Kate Joynes-Burgess

Cultivate your Imagination

admin — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 11:28:09 +0000

Hopelessly overgrown topiary presents a challenge for perfectionists. This week’s mission, as garden volunteers at the National Trust’s Chastleton House, was to bring back a bloated, bushy, box hedge to its former state as a strutting peacock. We would have had better luck transforming Mr Blobby into Kate Moss.

Simon turns stylist for the Chastleton peacock

In this case, the only way forward is to exercise your imagination. Think of it as horticulture’s answer to cloud watching, a whimsical art-form eloquently explained by Britain’s eccentric Cloud Appreciation Society. Allow your mind to grant these misshapen forms another life as a bald eagle, a moor hen, or a generous-hipped bumble bee. No wonder Chastleton House’s best garden is always such a talking point.

Don’t forget to stroll along the vegetable patch where foodies visualise summery recipes for succulent cabbage, marrow, brussels sprouts, yellow courgettes and all manner of loveliness springing from the soil. Plump peaches line the lichen-clad walls of the kitchen garden that is fringed by fruit trees bearing apples and plums. Combine that with delicately-scented English roses, and a little birdsong, and your senses have really sampled the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of this potent season. Peruse this selection of photographs to get your creative juices flowing:

Glorious Gardens at Chastleton House

admin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:04:25 +0000

Take a wander outside these honeyed walls

Chastleton House gardens, near Moreton-in-Marsh, guard atypical topiary, manicured croquet lawns, fragrant fruit trees and a well-tended vegetable patch.

Visitors strolled around its chief botanical attractions – including a lovely show of lavender and scented roses – at the annual NGS open day last Sunday.

Take a peek at some of Chastleton House’s horticultural highlights in the heart of the Cotswolds.

Tantalising Jacobean Topiary

admin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:40:23 +0000

I expected to swap catchy prose for cabbage rows when I signed up to volunteer at Chastleton House in March. Instead, I’ve developed an entirely new addiction: sculpting century-old box hedging.

Topiary is tantalising for perfectionists, control freaks, and impatient sorts. Guilty on all counts. What other form of gardening offers instant results and the chance to bend nature to one’s whimsical design in a matter of hours? Me and Buxus sempervirens are becoming bosom buddies.

But staying true to the ethos of this 17th century property, and its sprawling grounds, is the most powerful motivator. Head gardener, Anna Derrett, ensures we grow in the right direction as aspiring National Trust horticulturists.

Cross-checking with the Trust’s photographic archive, an eight-strong group of volunteers is restoring these wildly overgrown hedges to their original form as far as possible. When shrubs have evolved beyond recognition they become new creations, inspired by what they most closely resemble today. Thus a geometric shape is now a squirrel, an erstwhile goblin (now headless) may become an octopus. And this one-time bijou cockerel is now a monstrously fat chick.

Anyone for Croquet?

admin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:31:48 +0000

Confident croquet players

Croquet players got competitive at Chastleton House – the sport’s apparent Cotswolds birthplace – under the watchful eye of a gaggle of garden-lovers this Sunday (11 July).

National Trust volunteers enjoyed a round of this exquisitely English summer pastime during the annual National Gardens Scheme open day.

Sport historians trace croquet to mediaeval France but National Trust archives suggest the game’s codified rules were devised at this Jacobean merchant’s mansion near Moreton-in-Marsh.

BBC News Website: Mexico’s Copper Canyon railway

admin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:47:08 +0000

A photographic train journey through northern Mexico’s stunning network of six canyons. Straddling the states of Sinaloa and Chihuahua, collectively these mountainous ravines are four times bigger than the Grand Canyon.

Click here to visit the gallery.

Life & Style monthly column: Andy the Brave, June 2009

admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:52:37 +0000

Kate writes a monthly column in Spanish for Mexico’s leading men’s magazine, Life&Style. Here’s what she had to say about Scotland’s big hitter Andy Murray.

Click here to download the Spanish original pdf.

Travel+Leisure: Liverpool lifts its voice, April 2009

admin — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 11:42:07 +0000

Four decades after The Beatles released their last album, Kate Joynes-Burgess finds a city not only loaded with musical history but pulsating with melodic innovation.

Click here to download the Spanish original pdf.

Click here to download the English text.

BBC News website: Mexico’s butterflies, 6 March 2009

admin — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:19:43 +0000

This photo-gallery profiles a new eco-tourism project within Mexico’s Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. ‘Experts say deforestation threatens the spectacular annual migration of millions of monarch butterflies from Canada and the US to forests north-west of Mexico City.

Click here to visit the gallery.

BBC News website: Chile indigenous politics on the move, 28 January 2009

admin — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:16:39 +0000

Indigenous politics rarely register on the Chilean national radar despite flourishing across the border in Bolivia. Provincial history teacher Gustavo Quilaqueo wants to change that by quitting the classroom to found the first political party representing Chile’s forgotten indigenous people. Kate Joynes-Burgess meets him in Temuco.

Click here to visit the article.

Travel+Leisure: Nicaraguan Retreats and Revelations, January 2009

admin — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:11:58 +0000

Among the Americas’ most celebrated colonial cities, competing openly with Chiapas’ San Cristobal de las Casas, Granada is an ideal base for exploring Nicaragua’s unique natural beauty. Kate Joynes-Burgess shares her discoveries.

Click here to download the Spanish original pdf.

Click here to download the text in English.