Blog Posts
-
Winter Wine Choice 2013
Gran Familia Clasica Valdepenas Reserva 2007 I am very keen to experiment with Spanish red wines and whilst seldom disappointed with an aging Rioja, will tend to gravitate towards an area I am less familiar with. So here I am recommending a fine red wine made with the Tempranillo grape from the Valdepenas region, in […]
-
Plant of the winter months
Snowdrops and Irises Garden visits are beginning to become a reality as we plan our weekend trips and as January develops into the spring months, Snowdrops will be the most frequently observed flower in British gardens. Oh yes, there will be gasps as we lean into a well-flowered shrub of Daphne bholua ‘Jaqueline Postill’ or […]
-
Prunus mume ‘Beni-chidori’
A few years ago, during the month of February I was visiting a friend’s garden in Suffolk and encountered a well-flowered specimen shrub of Prunus mume ‘Beni-chidori’. Perhaps it was the striking deep, purplish-pink flowers that caught my eye in the first instance, but the sensuous waft of fragrance that met my nose was a […]
-
Classical Music October/Nov
Chopin – Prelude Op 28 No 15 in D Flat, Sostenuto (Raindrop) Etudes Op 10 Nos 1 and 2 Notes kindly prepared by Dr. Helmut Frehse Frederick François Chopin (1810 – 1849) Tourists spending their holidays on the isle of Mallorca should not fail to pay a visit to Valldemossa. This picturesque village is famous […]
-
Wine choice for October/Nov
2010/11 Weissburgunder Trocken (Dry) Weingut Walter and Georg Jung The Weissburgunder grape is more popularly known as Pinot Blanc and owes its origin as a “sport” or mutation of Pinot Noir. The grape is relatively low in acidity and is often drunk as a young wine. I have enjoyed this wine for many decades, most […]
-
Plant of the month – Oct/Nov
Gentiana veitchiorum As I write this piece in early October, a whole range of autumn-flowering gentians of the Frigida section are showing their abundance of flowers. In general this group of alpine plants is flowering much later (some 2 weeks) than is the norm, but with the ample, autumn sunshine their flowers are a real […]
-
Ginkgo biloba
This is a thoroughly well-known tree yet still, I feel rather sparingly planted in gardens. Often known as the Maidenhair Tree, it is certainly a unique taxon, regarded as a living fossil and similar to fossils dating back 270 million years. It is native to E.China from the Tianmu Shan, Zhejiang Provence with some living […]
-
Plant of the month – July/Aug
Campanula zoysii This is surely one of the most celebrated of all the European alpine campanulas. Popularly known as the “Crimped bellflower”, it is native to the Eastern Alps and can be found in Austria, N. Italy and Slovenia. It is highly revered in its native Slovenia and was first discovered here, by botanist Karl […]
-
Classical Music July/August
Hummel Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 85 I often lament at the lack of recognition the composer Hummel is given. Notable comments referring to my chosen Concerto as “very respectable” do little to assign this mighty work to its justified position. Let’s note a bit about the man’s pedigree: his teachers included Haydn, Clementi […]
-
Wine Choice for July/August
Domaine de Chazalis Merlot ‘Cuvee Richard’ 2009 Regular readers of my website and particularly my pieces on red wines will have become attuned to my taste and aversion to overly oaked and wines strongly influenced by their tannins. So, here I am recommending an old world wine made with the Merlot grape and a delight […]