Hi, I’m Hope, and I live in North Central Texas. This past spring, my hoomans and I went to a private garden near our small town. Clark Gardens was started many years ago in 1972 as the homeowners landscaped their own yard. In 1999, 143 acres were donated, and the landscaping continued until there were magnificent gardens covering the grounds. …

Bakewell Pudding – Yes Please Now, did you know that Bakewell Pudding and Bakewell Tarts are two different things?  The famous pudding which gave the village its name (well, according to Tipsy anyway), was supposed to have come about from a misunderstanding.  The happy accident occurred when the mistress of the White Horse inn instructed her cook to add an …

After all those steps going up and down Waynapicchu, we were tired.  So it was a good thing that we had decided to relax in the Sacred Valley and that Tipsy had booked us into a great resort, Kuychi Rumi.  It wasn’t one of those luxury 5 star, purpose built hotel resorts.  It was far more homey than that.  And we …

Champagne tasting in Champagne is just as good as it sounds.  Reims is a bustling little town that is famed for its magnificent cathedral built by grateful champagne-growing benefactors, pink Fossier biscuits, and, of course, champagne – the two of which go together in a typically French way – it would naturally be just too prosaic to dunk biscuits in …

In search of the Northern Lights