Budleigh Past and Present

I call in from time to time at Katy Gooding’s vintage and collectables shop at 57 High Street in Budleigh Salterton. There’s a blurred line between some of its contents and some of the artefacts that make up Fairlynch Museum’s collection. In my quest for traces of Budleigh’s Anglo-Indian heritage which I mention h ere   I wondered whether I might find the odd pith helmet or stuffed tiger among Katy’s collectables, or even a Belinda Lee poster.   No such luck, but Katy did show me something equally rare and interesting for an admirer of William Morris designs.    Jeannie Foord was a Glaswegian painter of plants and flowers who in 1901 published a fine book intended for use by artists, designers, students and others. The Daily Telegraph noted, "Never before has the essential character of different plants received from the point...

Margaret Burton, left, and Josie Ogg from Winteringham, near Scunthorpe , were staying in Sidmouth on holiday and had come to Budleigh for the afternoon by coach. Fairlynch, they said, was "a lovely little place." Fairlynch Museum 's gardeners are congratulating themselves on being awarded a 1st prize in this year's Budleigh in Bloom competition. The Museum's Ann Hurt, Lynn Weeks and Sylvia Merkel were delighted to learn that they had gained top spot in the 'community gardens' category winning a £25 voucher donated by local garden centre Kings Gardening and Leisure.    The competition’s judges, including Janice Hindley, Senior Horticultural Lecturer at Bicton College , were impressed by the garden’s mature planting in its mixed herbaceous lay-out and its neat and tidy appearance.   Certain specimens such as the tree lupin attracted particular comment. The Museum’s garden is distinctive for having been planned with the idea ...

If it hadn't been for the rain you wouldn't be admiring this image of a glistening, tear-dropped red rose which I found in one of Topsham's secret gardens yesterday. Or its diamond-clustered deeply blushing pink near-neighbour. Or yet another image of the same one which I didn't have the heart to cut out. Just showing off really. And gardening expert Veitch enthusiast Caradoc Doy wouldn't have been able to demonstrate how if you rub the soaking flowers of this magnificent ceanothus between your hands it'll be almost exactly as if you were holding a bar of soap. The foam that comes from this novel form of hand-washing is caused by the saponin contained in the plant, a substance found in many other specimens of the secret world of plants. It's true - I checked it out and found http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/gardening-kee...