Ninfa 2

As one visitor described it as 'a medieval Pompeii' it was once a thriving city with numerous churches, city walls, and castles. Today only the ruins remain and before they were cleaned up and restored, they were covered with ivy that draped over everyone and made it look totally spooky. The Caetani family because of their connection with the Pope was able to acquire the whole village and turned into their country estate which they restored to the dazzling beauty that it is today. Being dubbed, 'the most romantic garden in the world' it certainly behooves us to visit it at least once in a lifetime.

Ninfa

The garden of Ninfa, just outside of Rome is known as the most romantic garden in the world. I had the joy of visiting it this las April and it is truly marvelous. There's not another garden like it even as I just uploaded my ebook on the garden and its history. Check it out on Amazon Kindle.

Foraging for brambles in England

The brambles are early this year. They usually don't ripen till mid to late August. The long lane leading up from the main road to the entrance at Scotney castle was lined with brambles. The walk to the entrance was done with another English couple so while we did a little picking we chatted most of the time. I did a lot more foraging on the way back to the main road where the bus dropped us off. I dawdled, picked and ate. It was a childhood dream of mine living in a British colony and reading books about life in England. I must have been 6 when I read this English reader about a little girl and boy who went out picking blackberries with their grandfather. The grandfather used the crook of his cane to reach those blackberries high above their heads. That story has stayed with me for 60 years and I've always wanted to do that. The past years have seen me do a little foraging but not to the extent I did this trip. This memory will stay with me for a very long time.

Scotney castle, UK

Trust me, this photo wasn't photo shopped even though it looked like it. For a while now I've seen the evocative pictures of Scotney castle and have it on my iPhone to remind me that I need to visit. Its so easy these days, just google anything and the instructions on how to get there pops up. So armed with the information off I went that morning in London. The train from Charing Cross station took me to Tunbridge Wells. At Tunbridge Wells High street, bus 256 will take me to Lamberhurst and from there a long walk (20 minutes) will lead me to the front entrance of Scotney castle. This is the old castle, 630 years old which the owner has let become a ruin turning it into a romantic folly. The residence is up the hill and was built in 1837. There is a massive moat that surrounds this old castle. I walked its whole perimeter taking pictures from every angle. She doesn't have any bad side at all. She's beautiful and so evocative. If you happen to be in London on days that Scotney castle is opened, make the effort to visit.

The beaches of the Outer Hebrides

I was on a quest, in search of the Machair, those flowery meadows of the Outer Hebrides. I found more, I found those beautiful white sand beaches and icy blue ocean waters that are the beaches of the Outer Hebrides. The Outer Hebrides are those far western island chain of Scotland that borders the Atlantic ocean on one side. It is the Atlantic ocean side that has these kinds of beaches. They are so evocative and exceedingly beautiful. I just came back and already making plans to return.

Viewfield House, Portree, Isle of Skye

My Hebridean adventure ends on the Isle of Skye. The Isle of Skye is considered part of the Inner Hebrides. It is also known as the garden of the Hebrides. It is filled with wild flowers that line the roadside and also unused fields. It lacks the drama of the Machair of the Outer Hebrides but is not any less delightful. Portree, the capital of Skye sees a lot of visitors, a lot of Asian visitors. Most visitors to Scotland, besides visiting the biggies like Glasgow and Edinburgh, also visits Inverness, Loch Ness and Skye. So accommodation is really tight in Portree. I'm staying 3 nights, each night in a different place. Last night was at a B&B outside of town. Tonight I'm staying in this 200 year old mansion. Tomorrow I'll be moving to a hostel downtown. That will signal the end of this trip, as I return home to complete the ebook on the Hebrides, both Inner and Outer! I love the wildness of the Outer Hebrides and I find nothing in the city that could compare to it. I see a field of beautiful purple thistles and I want to run through it. Of course that's not advisable, I'll get pricked in the bottom before I could get very far. Its been amazing! Its hard to top this!

