Cherrie's Notes
I feel as if I鈥檝e just had a mini break having spent a day or so in and around Derry/Londonderry in this it鈥檚 magical year as City of Culture.
For ages I have wanted to make the journey by train and as I write, the view from the carriage window is telling me why this particular train journey has been described as one of the most beautiful in the British Isles.
I鈥檓 on the train home and sitting on the right side of the carriage this time to fully enjoy the view as the train skirts the choppy, silver waves of Lough Foyle and the Irish Sea.
So glad I caught the earlier train to enjoy the sweep of the coastline in the last of the light.
I feel as if I am gliding over the surface of the water with small ducks, moorhens and gulls swooping and diving and adding to the illusion.
Another, almost optical illusion, swam into view earlier in the day too, this time in Liam and Nora Greene鈥檚 lovely garden just outside the city.
In the beautifully proportioned Italian garden, born out of a love affair with Tuscany there is a neat square, formal pond, softened by water-lilies in each corner and brought to life by a small darting shoal of silvery fish, all pearly white and gold with the occasional dash of black.
They looked almost unreal and seemed to swim over to say hello as we stood by the side of the water watching them.
Brendan Little joined us and we began our visit in the front garden, which reflects the Georgian heritage of the house and where every plant has been chosen with thought and care.
Shapes are streamlined and soft in equal measure and cool gravel paths compliment the house and contrast with the palette of plants chosen. The colour of the front garden is a soothing and subtle green.
The walls of the courtyard at the back of the house are clothed with ivy and highlighted by large plants in raised stone beds and terra cotta pots.
The big glossy leaves of Magnolia Grandiflora looked good enough to eat and the alabaster flowers of a Clematis Armandii twinkled.
Around the corner, just outside the courtyard is a Japanese garden which sits by the side of the house and which in the best of Japanese traditions is cool and contemplative with stone, water and slender branches creating the atmosphere.
Liam and Nora鈥檚 garden is open by appointment under the National Trust Ulster Gardens Scheme and also by appointment from May to September.
There was atmosphere a plenty to be enjoyed later on in the day too as we made our way towards Claudy, to explore Ness Country Park.
Here Ness Wood meets Ervey Wood and the tumbling waters of the Burntollet River cascade untidily through the lovely County Derry countryside.
We were in search of ideas and inspiration for creating a woodland within an ordinary garden setting and we didn鈥檛 have to look too far.
In the hedgerows there were burnished rosehips and the psychedelic pink and orange flowers of the spindle bush or euonymus and by the side of the river moss covered branches and fallen tree trunks softened the landscape with velvety green-ness.
I could have walked on and on enjoying the landscape, the autumn colour and the light, as a few other lucky people were doing but on this occasion the visit was short.
We hope to be back in spring or summer when the wood will look very different with the promise of spring blossom and summer wildflowers.
Cool greens were the predominant colours a very different garden space in the heart of Derry City.
My first visit of the trip took me to the old City Factory where in a small modest courtyard one of three Artists Gardens curated by the Void Gallery has transformed a modest space where workers once gathered to have a chat or a smoke.
Now behind a battle-ship grey door, there is an atmospheric, magical little garden with lots of places to sit and mirrors on the walls to reflect light and give a greater sense of space.
The plants, including ferns and ivies, saxifrage and sarracenias (the insect catching pitcher plants which love soft boggy Irish landscapes) looked absolutely at home, the only concession to bright colour, the camellias which will bring bright stabs of colour come spring.
The thinking behind the gardens is to re-energise dead spaces within the city.
Earlier in the year a large building in the former barracks at Ebrington was transformed with grass seed. The next phase of the project will centre around an dead elm tree in Brooke Park which stands dramatically against the skyline.
Can鈥檛 wait for my next visit to see how the artist Locky Morris will bring it back to life in a different way.
