Botanics

About three weeks ago we paid our near annual visit to Ventnor Botanic Gardens of reference 1. With last year's visit being noticed almost exactly a year ago at reference 2.

This year's visit being complicated by landslips somewhere in the vicinity, cutting the direct route from Brading. Cross country indicated, which suited BH fine as she is usually good for a bit of off-piste.

Day started with a visit to the donkey in the rather untidy field behind out cottage who had been having a good bray some mornings. Just to the right of the oil drum.

Took a break in the upper cafeteria on the way and then headed north into the Australian section, with this epiphyte (?) being the first plant which prompted a snap. Google Image Search seems pretty clear that it is the Elkhorn Fern of reference 3, otherwise Platycerium bifurcatum. I think I agree with him. Doesn't look as it I have noticed it before.

A neat bit of palm tree pruning.

A pile on the hill behind the gardens. A little digging, and it turns out to have started life as the nursing home attached to the TB sanatorium which was once on the site now occupied by the botanic gardens. At some point it became a home for those with learning difficulties, possibly under the management of Somerset Care (reference 5). Difficulties with the Care Quality Commission (reference 6), closure and reversion to regular residential use, possibly as a prestige house, possibly as a bunch of flats. Not clear what happened to those with learning difficulties who lived there at the time of closure.

Street View looks a bit out of date, despite being described as 2021. Boarded up below and with what looks like recent chain saw action to a neglected garden in front. Just before conversion kicked in? To my mind, a conversion which has resulted in a very ugly building, rather an eyesore, and the original building was much better. My money is on flats, for which see reference 7.

Interesting, that the sanatorium itself was more or less completely demolished, with just a few outbuildings left. I associate now to a big one that used to be somewhere south of Epsom, but by the time we got there, a few years ago, it was just a field. Nothing left of it at all. Perhaps they were thrown up quickly and cheaply, not worth keeping once their original purpose was gone.

Our attention was next caught by a chunk of play equipment from Wicksteed, the people who used to have a stranglehold on the playgrounds of my childhood. Swings, climbing frames, roundabout and seesaws. Lots of tubular steel. See references 8, 9 and 10. It seems that Wicksteed Park is now a full-on children's attraction, but I still think it is a spin-off from their Kettering factory. I also think that we once came close to visiting.

Sadly, the downstairs Eulis restaurant, where we have had some good meals in the past, was closed, and we had to take a long lunch is the upstairs cafeteria. We were sat by a bookcase, which gave me the opportunity to have a look at the Rackham book snapped above. A prolific chap, with this book probably covering a lot of the same ground as that noticed back at reference 11. Quite good for dipping, a bit of a pain cover to cover.

Lunch, when it eventually turned up did well enough, although if it was called a ploughman's it was stretching the historical truth a bit. Rather too fussy for me, with rather too many flavours - although we were spared the crisps - and rather mean with the bread. I might have done better with double soup, spicy though it was.

Outside to hunt down the echiums, sometimes quite a sight here, but not this year. Not many of them at all. For a better show, see reference 13.

The hot house is very hot and is allowed to more or less run wild, making, I believe, some ecological point or other. Which included a carpet of duckweed on the giant water lily pond. I was not at all convinced that good use was being made of all the heat being poured into the building and I think I would have been more impressed with a more conventional display, along the lines of that, say, in the (much bigger) hot house at Wisley.

There were some of the handsome aloes left, although current management seen to prefer low palm trees.

And a bit of colour. Lots of Agapanthus, although, sad to say, I had to resort to Google Images this (Sunday) morning to remind me of its name. A little early in the morning perhaps.

In the wildlife department, one buzzard and a selection of lizards, these last up to around six inches long.

Back though the back lanes to Brading, where we partook of the broad beans already noticed at reference 14.

On the way, an elderly Romahome at Lake, which I failed to snap when I could - with the one above being turned up by Bing. A small camper van, about the size of an Escort van of old. I remember the distinguishing feature being that the front of the van detached from the back, which meant that you could drive about in something more like an ordinary car once you had parked the back end at the campsite. Which I may have come across at a campsite in France. Search today gives mixed results: the Romahome factory may have been at Cowes and it may have been taken over by the people at reference 15. Perhaps the detaching business was a gimmick which did not last that long - although the chap I talked to at the campsite was very pleased with his. But odd that I cannot find this gimmick this morning.

So I tried Gemini with: 'A long time ago, I came across a camper van called a Romahome. The big thing was that the front detached from the back. This morning, while I can find Romahome, I can't find any detaching. Can you help' and he came right up with the goods. A demountable D20, plus references 17 and 18. Which must be a lot newer than the campervan I remember as we have not camped for thirty years. So maybe not such a niche product?

There was also the question of the lost sun hat. Which after much fuss and bother, turned out to be in the pocket of my jacket, exactly where it should have been. Too much sun? Too much ploughman's?

References

Reference 1:  https://www.botanic.co.uk/. They must have been quick to grab this address!

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/08/ventnor.html.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platycerium_bifurcatum.

Reference 4: https://www.botanic.co.uk/eat-drink/. The grub.

Reference 5: https://www.somersetcare.co.uk/.

Reference 6: https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-386213104/contact.

Reference 7: https://www.countypress.co.uk/news/18653896.former-steephill-residential-home-back-property-market/.

Reference 8: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2015/02/wicksteed.html.

Reference 9: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2015/05/sculpture-victorious.html.

Reference 10: https://wicksteedpark.org/.

Reference 11: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2010/06/tree-nuts.html.

Reference 12: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Rackham.

Reference 13: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/07/echium-pininana.html.

Reference 14: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/broad-beans.html.

Reference 15: https://www.northstarconversions.com/.

Reference 16: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/motorhomes/used-motorhomes/romahome?msockid=04a66d86d139648a03007ef9d05a65b3.

Reference 17: https://www.smallmotorhome.co.uk/the-romahome-demountable-d20.html.

Reference 18: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=V00kNNPp1Rs. Just a bit irritating and you don't get any demounting. But you do get to go inside.