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SW London
A semi-mature, hardy individual who tries to get away with doing as little as possible in gardening as in life, still expects the best results & wonders why she is frequently disappointed! She likes to keep a photographic record of everything, good & frequently bad!

Monday 6 September 2010

Of Cabbages & Kings

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Oh yes, & cakes of course.

Everyone who IS anyone has already blogged about the trip to Ssssshhhhh, you know where. Sorry dear reader but I don’t really care. I thought I should trail my blog along several days after the event & reveal my experience & thoughts on the much hyped & discussed bloggers & tweeters trip last week to H***g****, the country pad of HRH the Prince of Wales .

Firstly the cabbages; well they were meant to be cabbages but many  think they looked rather lettuce like… or even green roses. What did? The decorations on top of the little cakes made to celebrate this great event. Peculiarly I seem to have become known for making cakes; a heavy weight of responsibility to bear for such a naturally lazy trollop. I had just decided that I could manage enough cakes for a group event when certain shy & retiring person started putting in orders on Twitter for a personalised cake. Bloody cheek. Despite this on-line bullying I faltered only briefly &  cakes were made & decorated with cabbages in recognition of a conversation on Twitter about how cakes are essential for happy garden viewing. A personalised version was produced at the last minute – hence the rather wobbly writing (or perhaps it was the several medicinal G&Ts)

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I must also mention the wonderful chauffeuring of the inestimable Rob Stacewicz. As a fellow SW Londoner what else could we do but travel to Tetbury together & I was not turning down a offer to be driven. It was an uneventful journey despite a loop playing of Duran Duran including a sing-along ‘My name is Rio & I perch upon your hand’, poor jokes, coded messages as the car came to an unscheduled halt………

Anyway, the garden. Sadly, but I suppose understandably there were no photos allowed so no illustrations. Much chatter went on during the guided tour but we were able to see a garden of many different parts, some of which worked & some of which didn’t & which did not really fit together as a coherent whole. There was also no real sense of the garden fitting into the landscape or views which took in much of the outside; it was all very inward looking other than perhaps at the front of the house. Could that partly be a result of the landscape itself or a future king needing to feel protected & safe?  I quite liked some of the quirkiness such as the use of stone carvings in a stone wall, but in places it became a little over quirky.  

Others have written much more eloquently about the day here, here, here & here. I enjoyed it enormously; meeting lots of lovely & interesting people & seeing the garden was a delight. I look forward to other such trips!

9 comments:

  1. I loved my cake though ate it far too quickly due to busy plant swapping.
    Thinking about the next trip

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  2. Cakes were just delicious. I devoured mine in seconds flat!

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  3. Dear Ms B, I could not agree more, about Highgrove that is, since at the risk of continuing to repeat myself, I concur that this garden is a case of the parts never making and being far, far less than a whole. In my mind, there have been far too many hands,far too many disparate ideas and designs at work and, as a result, the overall effect is disjointed and unsatisfactory. As for the coronets [or were they crowns, some hope!] on top of the outdor lights.......tasteless!

    As for your cupcakes, they look such fun and were, I am sure, delicious.

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  4. Never mind about the garden, they all came to eat your cup cakes anyway. Wish I'd been there as well.

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  5. I know this is a dreadful admission to make but I had to bin half your cake because after eating that enormous piece of Victoria sponge in the cafe I was a bit caked-out. You will have to make me another one I can give my full attention to.

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  6. Edith, I am sorry your comments on the garden were surrounded by cake comments; what light-weights they are. I would have written more about the garden itself but being a light-weight too I rambled on for far too long about cakes myself.

    I am glad the cakes were appreciated by most of the party.....Arabella!!!

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  7. Love your cakes and so wish I had managed to get to HG (as the cognoscenti call it I understand). I went a few years ago and as I remember the best bit by far was the vegetable garden. That may just be a reflection of my own prejudices but I am sticking with it.

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  8. As far as I am concerned I think that the next Prince of Wales should actually be a cake. Much less controversial, considerably prettier and better tasting.*



    *Although not having actually nibbled the current PofW I cannot be absolutely certain.

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  9. Elizabethm, hang on to your prejudices, life would be so boring without.

    James I am disappointed you have not even managed an taster of a royal ear lobe.

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