This garden, to give it it’s proper title - Family, Nature and Neighbours, had plenty to make me smile and plenty of inspiration too. It’s designed by David Blythe and won a Silver Merit award at the show and focuses on the connections we create with our families and neighbours through the garden spaces we share.

David based his design around the shared boundary, using the low dry stone wall filled with planting pockets and a fence with vertical herb planters, along with a wildlife highway.

I loved the idea of planting herbs in this way, though it’s not right for my current garden which is a shame.

The garden uses companion planting with pollinator friendly plants which helps to create a space where we can connect with nature using our senses - sight, sound, smell and taste are all covered in this small space, and it really does make for a beautiful border in every sense.

But it was the wildlife highway that made me smile; the hedgehog house and the hedgehog shaped hole in the base of the fence. I couldn’t help but chuckle though when I peered into the hedgehog house, which of course has its very own green roof!

The hedgehog wasn’t the only addition to make me smile, perhaps your garden already has lego figures in, or perhaps they’ll be something you’ll build into your plans for this year, who knows.

It’s great to be reminded of the connections we make with a space, and how we can share them - but most of all it’s great to be reminded that gardens are also places for fun.

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was quite a show! I’ll be sharing more from my visit to this year’s show throughout the year - I hope you enjoy them as much as I did the show.

Typically Tyrollean style and hospitality

After the warmest weekend of the year it feels a little odd to be sharing this post from my trip to Germany in January when there was snow on the ground, but I'm going to anyway as if you believe the forecast today's going to be ten degrees cooler than the weekend, but hopefully it won't drop so much that we'll have any of the white stuff. 

Usually I'm not a fan, but I think that's because we just don't know how to deal with it. In Germany, and Austria, as you'd expect it's dealt with without a fuss. And that's admirable. 

Today I'm sharing pictures from the hotel we stayed in, although in honesty, like many hotel rooms I didn't spend much time in it. I wasn't surprised to see the duvets folded and pillows karate chopped (that's what it looks like anyway) as I remembered this from our trip to Bavaria, a couple of years before. It still made me smile though.

After a flight delay and a long day at the Viking factory, I had twenty minutes in the hotel room before meeting for dinner. But it made quite an impression. I was impressed with the coffee machine, but didn't have enough time to work out how to use it sadly.

After a quick selfie in the bathroom and a change of clothes I headed back to reception to meet the rest of the party for our dinner at Fortress Kufstein, which I'd spotted out of my hotel window just a few moments before.

It wasn't until gone midnight that I got back to the room, completely full after a great meal, including some local specialities, and after a nightcap in the bar. It's as well that MOH called me as I realised then I'd set my alarm for the morning an hour out, whoops.

In the room I was very taken with the open wardrobe - and the light that came one every time you walked past it, now that was useful and saved having to scrabble around for the bathroom light switch.  The room was hot though - I find hotel rooms often are, but this was super hot. In the twenty minutes I'd had in the room earlier I couldn't find a thermostat, nor a valve on the radiators so even with the temperature at minus ten, there was only one thing for it. And that was to open the window. I slept with the window open all night, something that I don't even manage at home, but I'm pretty sure the heating has been racked up to combat the minus temperatures. But I was melting...

From my room I got a great view of the Fortress in Kufstein, which is where we ate earlier than evening. And the view was just as great in the early daylight hours too.  The food was so good, and so plentiful that I opted to skip breakfast the next morning as I was simply just not hungry. And knowing there was a typical Bavarian lunch ahead of us in Munich, I wanted to be sure to leave enough room for that (and this was a great move on my part as I discovered later - phew!).

Looking in the alternative direction there were the alps and yet more snow. The air just felt clean, and the temperatures felt nowhere near like I'd expected them to feel, which I was grateful for. And sometimes the overactive thyroid - and always being hot - comes in useful! 

Before we left the hotel I had a wander around to check out their decor. This was the bar which I'd spent some time in the previous night hugging my schnapps. I'd seen the candles, but not necessarily the gin bottle - that's a lot of wax isn't it?

The big clock worked well, but I was less sure about the cushions on the sofa. I think I prefer how we space them along, rather than piling them out like this, what do you think?  But open shelved units speak in any language, and I'd happily have this one (and its contents) as well as they leather oyster-like chair in front of it.

And it's only now that I look again at the photo above that I've spotted some more dripped wax, I kind of like it but have never managed to get candles to go like that.  It's got quite a ghostly feel to it doesn't it?

* While this post isn't in collaboration with Viking or Stihl, it was only possible because of the UK press trip arranged by them. 

Framed by the arches

This is one of my favourite photos from my trip to Munich in January on the Viking and Stihl UK press trip. It's taken in the Hofgarten, where the snow was on the ground and the sky was blue, bluer than it looks in this picture. As I approached the central pavilion I became aware of the view, and how special it looked.

Beautiful isn't it?  And not bad for an iPhone photo either.

* While this post isn't in collaboration with Viking or Stihl, it was only possible because of the UK press trip arranged by them.