Kensington Palace

Then down to our home in Hampshire alongside the sea and the river

Some weeks later we set off in an easterly direction on a road trip through our glorious English countryside

First we visited the garden at Exbury

Then we drove across Sussex

To the garden at Charleston

Then north to Northamptonshire

On to Cambridgeshire and Clare College, Cambridge

To Staffordshire

To Gloucestershire

To Bowood House, Wiltshire

On across Wiltshire

To Dorset

Following which, our happy road trip ends and we head back to Hampshire and to our home alongside the sea and the river.

In the mid 1990’s, shortly before closing my interior design business, I was invited to work with a brilliant team of naval architects and related specialists on the construction, in Thailand, of a technically ground breaking 40 metre sloop called Philanderer.

The addition of this project to my design portfolio awarded me the opportunity to work on a second nautical design project, one that continues to this day.

In this instance, the boat in question was not new having been launched in 1971. Her name is Kalani. Her new owners, good friends, bought her in Antibes, France in 2000.

That same year, having found her a captain and crew, they cruised along the southern coast of France before heading to Corsica and on to Italy. Their intention was to bring their boat to Malta but, by the close of that first cruising season, near to Naples, her engines failed and she would go no further.

It was in Naples that I first saw Kalani and where I took on the job of overseeing her first major upgrade. There was much work to be done, including replacing a large number of the steel plates that make up her hull, installing a new signal mast, extending the top deck aft, sandblasting and repainting all metal surfaces, repairing the failed engines and much else besides. Little time or budget was then available to consider work to her interior.

The following spring Kalani arrived in Malta, an island centrally located in the Mediterranean boasting spectacular harbours and to this day her home. On arrival, the owners instigated a change of Captain who remains her excellent Master and essential to the safe and effective running of the boat.

Over subsequent seasons further improvements have been made. New engines, generators, stabilisers, timber decks, air conditioners and water maker plus the installation of black and grey water tanks including an upgrade to all plumbing and entirely remodelled interiors. Kalani is most certainly in better condition now than at any time since her launch some 55 years back.

Initially white, another friend, a successful naval architect, advised that a hull colour darker than the superstructure, lends a boat a sleeker line. Kalani’s owners followed this advice and she became dark beige and cream until being awarded her distinctive colour and likely the colour she will remain - the superstructure still cream and the hull a green that some call ‘eau de nil’. It’s an unusual choice that has won Kalani - already much admired for her classic lines - additional attention and praise. In Maltese waters where she’s now well known, she has become a much loved and admired sight.

The greatest compliment, often repeated, occurs when Captains of some of the world’s larger private yachts have told Kalani’s Captain how much they admire her by saying ‘that’s exactly the sort of boat we’d like to have if we had a boat of our own’.

Unlike most impersonally styled private boats, Kalani has truly become a ‘home’ for the owners. Her interiors, her light filled saloon and spacious cabins with ensuite ‘heads’, now substantially upgraded, are filled with paintings, books, objects, maps and guidebooks related to the many sea miles she’s travelled and ports she’s visited both in and outside the Mediterranean since she first came to Malta more than a quarter of a century ago.

This personal expression of ‘home and story’ overlays interior spaces which are finely constructed to allow for the repeated rigours of life lived on the high seas, concealing both generous storage coupled with easy access to multiple technical installations.

Timber venetian blinds in the saloon shade harsh light, provide privacy and hold their position in rough water. The colour of the sea and hull is repeated on walls, upholstery and carpeted floor. Polished stainless steel tubing, reflecting the period of the boat, is repeated externally on guard rails and the top deck sun shade and internally on the supports of furniture and balustrades.

Above the saloon’s sofa there’s a painting which characterises the joyful carefree life that is lived on her and on the water - loving family and friends at leisure together enjoying some of the best and happiest moments of their lives. Kalani is a home which continues to see great joy.

Aft of the saloon a substantial teak table, in place when the boat was purchased in 2000 and surrounded by stacking chairs supplied by Satariano, continues to provide excellent service both for meals and throughout those many lazy sunny days spent on board.

Home for Kalani, her permanent berth, is ‘first row’ on the Grand Harbour side of Malta’s premier pontoon and best run secure marina. In consequence she enjoys unparalleled views across the water towards Valletta encircled by two of the island’s other historic cities.

