How’s the weather

Fair skies today in Seattle, but it won’t be long before the gray creeps in — our rainy season officially begins in October.  We hope for a peaceful fall and winter, both here and in other gardens, especially those we’ll visit in the spring in Charleston and Savannah and then in England.

            With hurricanes rolling through on a regular basis, it’s a wonder there’s still so much to see in Charleston.  It’s an old city, as is Savannah, both founded in the mid-18^th century.  I arrange for local garden designers to take our group around, and of course the stories of the gardens are always entwined with the stories of the town and the people. 

            That’s the great thing about our small-group tours, whether we are taking with Frances Parker in Beaufort, South Carolina (where we stop on our way to Savannah) and admiring the 200-year-old bay laurel hedge or at Hestercombe in Somerset, hearing how Edwin Lutyens designed the garden so that you would never have to look at the house (no one has anything nice to say about the house) we always get the gardener’s eye view of the landscape.  It’s something we can understand — it’s our own version of lands across the water.

 

*An update on the bundle packing from onebag.com.  I chickened out when I packed for Spokane in August.  It occurred to me that if I had been one of the chosen ones, and got my bag searched, that there would be no more bundle left.  Isn’t that right?  Wouldn’t they take apart the whole thing?  So, maybe I’ll try it out when I pack for Portland, because this time I’m on the train.  I’m off to the Garden Writers Association’s national symposium (go ahead and say it “There’s a whole association for garden writers?”).

The most comfortable seat in the place

A good hotel lobby or sitting room can go a long way making up for shortcomings elsewhere.  A small room doesn’t matter if you have a cushy place to relax and order a pot of tea or coffee.  At the end of a day of touring gardens, we meet in the lobby, pint or glass of wine in hand, and recall the day’s events.  For the most part, you don’t get this kind of lobby in U.S. hotels, except for the older ones.  The Davenport Hotel in Spokane is absolutely fabulous — fireplace at one end, great service, tables to work at if you need to.  Order a glass of wine or coffee (except there’s a Starbucks in the lobby, so I guess you could get your own).  I could live in the Davenport lobby.

             I love the little front room at our favorite small (and reasonable) hotel in London, the Harlingford.  We enjoy staying in bed-and-breakfasts, but really, give me a good lobby and I’m set.  Here are some of my favorites.

            At the Green Hotel in Kinross, just north of Edinburgh, you feel like you’re in someone’s library.  The sitting room is just off the lobby, and great for a read or a chat.  In all the flurry of “what to see” travel tips, it’s easy to forget that sometimes you need to relax, and when you can do that in a good lobby, it can become part of the experience.

            When Leighton and I drove around the Ring of Kerry a few years ago, we stopped at the Parknasilla Hotel (now called the Parknasilla Resort — yikes).  If you can’t afford to stay at a place, at least you can stop for coffee.  I decided I needed one of those little silverplate coffee pots, just like they serve with there.  It’s a touch of class.

            The water views from the sitting room, dining room and bar at the Fieldhead Hotel in Looe, Cornwall are breathtaking. and at the Sawrey House Hotel near Hawkshead in the Lake District you look onto garden and nature.  Take me back now.

            But even hotels where you wouldn’t ever want to stay again can have good lobbies and sitting rooms.  Pratt’s Hotel in Bath, England — a place where the phrase “badly in need of refurbishment” doesn’t even come close — has great rooms facing the street.  Good tea service and lovely people working there.  If only someone would fix up the rooms.

            Yes, there are good U.S. hotel lobbies.  The Francis Marion in Charleston oozes old style charm, and it’s huge.  That’s where we hope to stay on next spring’s garden tour, so the first thing I’ll do is plop down in an armchair and order a drink.  

The Armchair Garden Traveler

A quiet Charleston courtyard from our March 2008 visit.

A quiet cup of tea and a good book goes a long way to reviving your spirits and energy in the afternoon.  On Friday, I picked up Brian Coleman’s new book Intimate Gardens (Gibbs Smith, 2008), and was delighted to be transported back to Charleston and Savannah, where I led a tour at the end of March.  Brian sets the stage well for each chapter/garden in his book, and so I read about Savannah’s history and how the city was laid out in a regular grid system, before he described a lovely space in the historic district.  The two Charleston gardens reminded me of walking around the historic district with our landscape architect/guide — the houses are set on the lots with the short end to the street, and long porches face out into the shallow gardens.  We enjoyed the neatly clipped boxwood and wall fountains amidst houses that date back to the middle of the 18^th century.  Being there, we said, was the closest we’d get to England this year that’s the feel of the place.  (Only local brew houses were lacking, according to our ale expert, a.k.a. my husband Leighton.)

            Brian’s book was photographed by Bill Wright, who also photographed Debra Prinzing’s newest book Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways (Clarkson Potter, 2008; read more at shedstyle.com).  Debra’s book takes you around the country, too, letting the reader peer into someone else’s back garden to see what the tool shed of yesterday has become.  I’m amazed at the creativity of these gardeners — not just in the construction of the sheds, but also in the shed’s placement in the garden and the variety of uses to which they are put!