Judging the gardens of Slaggyford + Knarsdale - report of the 2015 garden odyssey way out west in the Northumberland

This is the report I wrote of my efforts to judge these beautiful gardens and my experiences meeting so many great characters in August 2015.

"On a sunny morning late last summer I travelled down to Slaggyford, nervous with anticipation at the responsibility of judging the gardens of the various houses around Knarsdale, Slaggyford and Eals. I would love to say that I am a prize winning gardener myself (I am not) and that I had spent some time preparing the evaluation of the relative merits of foxgloves and fuchsias, but this would be a lie. The garden competition was judged by an enthusiastic amateur gardener /Member of Parliament, aided by his local partner in crime, Miles, the chair of the local parish council. The decisions made were all mine and the mistakes made were all mine as well.

Our tour was random and occasionally interspersed by constituents rightfully upset at flooding, broadband, or generally wanting to raise issues local or national with their MP. We went to Eals first, and after noting both Tom's and Simon's beautiful gardens, we admired with wonder the amazing pear tree that towers above the 1760 holiday cottage of Stonecrop. Never have I seen a pear tree of such size. It is clearly well over a hundred years old, and possibly as old as the house. Go and see it.

Onwards to the Armstrongs we admired pots, the efforts of Holly, and huge prize winning leeks [pictured], and I was given the present of the most delicious lettuce I have tasted in my life. I promise this did not influence any award! At the Grahams we admired the amazing planted wheelbarrows, before seeing the huge effort that Chris Ashworth has put into transforming his garden. His neighbour Carol Grieves also has a beautiful small garden, packed with plants, and she it was who came up with the phrase of the day. Miles and I were admiring the garden and commenting on the forest of plants, when she explained by saying:

"I can't say no to them - I am an alcoholic - I mean a plantaholic!"

We all laughed. Anyone who has seen the profusion of plants and pots at Carols will understand. She is a worthy winner of best small garden, and phrase of the day!

We ventured on around the houses on or near the village green in Slaggyford itself and were able to solve the mystery of the rabbit that broke into Albert Ridleys garden. Without our forensic Sherlock Holmes examination I fear it would remain a mystery how Watership Down invaded. Albert was pipped on best large garden by the Aynsleys, whose back garden [pictured] beside the burn, sandwiched between wild meadowsweet, and delicate plants and fragrant honeysuckle, is a beautiful and wild garden that constantly surprises.

Our journey lasted 3 hours and we constantly failed to identify our plants; but the pleasure was all mine. If you have not been way out west to these delightful hamlets then you are missing something.

Guy Opperman MP  (Definitely not auditioning for the Chelsea flower show)

Trains, stations, floods, roads and so much more on a packed transport agenda this week

The Intentions of Northern Rail, the changes when the Pacers are replaced on the Tyne Valley Line, the future prospects for Gilsland Station, safety improvements to the A69 at Henshaw, roads damaged by floods, culverts that damage houses, potholes, and a policy on ditch clearing and drain maintenance are just some of the issues that are occupying me this week. After a meeting in London with Northern Rail chief executive today I have a much better understanding of the way ahead for the Tyne Valley line, but I am on the train north now with 8 days of campaigning, surgeries and transport rated issues ahead. 
There is no doubt that Transport is occupying a major part of the next 48 hours as I have had a series of meetings in London, and across the county in the next two days. 

On Northern Rail today I met Alex Hynes, and discussed at length the Pacer replacement plans. I am happy to discuss in more detail with the Tyne Valley Rail Users Group but the short point is that he could not have been more adamant that we will be getting a dramatically improved quality of carriage in which to travel, including everything from wifi to disabled facilities, plus faster more comfortable trains. Some will say, and have said to me, that what the customer is getting is a refurbished train carriage, albeit one refurbished to a level that is effectively indistinguishable from new. This is true; some would argue that only brand new will do, but I would prefer to focus on the quality of the present, not how it is wrapped. The key thing I am absolutely 110% sure of is this: I am confident that local customers will see a dramatic difference, and the degree to which the DFT / government have helped made this replacement happen is to their credit. 

On Gilsland Station we now have the feasibility study from Network Rail, which I am going through with Northumberland County Council, COGS, network rail, northern rail reps, and key stakeholders in Morpeth tomorrow afternoon. The good news is that we have the report and can make some progress. The bad news is network rail's preliminary estimation of cost, which is definitely large. But, the reality is that as the poet said - "the longest journey starts with the shortest steps" - and we are many more steps down the journey, now we have this report. I will blog more after the meeting,but want to sit down with COGS and the team first, so we can undertake a detailed appraisal and assess the next steps. 

On Friday I start with a further meeting on efforts to get road safety improvements to the A69 at Henshaw before I am out west in Slaggyford and Eals meeting with the County Highways team and both inspecting road repairs, and discussing culverts that could stop some houses being flooded. Along the way at County Hall I will be raising road repairs, potholes, drain clearance and ditch clearance.