A frantic week ends in mush

Monday 13th September 2010

A frantic week last week - Cupar, Cheltenham, Norfolk and Wells all within three days!

I had a lovely night in Cheltenham with the good people from the Philadelphia Hardy Plant Society who were in the middle of a two centre holiday (Wales and the Cotswolds) and it seems they were having a wonderful time. I caught up with them at the Queens Hotel in the centre of Cheltenham and had supper with them. They were a most knowledgeable group and we had a good chat about where they had been and the different styles of gardens that they had seen. I think Powis Castle had down well www.nationaltrust.org.uk/powis/ , but the highlight so far seems to have been sitting in on a practice session of the Abergavenny Male Voice Choir. It was also good to catch up with their Tour Manager, Maurice Wilkins from NTS Arduaine Gardens - he is a great plantsman and a thoroughly decent fellow.
Then it was the long drive over to Norfolk to give a presentation to the Dersingham Garden Society (just to the north of King's Lynn adjacent to the Sandringham Estate). I arrived at this nice village with an hour or so to spare so I trundled off to the local RSPB reserve at Snettisham overlooking the great Ouse Wash http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/s/snettisham/index.aspx It was a beautiful evening and I felt the benefit of being able to stretch my legs after the 5 hour drive. What a unique landscape the Ouse Wash is - miles and miles of mud! As far as the eye could see in 180 degrees right across to the Lincolnshire coast. The tide was far out and it looked like a muddy desert, but on closer inspection through my binoculars it came alive with bird life. Thousands upon thousands of waders probing for food in the mud, then as the tide began to come in the birds would lift and swirl in the air. A large flock of Godwits passed overhead and the air between their wings was like a light aircraft going past - magical. Avocet, geese and egrets - very nice too. I could have stayed all night but I had to get back to the church hall to do my stuff and tell a packed hall about the Brightwater story. It was a really nice crowd and I think they all enjoyed my talk. One lady who was there told me she was at Powis earlier in the week and bumped into our American group - small world.
I had the joys of the Premier Inn, Kings Lynn to crash out in (it is such a glamorous life being a Tour Operator!) but I did not take much rocking to get to sleep.
I leave at 5.00am in order that I see my daughter sing a solo at Wells Cathedral - I am so tired when she comes on and sings like an angel I turn to mush!
Driving around the country it struck me just how beautiful and varied Great Britain is - from the mountains of Scotland to the flat lands of Norfolk, to the very quintessential English landscape of the Vale of Evesham to the Valleys of Wales - we are very lucky to live with such a varied landscape to close at hand.

Today I am back in Fife and have a very interesting lunchtime meeting with two brothers from a most distinguished horticultural family - that of the Cox family from Glendoick near Perth - of rhododendron fame. I meet Ken and Ray at the family garden centre. Ken is a great rhododendron expert following in his father's footsteps and has agreed to lead a new tour for us to Belgium next spring, and Ray is one of the best garden photographers I have come across - have a look at his website to see some of his amazing images www.rcoxgardenphotos.co.uk

Bhutan

Tuesday 7th September 2010

I had a very interesting meeting with Julia Corden, who runs the Scottish Plant Hunter's Garden in Pitlochry (please go and visit her lovely garden the next time you are driving up the A9) - have a look www.plantexplorers.com/articles/explorers-garden.htm Julia has led many tours for us, regularly with the Scottish Rock Garden Club, and historically the further afield the better - she's been to Costa Rica, Japan, Pontresina and the Dolomites - usually looking for rare wild flowers to share her enthusiasm with our passengers - she is a lovely girl - even nicer for the fact that she brought along her Working Cocker Spaniel called 'Bracken'. Anyway Julia has this plan to go back to Bhutan where she has been twice before looking for pink poppies and rhododendrons. We had maps and books spread all over our meeting room desk with photos from previous trips, it was all very exciting and I could see that this was the germination of an idea that will hopefully blossom into a full blown Brightwater Holiday in spring 2012 - (sorry for the poor botanical puns). So look out for more details coming soon about a tour to Bhutan - we have found it on the map, which is a very good start!

