I recently  spent a happy weekend in Prince Albert at the African Relish Cookery School.  My wife and I had gone there to work with Sonia Cabano who was launching aptly named Relish, a book without which you should not be in the kitchen. I did some  wine workshops and introduced the guests to some new and different wines.

It was huge fun, the weather was sublime, and what really enchanted me was the wonderful flowers which were blooming at the school and in the village.

So this piece is more about the flowers than anything else.

I was so happy to see a Cup of Gold again.  We had a creeper which grew all over one part of the farm house in which I grew up and it has been years since I last saw one in bloom.

In the main street, I came across this profusion of white Iceberg Roses.

A bit further down the road, outside William and Colleen Penfold’s The Prince Albert Trading Store, their Basset was taking an early morning nap.  He was in a coma.

The garden of African Relish has some wonderful roses in it,
some old English blooms as well as variegated ones.

In the herbaceous border of the herb garden at African Relish, I came across these Johnny Jump Ups – the cutest multi-coloured pansies.  My grandmother used to use them in her garden and they self seeded each year, hence the name!

Sage and mint enjoy the sun in the herb garden.

Right outside the main demonstration kitchen was this Loquat tree, just bursting with fruit.  Another childhood memory for me as my father had planted a row of trees in front of the wine cellar on our farm to keep the cellar cool in summer.  As a result, there were always lots of loquats for us to eat as children in the Spring.

There is a diary of the weekend, filled with more information in my online digital magazine Crush!  Crush! is a finalist in this years global Digital Magazine Awards.

For a more detailed account of my Prince Albert Weekend, Click here