Motor Yacht Kalani is a spectacular floating home enjoying the very best address in Malta. With regret, becoming older, her owners have now decided to sell her (Yacht Broker: Matthew Gusman matthew@twwyachts.com). Let’s hope she continues to find home in Malta.

© Derek Frost 2026

The Aeolian Islands, named after Aeolus the ancient Greek God of the Wind, is one of our favourite ‘on board’ destinations. They comprise a chain of volcanic islands lying between 30 to 80 kilometres north of Sicily in the lapis blue waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The island group includes seven inhabited islands - Vulcano, Lipari, Salina, Filicudi, Alicudi, Panarea and Stromboli. The volcanoes on Vulcano and Stromboli remain active.

The largest of the uninhabited islands in the group is Basiluzzo which has the distinction of being the Mediterranean island, amongst any number of spectacular options, I’ve awarded my personal gold medal.

Viewed from Panarea, Basiluzzo stands directly in front of fiery Stromboli.

On a recent visit, strong winds caused otherwise calm waters to heave and magnificent clouds to conceal the smoking volcano from view.

The island of Basiluzzo rises vertically out of the ocean.

Sheer faces of contorted rock tell the story of the extraordinary forces that created it. It you love rocks and sculpture as I do, a kayak or tender ride around the island yields spectacular sights. Under the crystal clear water the snorkelling and diving are equally rewarding.

Viewed along it’s longest edge, Basiluzzo presents an eastern facing sloped plateau once cultivated and used for limited farming and growing capers - still harvested in great abundance elsewhere amongst these islands. Now long untended, nature has reasserted itself leaving it sparsely covered in wild Heather, Mastic (Pistacia lentiscus), Sea Lavender, Rock Samphire, Dianthus rupicola, Centaurea , cactus and other aromatic shrubs; only caper bushes remain as evidence of the plateau’s agricultural past.

One plant found on the island and worthy of particular attention is the dwarf fan palm (Chamaerops humilis) which grows happily in the vertical rocks faces.

In Roman times a small villa was sited here, traces of which can apparently be seen just under the water at the eastern end of the island. I’ve searched but with no success.

Now, since being designated in 1991 as an ‘integral natural reserve’, no-one other than for scientific purposes is permitted to land on the island. Whatever the rules, I wouldn’t recommend trying. Any of the few seemingly accessible routes to the plateau are very steep and made up of exceedingly loose rock!

Despite the human prohibition the island is home to rabbits, lizards of several sorts and the Green Whip snake (Hierophis viridiflavus).

Together with other avian visitors, it’s also the seasonal home of two particularly interesting bird species. if you’re lucky enough to make a summer visit to the island don’t miss them - both watching their extraordinary flying skills and listening to their distinctive calls.

During the late summer Eleanora Falcons (Falco eleonorae) start to pair up and to create breeding colonies amongst the vertical cliff faces of Basiluzzo. This species has a delayed breeding season due to being a specialist hunter of migratory birds heading south past these islands at this time of year; the bird’s speed in the air and acrobatic skills make it a master at preying on small birds in flight.

© Other?

The Scopoli Shearwater (Calonectris diomedea), a seabird in the petrel family, flies annually thousands of miles across the world’s oceans. Late spring many stream back into the Mediterranean from the Atlantic returning to their original breeding sites which favour remote islands and coastal cliffs.

These birds often follow us when we’re underway mid ocean. Their elegant gliding flight associates them with the albatross. Using the benefit of ‘ground effect’ to provide lift, they glide close above the water for hours on end on their long, narrow, bowed wings with hardly a single wing beat.

© Other?

© Other?

During the day shearwater are out on the wing only returning to their nests after dark and favouring moonless nights to minimise predation. If you’re spending the night anchored off the island you’ll hear their unusual eerie nocturnal contact calls.

Another summer visitor to Basiluzzo, indeed to all the Aeolian Islands and of great additional interest, allows a close view of the extraordinary boats, what we describe as ‘checking out the boat porn’, belonging to some of the world’s most affluent private seafarers.

