Batsford

Wednesday 19th October 2011

I managed to get away from all the brochure/marketing planning yesterday afternoon when I met up with one of our garden experts Tony Russell at Batsford Arboretum in the heart of the Cotswolds, just close to Morton-in-Marsh http://www.batsarb.co.uk/. Tony is a trustee of the arboretum and was keen to show me round the new visitors' complex and the arboretum itself. What a fantastic afternoon I had seeing such magnificent specimen trees many from Asia/Japan. The autumn colours were just beginning to show, however I reckon in another couple of weeks it will be at its best - well worth a visit (and the cakes are wonderful!). I had a most informative walk with Tony, talking over our plans for next year and what tours he might be able to escort for us (see Highgrove and the Cotswolds).http://www.brightwaterholidays.com/tour.aspx?TID=ABF14928-2261-45F4-A37A-6FEA1AC1A875

There were some amazing trees on show, and the house itself was resplendent - Downton Abbey eat your heart out!

Tony was keen to show me one tree in particular that they were particularly proud of; that of the Wollemi Pine - With only one hundred adult trees left in the wild (in a gorge somewhere in New South Wales Australia), the very rare little sapling that I saw behind its protective cadge at in a shady glade looked to be doing quite well for itself and had a good grip of the Cotswolds. Let's hope that in 150 years it will be a towering specimen http://www.wollemipine.co.uk/

Driving through the Cotswolds is always a thrill, and on such a crisp and bright autumnal day I was feeling quite a guilty pleasure from doing so. I was en route to the little village of Evenley at the southern end of Northamptonshire to give an evening presentation to their Gardening Society which was well attended and enjoyed by all. http://www.evenley.info/

Autumn arrives with a bang!

Thursday 6th October 2011

I've been neglecting you dear Blog-landers, however Brightwater Holidays has been cracking on apace. As we speak we have intrepid passengers in Chile, South Africa, North America and on Tresco. The weather in the UK has thrown up a few problems for us - beautiful (freakish) hot weather last week has given way to strong gales and fog which has given us some headaches with Tresco helicopter flights - there have been some delays, but everyone is now where they should be.

Caledonian MacBrayne Ferries couldn't get into Castlebay on Barra earlier this week, so the Barra Hotel had to re-open for an extra night to accommodate our guests (Thank you Guy). But what a great place to get stranded? I remember many years ago setting stuck on Barra because of bad weather and making the most of it sat all afternoon at the north end of the island watching Gannets diving into the rough seas like exocets (marvelous) then an afternoon sing-song in the public bar of the Castlebay Hotel where grown men were weeping singing traditional songs of the Clearances (fantastic memories) .

Kay and I were at an interesting day Travel conference last week at the unusual venue of the Emirates Stadium (home to Arsenal football club) All good stuff about crisis management, Travel bonding changes with the CAA, and currency markets - if you like that sort of stuff?! The best bit actually was a guest appearance from Charlie George the legendary Arsenal stricker from the 70's.

Speaking engagements have taken off (it must be autumn) with recent talks to garden clubs in South Wales (Crickhowell) and in Norfolk at a lovely little village just outside Dereham called Gressenhall. I love visiting Norfolk with its huge flat lands and big skies.

I was very privileged to be invited to Hestercombe Gardens by Philip White who is the energy behind these wonderful Somerset gardens. It was their bi-annual Gardeners Lunch when the great and the good of the gardening world get a private tour of Hestercombe to see how the gardens are coming on; it is also a great way to network with the Gardening Industry. One minute I was talking to the lady who runs Highgrove, the next with the Head Gardener at Dunster Castle, then to the new Curator of the National Botanic Gardens of Wales - all good stuff, great to hear what is going on at the coalface so to speak. Hestercombe, I must say was looking splendid (see photos above). Philip White is a really charismatic individual who I like very much - he told me that once talking with Tim Smit of Eden and Heligan fame, he described running a large garden was a bit like being a train driver going at full speed through a tunnel, having to always look straight ahead and keep going - a bit like being a Tour Operator?

In the office we have started to implement some new practices to help streamline our administration (fingers crossed, seems to be working) we are looking at a new reservation system, reviewing our Marketing strategy, employing a new Office Junior and it's Brochure time.

Don't you just love it?