Hypatia's Grande Tour
Created | Updated Aug 13, 2008
Teuchter Towers
'Make sure you get a window seat. The plane will begin its descent early enough for you to see the coast of Ireland. And you'll be able to see London from the air before you land.'
I don't know which one or two days of the year are clear enough for this to actually occur, but it wasn't the day of my arrival. There was so much cloud cover that the first sight I had of Old Blighty were a few rooftops near Gatwick and wet tarmac. It had been an uneventful flight across the Atlantic, but a long one and I was ready to feel solid ground under my feet. And I was definitely ready to meet all the 'internet weirdoes your mother warns you about'...
My mother was sure I'd joined a cult and was never to be seen or heard from again. I put off telling her about the trip for as long as I could. Finally I grabbed the bull by the horns – or in this case the cranky mother – and took a deep breath.
'Mother, I'm going to England on vacation in a few weeks.'
'That's silly. Of course you're not going to England. Why would you want to do that?'
'Well... I've decided to go to the Chelsea Flower Show. I watch it on TV every year and keep saying how much fun it would be to attend. So, I'm going to do it.' She loves flowers. I thought that would calm her down.
'You can't find a flower show any closer?' she snapped. 'Who are you going with? Someone from the Library?'
'I don't want to attend A flower show, Mother. I want to attend The flower show. Chelsea is the most famous flower show in the world.'
'Who's going with you? Are you taking one of those package tours?'
Here it comes. 'I'm going alone. I'll be staying with friends of mine when I get there.'
Mother knew better, of course. 'Are you talking about all the crazy balloon people? Those aren't real friends. You've never met them. How can you do this? You're such a responsible person.'
I did feel a bit strange traveling alone, but certainly not afraid. Over the years, I had taken some short trips without my husband. Sitting in an airport is sitting in an airport – boring no matter where you are. It wasn't like I would be rattling around England all by myself. My 'real' friends were planning to take very good care of me.
Getting through customs was a snap. The flight attendant passed out landing cards for us to fill out in advance. The only glitch came when it asked for an address in England where I could be found. I didn't have the actual postal address for Teuchter Towers, so I just entered Yateley. I don't think the man in 'Arrivals' even looked at it. Quick stamp on the passport and I was in. Being a harmless, middle-aged librarian has its advantages.
I flew into Gatwick because it is closer to Yateley than to Heathrow. I was asking Teuchter to pick me up at an ungodly hour and wanted to make it as easy for her as possible. I told her how to spot me. I'd be wearing jeans, a blue striped shirt and a dazed expression.
We landed about 35 minutes late, so Teuchter had a bit of a wait. But there she was, looking all fresh and perky. I, on the other hand, was not perky. Happy, but definitely not perky. I had checked in at the Joplin airport at 5:30 AM on the 19th and it was now 7:20 AM on the 20th, which was 1:20 AM Joplin time. Getting good travel connections out of Joplin is almost impossible. I had been in transit for 20 hours. We picked up my bags – I took too much luggage after promising myself that I wouldn't – made our way to the car park and headed toward Teuchter Towers.
I had a plan. I asked Teuchter to keep me awake all day. That way I'd be so bushed that I'd be able to fall asleep at the normal GMT bedtime. I would laugh in the face of jet lag. It took about 35-40 minutes to get to Teuchter Towers from Gatwick. I hadn't been in the country for an hour and it was raining on me and Teuchter had me on the M25. Yea! Welcome to England.
Teuchter Towers is larger than my house in Webb City and has a nice sized back garden. I was impressed when we drove up to notice that all of the houses in her neighbourhood have chimney pots. We have chimneys in the Ozarks, but chimney pots are few and far between. Teuchter showed me to my room and I immediately felt at home. She made coffee while I stowed my luggage and freshened up. She offered to fix me some breakfast, but I wasn't really hungry. They fed us four times on the plane. We ate all the way from Dallas to London.
The sky had started to clear, so Teuchter suggested we take a stroll through a nearby garden. 'Sure,' I said, never having refused the chance to tour a garden in my life. It turns out that what she had in mind was the Royal Horticultural Society's Garden at Wisley. How's that for an introduction to English gardens?