My last day in the Outer Hebrides

This is my last stop, Stornoway, in the Outer Hebrides. I'm leaving from Tarbert tomorrow, taking the bus there and then a ferry will take me to the Isle of Skye. Getting accommodations in Skye was a nightmare. I spent most of yesterday making my onward arrangements but I did 2 places to stay in Skye, one for 2 nights and the other for the 3rd night. It is very expensive too if you can find any rooms. I've been told Skye is very beautiful. I shall miss all the wild flowers. It was planned a year ago to be here in July to see the beautiful wild flower fields called Machair. Its going to be a book on the Hebrides. I was at the Inner Hebrides last year. I want to come back. It is so beautiful and unspoiled and the people are so nice.

The Outer Hebrides

This was a week ago at the start of my Outer Hebrides adventure. I'm still in the Outer Hebrides wending my way North covering a lot of ground in a short time meeting some of the friendliest people and seeing some of the most wondrous Machair. The Machair is unique to the Outer Hebrides and is absolutely stunning. That is the reason why I'm here. There are fields and fields of Machair everywhere. There are wild flowers everywhere and beautiful scenery, beaches, rock outcrops and wild life. This was taken at Barra airport a week ago.

Howmore

This was my hostel yesterday, at first sight, a very dismal and dumpy place but I had the best time here. I stayed a night here. I was alone, then I was joined by Steve, a bicyclist and mush later Alan, another bicyclist. All three of us talked the night away. I didn't know Howmore was so small. It had no shops, cafes or anything. I had a bar of chocolate with me. I told myself, half of it is for lunch and the other half for dinner. But when Steve arrived, he boiled some pasta left over by another party and there was half a can of canned tomatoes left in the fridge. With that I made a sauce and had enough for lunch and dinner. This trip was all about serendipity. The hostel was right smack in the middle of a mach air and I had the best time of my life living on such minimal of things. There was of course no Internet and I was off the grid for 24 hours.

Home

Home is Southern California, home is Los Angeles, home is Hollywood, home is the Pacific ocean! While I love to be home, I love to wander also. I'm going wandering in a few days and be away for a few weeks. But I can't wait to get home and to entertain again. I wander the whole world over looking for wild flowers and going next week to do exactly that, look for wild flowers. In March this year, I didn't have to wander far, just 30 miles away, to the hills and to this magical canyon which was ablaze with the wondrous sight ever, wild flowers everywhere in them hills. I've never seen Southern California so glorious. I love you, California!

Regrets?

I regret not getting a slice of this gigantic cherry cake when I was in Coimbra, Portugal this May 2017!

April 20th, 2017

While everyone in my dorm were still sleeping, I'm out and about at 6.30am and am heading for the train station at Paddington. I'm on the 8.15am train to Swindon and right on time the train pulls out of Paddington station. I spot the spirea in bloom. Emma Bridgewater wrote in a recent book that the best way to see wild flowers in England is from a moving car or in my case from a moving train. We passed the numerous varieties of wild flower species that dot the sides of the motorway or train tracks. I'm in England on the trail of snakehead fritillaries. What? I know, I know, few people have even heard of them. While roses and peonies are in such abundance, the habitat of snakehead fritillaries is already very limited and is getting smaller. They like their feet kind of wet so a marshy field is ideal. There are only a few areas where they are found in any large quantities. Magdalen field in Oxford is one and the other is Cricklade's North meadow. So I'm on my way to Cricklade. Upon arrival at Swindon, I went to the bus station and boarded a bus for Cricklade. No one knew what I was looking for but the tourism office in Cricklade knew and pointed the way to North meadow. Cricklade is so small, there is only one street and if you walked it to the end, you can't miss North meadow. The display of snakehead fritillaries was spectacular, a wide and expansive field colored purple with snakehead fritillaries. This is the motherlode! Every year in the month of April, they appear and is so magnificent. Few people venture this far to see them but those who do is rewarded tremendously. Mind you I live in Los Angeles and made the effort to track them down. It was a wonderful experience bar none!

