Weekend break Thyme, Southrop, England
MANY hotels delight—they do what they say on the box (or website)—but few surprise. Thyme, a village-style hotel in the Cotswolds, is one of those rare beasts: a hotel that looks like a normal hotel from the outside, but feels quite different on the inside, a place created with such passion and thought that you cannot help fall under its spell. I realised just how much I loved it during breakfast (served in a vast, vaulted barn, formerly for oxen): there was not a crushed, smashed or stuffed avocado—the breakfast food threatening world domination and deforestation—in sight. I was told that seasonal smashed pumpkin sometimes graces the menu and is always a great success.
Other idiosyncrasies include a springwater swimming pool and the odd chicken inspecting the herb garden. The on-site shop is so successful that Thyme’s own-brand silk homeware (the patterns are inspired by the extensive gardens) is now stocked in Liberty.
Talking of gardens: the courtyard space between the cookery school, aforementioned Ox Barn and Garden Rooms was designed by Bunny Guinness. I visited in September, when there was plenty of time to appreciate it: structural arches, arbours and hedges protecting more transient plants, such as gaura, verbena and wispy grasses. Beyond are the water meadows, an important conservation site for migratory reed warblers.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 30, 2020-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 30, 2020-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
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Put some graphite in your pencil
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Dulce et decorum est
Michael Sandle is the Wilfred Owen of art, with his deeply felt sense of the futility of violence. John McEwen traces the career of this extraordinary artist ahead of his 88th birthday
Heaven is a place on earth
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It's the plants, stupid
I WON my first prize for gardening when I was nine years old at prep school. My grandmother was delighted-it was she who had sent me the seeds of godetia, eschscholtzia and Virginia stock that secured my victory.
Pretty as a picture
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How golden was my valley
These four magnificent Cotswold properties enjoy splendid views of hill and dale
The fire within
An occasionally deadly dinner-party addition, this perennial plant would become the first condiment produced by Heinz
Sweet chamomile, good times never seemed so good
Its dainty white flowers add sunshine to the garden and countryside; it will withstand drought and create a sweet-scented lawn that never needs mowing. What's not to love about chamomile
All I need is the air that I breathe
As the 250th anniversary of 'a new pure air' approaches, Cathryn Spence reflects on the 'furious free-thinker' and polymath who discovered oxygen
My art is in the garden
Monet and Turner supplied the colours, Canaletto the structure and Klimt the patterns for the Boodles National Gallery garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.