Sissinghurst's White Garden blooms in full just once a year. It is filled with old roses who give all early and do not rebloom in the season. It is filled with a myriad of other gorgeous white blooms, but the rose week it is magnificent. It bloomed the week I was there. I told you I am a lucky girl. There is no short way to describe Sissinghurst. It was a farm/ruin when Vita and Harold bought it (from my B&B host's great-uncle). They created a home/garden, ...

Monday I was up early and on the ferry. I picked up a rental car and sped from Southampton to Kent, "The Garden of England." Highways, I love. One lane roads with two-way traffic and ZERO birm I can do without. I got an automatic, because I knew I would never manage to follow directions, drive on the left, and shift with my left hand at the same time. All went well. I stopped at Winkworth Arboretum, outside Guildford, and joined the National Trust. Many of the ...

Magic happens. I ended up at Mount House because that's where the path went, I can't take any credit for it whatsoever. Next to seeing loved ones, it's the Most Important Thing To Happen in a long time. B&B is a misnomer. You walk through a blue gate into a garden that is simply running rampant with bloom. Nonchalant in its beauty, uncontrived, stunning. And you think, well, aren't I lucky? It gets better. It's a large red brick home, rimmed in garden. You ...