Oxhill News

www.oxhill.com / www.oxhill.org.uk

South Warwickshire, England.

The Oxhill News

December 2015

This months News

Contents

 

Garden Club

On Thursday 19th November members of the Garden Club and their guests (friends and relatives are always welcome at meetings) met up in the Old Chapel (courtesy of Jill whilst the Village Hall ceiling was being repaired) and were transported the length and breadth of the UK and beyond in words and pictures by our speaker Graeme Mitchell of Brightwater Holidays.  Graeme (the spelling of his name gives a clue to his origins north of the border) and his wife set up the Company working out of their garden shed in Fife armed only with an old typewriter and an answer-phone.  A fortuitous meeting with the then editor of the Daily Telegraph resulted in favourable publicity for their arranged tours of noteworthy gardens at home and abroad – some well known like Monet’s garden in France, others off the beaten track and only accessible because of Graeme’s connection, often friendship, with the owner of the property concerned.

The wonderful photographs, mostly taken by himself, shown of gardens included in his firm’s itinerary now and in the past served as a flowing backdrop to Graeme’s seamless recounting of the company’s development over the years interspersed with personal, often humourous, anecdotes about favourite places visited, head gardeners met and the influence that they had on the acreages that they managed, developed and cared for.

The name ‘Brightwater Holidays’ adopted by the Company was taken from the title of the book ‘A Ring of Bright Water’ and some of the freshness and sparkle of the coastal waters in that story was evident in the talk that those attending enjoyed so much.

Other than making brochures available to those present, Graeme, true to his word to Peter R-F who booked this excellent speaker, never did push the sales of his RHS endorsed UK tours and ABTA approved visits to an eclectic mix of beautiful gardens worldwide.  You, however, might like to take a mini winter break sitting in front of your own log fire by viewing www.brightwaterholidays.com and, as a result, perhaps visit one or more of the very special gardens featured on this website in 2016.

The next Garden Club event is the Christmas Party on Tuesday 8th December at The Old Chapel starting at 7pm. The normal programme of meetings at 7.30pm on the third Thursday of the month resumes in January (the 21st) when Sue and Mike Sanderson will give a talk on ‘Establishing Our Tysoe Walled Kitchen Garden’.

Douglas Nethercleft

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Last modified: January 20, 2016