England: Tatton Park, Cheshire

During my three weeks in Cheshire I visited the National Trust property Tatton Park twice – if I lived close by, I’d be there every day. 

The first time we arrived at lunchtime so we tucked in to delicious jacket potatoes, salad and tea before heading out to explore the large, multi-faceted garden. Its features include a Japanese garden, huge trees, long walks, a large pond full of waterlilies (sadly, not flowering) and the biggest gunnera I’ve ever seen.

There’s a tower, once useful, now a folly. From the signboard: ‘Maurice Egerton, the last Lord Egerton, chose the Tower Garden to impress his guests.… the tower featured on the Ordnance Survey map of 1750. Its original purpose was to watch for sheep stealing on the park. In later years it was not unusual for this tower to house a hermit whose role was to ‘frighten’ house guests as they enjoyed the garden in the evening.’

There’s a gorgeous rose garden, a large well-stocked walled kitchen garden, and benches galore (I’m a big fan of garden benches!). The maze was great fun. From the signboard: ‘According to records Tatton’s maze was already well established by 1795. Planted with a mixture of deciduous Hornbeam and Beech obviously means it’s only possible to get totally lost in summer! It … has exactly the same plan as the maze at Hampton Court Palace in London.’

Laid out on the slopes below the mansion is a symmetrical Italian garden, probably the result of one of the family members absorbing Italian influences during their ‘Grand Tour’ of Europe. From the signboard: the garden was ‘Commissioned and completed in 1890 and designed by Joseph Paxton, the statue of Neptune acts as a centrepiece and was brought from Venice in 1920'.

The house itself was closed that day (Monday) but we saw it during our second visit. That day we spent several hours enjoying a long walk around Tatton’s huge expanse of parkland before touring round the Neo-Classical mansion of the Egerton family.

We saw red and fallow deer, surprising some red fawns hiding in the long grass; various butterflies, damsel and dragonflies that we chased through the long grass for photos; a pond with yellow and white waterlilies, the former native, the latter probably not; and beautiful long avenues of trees.

We’d worked up an appetite so lunched in the restaurant again – this time, being Sunday, the place was full of people – families, with kids having rides on the carousel and indulging in icecreams, as we did later – and all the shops were open (produce from the park’s farms, including rabbit and venison – oh poor Bambi!), the garden shop (so gardeners could take home a living souvenir of their visit), the gift shop (all the National Trust properties stock lovely gifts).

The mansion was better than I expected, as it’s not particularly imposing from the front, but it had some gorgeously appointed rooms – the library and music room were my personal favourites. I particularly love how people in past times weren’t afraid of colour, with yellow, pink and green walls in different rooms (not bland cream everywhere), and the rooms contained possessions with character and meaning (not that season's offerings from the Ikea catalogue). 

There were gorgeous ceilings in the downstairs rooms; a grand sweeping staircase to the upstairs where only a couple of rooms were open; an interesting cellar level, where we found the kitchen, bakery, dairy, linen and china closet, and an ingenious miniature rail system designed to bring in the huge amount of coal needed to heat such a large house in wintertime. 

If you’re in the vicinity of Tatton Park, I’d definitely recommend a visit – it’s tremendous!

New Zealand: the good stuff

Each time I come home from living overseas, I am reminded of the things I value about New Zealand that I had previously taken for granted.

Fern-covered seating fabric

For example, though I’m sure many people would moan about the public transportation system in Auckland – and I’m sure there are valid things to moan about – compared to the local buses in Cusco, Peru, the Auckland buses are a dream come true! (see my previous blog A dangerous commute for a glimpse of Peruvian bus travel)

For a start, they have timetables, and they almost always run on time. The drivers are mostly friendly, greeting their passengers with a friendly ‘Good morning’ or ‘Good afternoon’. If they’re not in a rush, they will actually chat to you – one read the name ‘Bolivia’ on my t-shirt and wanted to know if I’d been there and what it was like. They give you advice: ‘You’d be better to get a transfer ticket, dear. It’s cheaper’. They wait for the elderly and those with babies and young children to get seated before zooming off.

And the buses themselves are clean, with comfortable seats in bright colours and patriotic designs. They have buttons you can press or cords you can pull to indicate you want to get off at the next stop, though on one occasion I almost shouted out ‘Bajar’ as I would have on a Peruvian bus. Their roofs are high enough that even the tallest person doesn’t have to bend over. They don’t try and fit 100 people on a vehicle designed for 40, or have a conductor hanging out the door when the bus is overcrowded. They don’t contain chickens or guinea pigs or lambs or cats, though a seeing-eye dog would be allowed. They are much more expensive, of course, but believe me, the price is worth paying!

Another thing I really value about New Zealand is the greenness. There are trees everywhere, not just where I was staying in the bush-clad hills of Titirangi, but trees line the streets in almost every city suburb and in every small town, as well as the centres of the big cities. And in New Zealand we have our very own Christmas tree, the pohutukawa, which produces its magnificent bright red blossoms over the Christmas period. This year the trees were producing an amazing display.

Waterlilies in Auckland Domain

Most New Zealand towns and cities have public parks and green spaces for everyone to enjoy. In the middle of Auckland city, there’s a beautiful big park called The Domain, and one of its attractions is its large glasshouses. The display of flowers inside these glasshouses at the moment is truly stunning.

New Zealanders as a whole are great gardeners. We love our flowers and shrubs, and many people still cultivate their own vegetable gardens and grow fruit trees. For Christmas dinner, we ate new potatoes, freshly dug that morning from my uncle’s small allotment at the retirement village where they live, and I'm sure a lot of my fellow New Zealanders did the same.

Walking alongside the Waikato river in Hamilton