M/Y Radiant

M/Y Talitha

M/Y Zen

M/Y Paloma

M/Y Kathryn

S/Y Black Pearl

M/Y Paramour

M/Y Blue II

M/Y Artefact

M/Y Savannah

M/Y Altair

M/Y Ocenanos

If you want to know more about these incredible boats - you’ll likely find more through Google - search using the boat name adding either ‘motor yacht’ (M/Y) or ‘sailing yacht’ (S/Y).

M/Y Kalani, modest in comparison, is our much loved floating home on which, for over a quarter of a century, we have shared so many adventures and happy times with dear friends.

The sun drops and many of other boats head back to the shelter of nearby Panarea.

Stromboli bids us good night with a puff of smoke.

Together with our larger neighbours we remain out on the water for the night.

Night time - brilliant under the light of the full moon.

© Text and Images (unless indicated otherwise) - Derek Frost 2025

Jeremy and I have been a couple for nearly fifty years. We were one of the first British gay couples to become Civil Partners, on the first day allowed by UK law, 21 December 2005. We were also one of the first gay couples to convert our Civil Partnership to a marriage, on the first day allowed by UK law, 10 December 2014.

Our Civil Partnership was conducted by a registrar at Westminster City Hall. As required by law two witnesses attended, in our case two male gay friends. No family or other friends were present. This important event in our lives, delayed so long by British law, meant that none of our parents were still alive to witness this happy occasion.

As is well known, in the normal course of events, at a traditional church wedding, the father takes the arm of his daughter, the bride, and escorts her up the aisle to the altar and her betrothed.

Recently I received a touching image of a dear lady friend, sadly deceased, an unmarried single parent, escorting her daughter up the aisle to the altar and to her husband to be.

I mentioned this happy variation to tradition to a journalist friend who responded: ‘When my gay friend Bells got married, her wife was the one who came down the aisle because Bells has always been the more masculine one in their relationship and wanted to be in a suit, whereas her wife wanted the big white dress and the walk down the aisle so that kind of naturally resolved itself. When Clare and SJ got married out here in Spain last year, they both walked towards the celebrant with their small son between them which was VERY sweet.’

For your further consideration on the subject:

© Text Derek Frost 2025

69 - BOOKS & POEM - read during Round the World in 200 Days - 26 June 2025

Barrow, Andrew - Tap Dancer

Coetzee, J M - The Life and Times of Michael K

Crewe, Tom - The New Life

Eng, Tan Twan - The Gift of Rain

Eng, Tan Twan - House of Doors

Forster, E M - Passage to India

Galgut, Damon - Artic Summer

Hitchens, Christopher - Mortality

Isherwood, Christopher - Single Man

Leavitt, David - While England Sleeps

Levy, Deborah - Real Estate

Manning, Olivia - Balkan Trilogy

Maugham, William Somerset - Casuarina Tree

Muller, Herta - The Land of Green Plums

Ondaatje, Michael - Running in the Family

Parker, Peter - Some Men in London

Shafak, Elif - The Island of Missing Trees

Wilde, Oscar - De Profundis

Wilde, Oscar - Ballad of Reading Gaol

Woolf, Leonard - Village in the Jungle

© Image Derek Frost 2025

68 - HOME AGAIN, MALTA - 21 June 2025

On the 29th November 2024 we departed Malta for Cape Town. From there we travelled east and then further east. On the 14th June 2025 we returned to Malta arriving from the west and by this completed our circumnavigation of the globe - what we have been calling ‘Round the World in 200 Days’.

Valletta and the Entrance to Grand Harbour, Malta

During our trip we travelled on sixteen different planes and, according to Mr ChatGPT, flew a total of 50,720 kilometres. To this we can add several hundred additional kilometres by car.

During our trip we slept in thirty one different beds. Three in bedrooms in homes we call our own, fifteen in hotels, one in a house we rented and the remainder, excepting a night or two on planes, in the houses of friends.

Video / Music: Nuvole Bianche by Ludovico Einaudi

After all those different beds we’re happy to be back in our own bed, the bed in our Malta home.

Home? What does it mean ‘home’?

Being nomads, of sorts, we’re regularly asked the question ‘where is your ‘actual’ home?’

Jeremy, my husband, most often responds that home for him is where I am, where we are together, that home - maybe better ‘at home’, is about us, not primarily about a place.