Finland in the summer of 2015

I traveled for 3 months in Scandinavia in the summer of 2015. Something had just happened in my life that left me devastated. I was fired from a job I had for some 30 years. My license was placed on probation. Its easier to talk about it now but not at that time. I could not speak about it without breaking down. I've never revealed this publicly though family and close friends all know about it. Not that it has any bearing on my travels. Correction, it does, I had time on my hands and I could just go and stop only when I felt like it. I did, going all over Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and also to England. I wasn't sure how my finances could hold up but after 2 years of the incident (I never went back to work, I didn't need to) and after seeing that my finances was fine and I could weather being unemployed for the rest of my life, did I relax and enjoy my freedom. The 3 months was very liberating, very cathartic, I regained my self respect and could face any challenge thrown at me. Today I just sit, read, write and plan future escapes. Be watching for future escapes.

Summer 2015

I spent 3 months in the summer of 2015 in Scandinavia. One of my most favorite places is Christiania in Copenhagen, a little hippie community that is so lovely in summer. I went here twice because it was that lovely. I'd go again if I'm in Copenhagen again!

Machair Machair

What is a Machair? These grasslands in the Hebrides are referred to as the Machair. This was the Machair in Calgary on the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides last year. I decided that the next year I will visit the Outer Hebdrides where the Machair is even more spectacular. So the next year has arrived and I leave in a few weeks for the Outer Hebrides.

The pleasure of ruins

'The pleasure of ruins' is a book by Rose Macauley. She had a blurb about Ninfa in it. If ruins could talk, and the stories they can tell will be amazing. However the garden of Ninfa has seen its own glory days in the Middle ages and then its own ruin. While it was untouched during WWI, it was close to the action during WWII. Correction, during WWI it was a place they kept captured Austrians prisoners of war. It was very close to the action during WWII when the Allies tried to capture Monte Cassino and destroyed it. An appeal was sent to the Pope to ask the Allies to spare bombing certain historical sites. The Caetani family were in Ninfa and the nearby castle at Norma, high in the hills. One of the Caetani women hung a bed sheet on the castle roof saying 'Americans live here'. Marguerite Caetani was American!

A medieval Pompeii

As one visitor long ago wrote of the garden of Ninfa and describes it as 'a medieval Pompeii.' One of the people in my group asked if the stones were there for effect. How ignorant! Ninfa was once a prosperous medieval city with 7 churches, city walls, castles and stone buildings. It was destroyed by neighboring village people because of jealousy and fell into disrepair for hundreds of years. The Caetani family has always owned it and in the last few decades has drained the Pontine marshes, got rid of the malarial mosquitoes and rehabilitated Ninfa. Today the Fondazione Roffredo Caetani runs the place. There's no other garden like it in the world.

A new ebook

I'm halfway through this book. In my research I found some incredible facts about the Caetani family. They are so inspiring which I will reveal in the book.

Rome and Ninfa

Ninfa is only opened eleven months in the year and only a few days each month. So if your visit to Rome doesn't coincide with one of its opening days, you won't get to visit it. I planned my trip for a whole year making sure my trip to Rome coincided with one of Ninfa's opening days. There were only a handful of us from outside Italy, the rest were Italians. It is the most beautiful and most romantic garden in the world.

Continuing on with Ninfa

Though Ninfa is in Italy it is by no means an Italianate garden. It is planned to look unplanned. Roses and clematis climb up and tumble down from the ruins in a most delightful manner. The family, though of aristocratic Italian roots has English and American in their heritage. The English side brought with them the gardening style and the choice of plants especially the roses and it is so evident in the garden today! I'm writing an ebook on Ninfa right now. I can't put the subject down. This rose is like a Banksia rose though the guide said it wasn't a Banksia. Its her favorite rose!