Paradise Gardens

[HEPZIBAH]

For those with an interest in gardens you may find the two part series by Monty Don of interest.

I was visiting The Secret Garden, Marrakech, in May last year and noticed a film crew arrive. They weren't actually filming but seemed to be walking through the paces, checking out angles etc. I thought no more about it until a few days later when I was queuing up at the airport and saw a man ahead of me that I vaguely recognised. (Actually, it was more the cut of his jacket and his shoes that I recognised!) As the queue snaked on, and later became multi queues, this man and I ended up being shunted between scanners and with raised eyebrows he commented to me how much easier, and more organised, air travel used to be. He put his bag, jacket, etc through the scanner ahead of me and as I was putting my belongings through I overheard a snippet of the conversation he was having with the security chap, stating that he was a gardener, writer and TV presenter. As I was collecting my things off the belt he, Monty Don, engaged me in a short conversation and I was able to ask if he by any chance had been filming at The Secret Garden that week. He confirmed he had, asking how I could possibly know that, and also said it was likely to be shown in about February 2018.

I thought this piece was just going to be one of those short articles in his Gardener's World programme - I'm not a gardener or frequent watcher of gardening programmes but at least could guess that much. It turns out it is part of a two part series looking at gardens of the Islamic world, including Morrocco, Iran, Spain and India. As I have said, I'm not a gardener, but I do appreciate gardens, of many styles, and I'm pleased to say that I've visited a few that are listed.

The programmes start this coming Friday, 19th January 9pm on BBC 2.
For more information: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09p5qd8

[BBLUX]

Geared up to record the programmes for Fran. She would never forgive me if I forgot them.

[Ruby Slippers]

Many thanks for jogging my memory, Hepzi! I'm really looking forward to seeing this!

[HEPZIBAH]

I hope some of you managed to see this programme, and enjoyed it as much as I did.

If you had asked me if I'd been to the Agdal Garden in Marrakech I'd of said no, even though I have now visited the city many times in the last few years. However, seeing the programme and the piece focusing on that particular garden, I was suddenly overcome with a memory of being their late afternoon as the sun was beginning to set, over 30 years ago on my first ever visit to Morocco whilst en-route over land to Niger. I've already made a note to visit that garden again, as well as The Secret Garden, on my next visit to Marrakech.

I do think it a shame that Luxor does not make more of green and open space, especially for those living on the East Bank. One thing I have noticed in Morocco that in areas similar to those of central Luxor - offices, shops, and residential - there are reasonably generous area given over to swathes of grass where local families will gather to sit and relax and enjoy time together when the sun is not too hot. These aren't really parks or gardens as we would think of them, but often just large islands between buildings to bring in a bit of natures green.

[Horus]

Some lovely gardens, well worth watching

[Ruby Slippers]

Beautiful, restful programme. Such a shame there are only two episodes!