Wisley is magnificent. It is considered one of the great gardens of the world. It is approximately 20 miles southwest of London near Woking, Surrey. The property was a gift to the RHS in 1903 from Sir Thomas Hanbury, founder of the celebrated garden of La Mortola on the Italian Riviera. Wisley's plant collections are some of the largest in the world (over 30,000 species) and the garden is renowned for its diversity. In addition to the usual displays of bulbs, herbaceous and woody plants, Wisley has a marvellous alpine collection, one of the largest assortments of fruits in the world, model vegetable gardens, glasshouse plants, lovely meadows, ponds and large trial gardens. It's no wonder that horticultural students worldwide travel to Wisley to study. There is a two year certificate course available and a shorter one year course.
The rock garden is especially lovely. It is 100 years old and was the first major garden constructed on the grounds. Living in a hilly area, I am always interested in rock gardens. And I was absolutely delighted to come upon a garden I recognized from television. A Chelsea medal winner that I particularly admired years ago has been permanently installed at Wisley. Since I'm an avid vegetable gardener, I also greatly enjoyed the collection of vegetables and fruits. Finally, I have to single out an area called Battleston Hill. It is filled with rhodendrons, azaleas, camellias and magnolias. It is just spectacular.
The sun came out long enough for us to have lunch outside on the terrace. It was a bit cool, but was such a lovely location that I didn't mind at all. Then we visited the gift shop. That was my first experience with sticker shock. The RHS gift shops have a wonderful selection of gardening books. I nearly choked every time I looked at the prices. As a librarian, I have purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of books. I'm used to wholesalers and large discounts. The retail price of books in the UK is high indeed. Which is a good thing in a way. I could barely get my luggage home as it was. I bought some gorgeous note cards – watercolors – which I am too stingy to give to anyone and a souvenir guide to the garden.
Before I leave the subject of Wisley, I want to say what a joy it was to see so many small children in the garden. They were all decked out in brightly coloured wellies happily splashing in puddles. My love of plants and gardening was instilled at a young age. It always does my heart good to see parents taking their kids to gardens and teaching them to appreciate the magic a garden affords. Every single garden I visited in England was filled with children, all wearing wellies by the way. It was marvellous.
Tired but contented, we returned to Chez Teuchter. We spent quite a bit of that afternoon on suitcase damage control. Somewhere during 5,546 miles and three airplane cargo holds the lid had come loose on my shampoo bottle. I had packed it inside a lined outside pocket of one of my suitcases. The shampoo soaked through this pocket, into the upper, mesh pocket on the suitcase and into the main compartment. What a mess. Fortunately, this was the suitcase where I had souvenirs from Webb City stowed and most of them were inside plastic bags.
I threw away what couldn't be salvaged and Teuchter set about cleaning up the suitcase. She started out with a sponge, I think, then switched to face cloths. She wiped and patted and rinsed, wiped and rinsed and patted and wiped, but the pile of face cloths and the suds in her kitchen sink just kept growing. After about a half hour of this, Teuchter threw down her rag. 'Right!' she proclaimed. She took the bag and marched outside to the patio with it where she proceeded to turn the power hose on it. Suds literally billowed from the suitcase onto the patio and the grass. By this time we were both whooping with laughter. This measure worked, however. It removed the shampoo and the case dried out as good as new. Better than new, actually. It still has a nice shine and no split ends.
Teuchter's garden is lovely. We were admiring it when Mr T came through in a rush. He was spending the night elsewhere and came in to pack a bag. He assured me he didn't mind being invaded by a hillbilly. Teuchter raises the flowers and Mr T raises the fruit and veggies. I am very jealous of Mr T's blackcurrants and am determined to grow some myself one day. We picked some broad beans for our dinner. I had never eaten them before. We don't grow them in the Midwest. I met Teuchter's teenage son, G, who is quite a charmer.
Did you know that Teuchter has nearly as many varieties of hosta (over 50) as the Prince of Wales? I know this because after dinner we watched a programme about the Prince's hosta garden. I was making a valiant effort to stay awake, but must confess to falling asleep about half way through the programme. I was rescued by a phone call from Ben and Z. They were checking to see how we were doing and to finalize plans for our trip to Stonehenge on the 22nd. I got to talk to both of them for the first time, although I will admit I understood very little that Z said. His rapid delivery, Brum accent and my exhaustion were to blame. So I just agreed with whatever it was he said and hoped I hadn't committed to wearing a turkey costume or something to Stonehenge. Fortunately, I understand him perfectly well in person.
I was fighting sleep and decided to give it up. I made it until about 10:00PM and, under the circumstances, was quite proud of myself. We were planning to visit Kew Gardens the following day and I was really looking forward to it. My first day in England had been great and I trundled happily off to bed.
In the next installment Hypatia and Teuchter visit Kew.
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