I was feeling for our archaeological group sailing to Shetland last night as very strong winds lashed the east coast, we were told that Aberdeen was OK (where the ship sails from) however this morning is like a winter's day with driving rain and blown branches whipped off our big beech trees lying in the car park.

We've been interviewing for a couple of new positions within the company and would you believe that one little postcard in our local Job Centre has generated over 90 applicants. It took me a day to read through them! Definitely a sign of the times. Hopefully we will be able to give someone an opportunity to start or refresh their career.

A busy week again, I'm off to meet a group over from Philadelphia tomorrow in Cheltenham and on Thursday I'll be speaking to a Garden Club in north Norfolk - I might take my binoculars over there and see if I can sneak in a quick bit of birdwatching on Friday morning (don't tell anyone - our secret!)

Cancelled Flight

Thursday 2nd September 2010

Well after 9 years of commuting to and from Bristol Easyjet finally let me down by cancelling their 2130hrs flight from Edinburgh leaving me stranded. It wasn't really the end of the world for me as I simply about turned and drove back to the office in Cupar. But it was the lack of information I found frustrating, a complete lack of staff (Edinburgh airport was like a ghost town) except for a snaking queue of around 100 passengers trying to get re booked at an Easyjet sales desk with one poor girl trying to do her best to sort things out.
There was much gnashing of teeth in the queue with people complaining about Easyjet - and I guess I would have been too had I been in a position where I had to get to Bristol, but now in the cold light of day I realise that (for me) it has been just one cancelled flight in 9 years of commuting every week with Easyjet - in fact I don't think Easyjet were around 9 years ago, I started with BA, then it became GO, then Easyjet came along, took over, and now dominates short haul routes. But my feeling is that they have had a tough summer (Volcanic Ash - remember that? crew shortages, French Air traffic Controllers strikes etc) But now their model is changing - pushing everyone to check-in online so as they do not need so many ground staff at the airports. That probably makes sense in an Operations room at their headquarters in Luton, but last night at Edinburgh Airport it did them no favours.
Easyjet have been a wonderful success, they have changed the general public's attitude to flying, within 10 short years we now expect to be able to fly virtually anywhere for fifty quid each way - but it is a classic British trait to moan about a successful company when it has problems.
Thank goodness it was just me last night and not the 35 passengers from Lisbon Botanical Gardens who will be on that flight in a couple of weeks.

I saw a funny piece in the paper, about the best joke from this year's Edinburgh Fringe was awarded to Comedian Tim Vine

"I've just been on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday. I tell you what, never again."

Boom, boom

Brightwater has changed my life.

Wednesday 1st September 2010

Mrs Morris had a lovely time on our recent Private Gardens of Dublin holiday. She said
'Brightwater Holidays has changed my life - no more boring lonely holidays for me, Long may it last'
Thanks Mrs Morris, glad you had such a nice time......
and Mrs Cox sent a lovely little note in wanting to put on record how very much she appreciated the clear presentation of all the arrangements for her holiday to Mull, Staffa and Iona. 'Quite the best I have ever received.'
Mrs Cox - we're blushing!

The girls have been busy stuffing envelopes with the new Autumn/Spring brochure today after Andrew and I humphed the heavy boxes off the lorry and down into our mail room. The first and most important thing any Tour Operator has to be able to do is unload an artic-lorry full of brochures. At least it wasn't raining.

Summer is going; that's us into September and you can almost smell autumn in the air, the weather however is still good, and our last St Kilda trip seemingly had perfect conditions, although the Great Skuas were particularly vicious chasing several of our customers going up to The Gap.
Our big Beech trees at the front of the office have now lost their shine and are looking a bit weary, indeed one of them is starting to show some yellowing. But let's not banish summer too soon and enjoy and make the most of the good weather.