L’Incanto delle Camellie

Posted on March 14, 2018 by Francis

La mostra delle antiche camellie a Sant’Andrea e la Pieve di Compito, ora nella sua 29 esima edizione, è conosciuta mondialmente per la sua suprema bellezza, il suo ameno sito sul Monte Pisano e la sua organizzazione cortese.

Un mio articolo nella rivista ‘Grapevine’ di questo mese celebra questa veritevole ‘camellia all’occhiello’ italiana.

Come si saprà, sono stati gli inglesi che hanno introdotto in Europa le prime camellie trasportate sui loro velieri dalla Cina nel settecento. Il clima del Compitese era idoneo per la coltivazione delle camellie e, in più, una varietà poteva offrire la possibilità di preparare una buona tazza di thè, senza la quale nessun vero anglo-sassone potrebbe mai sopravvivere…

(Non perdere l’occasione di gustare un ‘cream tea’ con i scones nel tea-house del parco di Chiswick)

A Londra esiste una caratteristica mostra di camellie ogni anno a Chiswick park, esibita nella storica serra, lunga cento metri, del Duca di Devonshire e progettata nel 1813 dal architetto Samuel Ware (colui del famoso Burlington arcade).

Di fronte alla serra un giovane Lewis Kennedy disegnò un giardino formale all’Italiana secondo l’ultima moda inglese (mentre, nella stessa epoca, in Italia diventavano pazzi per la naturalezza dei giardini all’inglese!).

Le camellie, tenute nella magnifica serra al riparo contro le intemperie del clima inglese, risalgono alle varietà più antiche e includono delle vere rarità come la ‘middlemist’s red’: i due soli esempi esistono qui e nella Nuova Zelanda.

Le altre varietà comprendono la Variegata, Imbricata, Chandleri, Alba Piena, Pompone, Corallina, e Rubra Piena, tutte risalenti alla collezione del 1828 del Duca.
Dobbiamo ringraziare i volontari che hanno salvato la collezione di camelie, la squisita serra e il grazioso giardino Italiano per le nuove generazioni. Infatti, il lavoro di riqualificazione è stato solo completato nel 2010.

Le camelie si possono visitare fino all’Aprile. Non dimenticate, però, che nello stesso parco di Chiswick è ubicata la splendida villa di Lord Burlington ispirata dai suoi viaggi in Italia e dalle ville di Palladio.

L’Italia in Inghilterra (come anche una dei suoi giardinieri che abbiamo incontrato) come l’Inghilterra in Italia, e, in ambedue le nazione, la Cina con le sue camelie… E’ assolutamente senza dubbio che, assieme alla musica, sono i giardini che aiutano a unire il mondo!

Ps. Parlando di musica ecco i Beatles a suonare nella serra delle camellie, anni sessanta.

Ogni petalo

ci rivela un ricordo

paradisiaco.

Secret Gardens in London

Posted on December 9, 2017 by Francis

Dickens was a passionate walker, both of the Kent countryside but especially of the streets of London, the setting for so much of his writing.

From my present weekday venue in the radiology department of University College London Hospital I have followed the great writer’s example and done some of my own explorations.

Although born and bred in the ‘great wen’ I always discover some little-known, yet fascinating, corners.
Yesterday, for example, I stumbled across St George’s gardens which are located between St Pancras station and Brunswick square and can be reached via the appropriately named Handel street (Handel was a generous benefactor of the square’s Foundling Hospital).

The gardens are an amalgam of two eighteenth century burial grounds belonging to the two St George’s churches in the area: St George’s, Bloomsbury and St George’s, Queen square. Both churches had filled their own grounds to the full with inhumations and these gardens are the first example of a burial ground separated from any church. Indeed, they could be said to be London’s first cemetery.

Opened in 1715 the gardens were closed to further burial in 1854 and were opened to the public as an open space in the 1880’s.
By the 1990’s they had become very run-down and were the den of drug dealers and illicit sexual encounters. A local group was, therefore, set up to recuperate the gardens and, with the help of volunteers and grants, this little gem of greenery has returned to be an oasis of peace set in the midst of its bustling surroundings.

There are some fine trees and delightful garden ‘snugs’ here.

Even in winter the atmosphere is very appealing. Along the wall, built originally to dissuade body-snatchers from supplying nearby medical schools with corpses for anatomy lessons, are placed many, now largely indecipherable, tombstones. (Ps body-snatchers, or ‘resurrectionists’ are now no longer around, I hope).

Still in their original place in the gardens are chest tombs and an impressive obelisk to a certain Thomas Faulkner.

However, what really took my fancy was a lovely terracotta statue to the lyric muse Euterpe, originally from a nearby theatre.

These pretty gardens are an excellent example of the secrets London can reveal to those who will dedicate some hours walking its ever-fascinating streets. They are also a fine example of how the local community (which holds a festival here around St George’s day) can get together and reclaim a neglected space for public enjoyment. Bagni di Lucca take this as an example and do more to reclaim your own lovely gardens around two of your grand but uninhabited villas!

Of Wild Geese and High Speed Trains

Posted on December 7, 2017 by Francis

As a former imperial capital there is much to discover in Xi’an. We visited the old town where we found an elegant house which once belonged to a high official of the court, Gao Yuesong. The house compound, complete with ducks, gave us a marvellous insight into upper class life in dynastic China.

Our evening concluded with a spectacular show where dancing, pageant and acrobatics were mixed in a sensational potpourri.

Next day we returned to the classroom where we had a try at chinese pictograms. Needless to say some pupils tried harder than others but the teacher was truly excellent and got order back to a potentially unruly set of students!

The little wild goose pagoda was one of the oldest buildings we visited in China and dates back to the golden age of the Tang dynasty of the eighth century AD. 141 feet high the pagoda has exquisite brickwork and is so-called perhaps because of the wandering monk Xuanzang who travelled along the silk road collecting buddhist texts before returning to Xi’an – just like a migrating goose, in fact. The gardens and the orchestra contributed to the truly delightful ambience of this lovely temple.

We could have spent so much more time in Xi’an but it was now the hour for our next and final stage of our adventures: a journey on the high-speed train to Beijing….

Shanghaied Again

Posted on November 18, 2017 by Francis

Returning to a dismal rain-drenched London after time spent exploring the mysteries of the far east is also a time of reflection and poring over photographs of our adventures in China, or Cathay as it was once called.

Shanghai is the original sea gateway into China and its fascinating mixture of old town, art deco and futuristic architecture makes this not only the world’s largest urban area but also the shop window for the country with the world’s second largest economy.

This was not our first visit to Shanghai (see ‘Shanghaied’ in ‘Longoio2.wordpress’) but the megacity’s attractions are so many and so changing that one is always discovering something new. Shanghai is truly a city that is transforming itself from one year to the next.

We were blessed by dry clear weather throughout our stay in China, and rarely encountered the notorious pollution which afflicts so many cities in that country.

My bank used to be called the Midland before it was taken over by the HSBC, the Hong Kong and Shanghai bank. I passed the original office of the HSBC on the bund, or Shanghai embankment:

DSCN9960

The charm of Shanghai’s old town and the lovely Yu gardens were there to enjoy yet again.

To this we added the City gods temple:

The former French concession, now a trendy place with some great eateries and also the building that housed the first Chinese communist conference back in 1922.