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It’s been ages since I last saw my friends Lambert and Marjanne Vrijmoed, owners of Free Spirit Nursery on 32nd Avenue in Langley. I’m not sure why we haven’t seen more of each other over the past few years. I guess other things have been pressing in and we were away when they were here and they were away when...

Some years ago, I was invited to see the Beaty Museum of Biodiversity on the University of B.C. campus.  I never got there, but I always regretted not making more of an effort. This week, Spring Break, I decided to remedy that and visit the museum with my grandchildren, Maya and Banks.

Our last garden tour adventure, The Top to Bottom Tour, started in Edinburgh on Sept 22 and concluded in London, 15 days later, on Oct 6.We gathered in Edinburgh at the lovely George Hotel on George Street in the salubrious West End (New Town) part of the city. The George in Edinburgh This gave us easy access to the Royal Mile,...

Not sure what this has to do with gardening, except that I saw this demonstration at the Chelsea Flower Show in May and was quite amazed. Here you see artist Adrian Grey balancing a very large, heavy stone at an impossibly acute angle on another large boulder. At first, I thought he was just pretending to be a living sculpture, holding...

Our last few days in Berlin were spent visiting Museum Island in the centre of the city.We also took the train to Charlottenburg Palace on the outskirts of Berlin and also enjoyed an open-top boat ride on the Spree River.On Museum Island, we visited the Pergamon Panorama, a 360-degree multi-media presentation designed to take you back 1,900 years to...

I have walked through Leicester Square in London many times over the years. I lived in London for a time in the 1970s when I worked as a reporter for the Evening News and I’ve been a frequent visitor to London since I came to live in Canada. 

I know exercise is important. These days I'm content to walk the dog or go for a swim or a bike ride. That's about it. My days of jogging and playing soccer are over. Not that I lack energy, but I know I don't have the same muscle strength to support knees and ankles and hips from being injured from...

Back in my garden today after five weeks away, leading garden tours in England, Wales and Ireland, and I already see how much work I need to do. There is so much morning glory. It has grown everywhere. How has it managed to get a hold so fast in such a short time. Jet-lag meant I woke early this morning and was...

After a splendid last night in Prague when we went to Reduta, a famous jazz club, for a night of Billie Holiday music, we headed out of the city for Vienna. But first, we stopped at the Dancing House (Fred and Ginger), the famous Frank Gehry architectural landmark, to take a few pictures. Lednich Castle on the way to Vienna On the...

It is only a few weeks now until the start of our fabulous 15-day Ireland Grand Circle Tour which will start in Dublin on Oct. 1. (THIS TOUR IS NOW SOLD OUT)The tour will sweep around the picturesque south and beautiful west coast of the island, up to the north, with visits to Derry, Belfast and the Giant’s Causeway and...

Just to get those creative juices flowing as you step into the garden this spring and think, hey, what can I do that is new and fun and different. Here are a few silly, serious, fun and quirky ideas to make you think outside the box. Cup of alliums. Okay, too late to plant alliums, but how about a big jug of...

Laskett, the garden of Sir Roy Strong The decision to visit a garden is an important one. It's a commitment that starts deep in the soul, I believe, and it's a decision that is then manifested by the eventual physical walk to the garden. The process of getting...

Today, I am delighted to announce the official launch of my next tour, the quirkiest, most eclectic adventure of them all, a 15-day exclusive Top to Bottom Tour, from Sept. 22 to Oct. 6, from Edinburgh, Scotland, to London, England.  Lake District to Stratford, Liverpool to Oxford and more: Tour will be a party from start to finish On the way,...

Today, I’m pleased to announce two unique international garden tours - a 15-day one to Sicily and Malta in September, and a 14-day trip to Southern England and the Channel Islands in May, 2023.  They are both fabulous. You may like one more than the other, although some people have told me they intend to do both. Yes, the Sicily-Malta tour...

I love my garden tools. But there is one I love more than all the rest - my beautiful, multi-functional, never tarnishing, never deteriorating, never diminishing six-in-one hand-trowel. I love, love, love it.  And I’ve had it for years and years and years. So you’ll understand my alarm, my despair, my devastation when I stepped out into the garden...

When I got this fabulous echeveria Blue Rose hanging basket the other day from WIG nursery in Burnaby, Alfred Kwan, the owner, advised me to cut off the flower stalks. "The beauty is in the colour and shape of the echeveria rosettes,” he insisted. “The flowers are a bit of a distraction.” The red flowers with their yellow tips are not...

The Beautiful Cities Tour got off to a great start this week with all of us arriving in Berlin for the start of a fabulous trip that will take us to Prague and Vienna and Bratislava.In Berlin, we toured all the top sites from the Brandenburg Gate to the Reichstag and the Berlin Wall as well as key war...

We've done 32 garden tours over the past 10 years. It's been great fun. We have had many, many party times with friends on trips. It has been a blast! Here's to the happy memories. Love and happiness to you all. Steve and Loraine Lyme Regis Venice Whiskey tasting, Dublin Ricks Aix rn Provence Spain Italy The Harp Pub, London France London Japan

What did Darwin, Dickens, Monet, Bronte and Van Gogh all have in common? Well, they all had the chance to listen to the music of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven and see a play by Shakespeare and see a painting by Rembrandt. I feel even luckier to have been born this end of history’s timeline when we have antibiotics, classics at our...

Today, I'm delighted to announce the publication of Great Garden Tours, a compilation of stories about the 34 garden tours Loraine and I have led  over the past 16 years.The stories of these popular tours are available in a handy paperback or Kindle ebook, both from Amazon.ca - PAPERBACK and KINDLE 2024 Tour 31 Beautiful Cities. Striding the line of...