Another home, without question the most precious, is the one that all of us, in our infinite shades and varieties both animal and vegetable, share and call home - our beautiful, beloved and precious planet home.

Long may our beautiful globe remain safe.

© Unknown

© Text & Images (unless indicated otherwise) Derek Frost 2025

67 THE UK AIDS MEMORIAL QUILT, TATE MODERN, LONDON - 13 June 2025

The UK Aids Memorial Quilt on display at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall June 2025 Photograph: Neil Hall © EPA

‘People weep in its presence. It began as a simple act of remembrance dedicated to those who lost their lives to AIDS. Now this ever-growing patchwork of grave-plot-sized panels has taken on a new meaning as one of the most significant artworks in the past forty years.’ - Text Charlie Porter © The Guardian

Below from my memoir ‘Living and Loving in the age of Aids’ published in 2021 - amazon.co.uk/

One of the most powerful artistic responses to the pandemic harnesses the creativity of all those who lost loved ones to create what is known as the ‘NAMES Project, AIDS Memorial Quilt’. Begun in 1987 by a group led by AIDS activist Cleve Jones, this enormous quilt, the largest piece of community folk art in the world, is currently made up of over 94,000 panels, on each of which a single name lost to AIDS is stitched, together with personal items or messages relating to that person. One of the earliest entries is for Roger Gail Lyon, who died in 1983. Before his death, Roger testified in front of a US congressional committee, stating: ‘AIDS is not a political issue it’s a health issue. AIDS is not a gay issue it’s a human issue’. On the quilt panel celebrating the life of Roger, his friend Cindy McMullin, one of the project’s original volunteers, has stitched Roger’s plea: ‘I came here today to ask this nation with all its resources and compassion not to let my epitaph read that I died of red tape’. - © Text Derek Frost / Watkins Media 2021

See also my accompanying complimentary ‘Living and Loving in the age of Aids’ Picture Book - jndflife.com/publications-derek/

The US Aids Memorial Quilt on display in Washington DC, USA

66 THE NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON, ENGLAND - 12 June 2025

Enter the new main entrance to our National Gallery.

Photograph Edmund Sumner - © The National Gallery London

When post-modernist architects Robert Venturi and his wife Denise Scott Brown designed the Sainsbury Wing extension of the National Gallery in 1991, the columns they installed in the ground floor entry were part of an intended spatial sequence conceived as a procession from shadow to light.

From Neil MacGregor, then director of the National Gallery: ‘Venturi and team wanted the foyer to have the feel of a mighty crypt leading to the lofty light filled galleries above. It was designed to be a subsidiary space – the beginning of a journey, not its destination.’

Architect Annabelle Selldorf’s recent remodelling, after two years of closure and opened for public view in May 2025, has changed all this. Now the entry space, reconfigured, brightly lit and partially double height, has become in itself the destination and the assured new main entrance to our National Gallery.

Photograph Edmund Sumner - © The National Gallery London

I was excited to see these alterations and to then ascend the original architects’ grand unchanged staircase albeit better lit with its transparent wall now in clear as opposed to tinted glass. At its summit I did find myself slightly disappointed at no longer being greeted by Francesco Botticini’s 1475 ‘Assumption of the Virgin’ but by Richard Long’s 2025 ‘Mud Sun’.

Photograph Edward Sumner - © The National Gallery London

There remain no prescribed routes when you turn left at the top of these stairs and enter the Sainsbury Wing’s seventeen spectacular interconnected galleries, now cleaned and repainted but otherwise unchanged by the recent architectural intervention. It was a great joy, as it has been so many times in the past, to be in these galleries and amongst our nation’s extraordinarily beautiful and spiritually uplifting collection of Medieval and Renaissance masterpieces.

© The National Gallery

© The National Gallery

© The National Gallery

© The National Gallery

In 1940, during the Blitz, Hampton’s Furniture Store which then occupied this site was destroyed by fire. By the late 1950’s it had become a waste ground. In 1958 the Government acquired the site as a possible location for an extension of the National Gallery but it wasn’t until 1981 that a competition was launched for its design. The winning architects were Ahrends, Burton and Koralek (ABK), a design which the then Prince of Wales, now King Charles, referred to as a ‘monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend.’ This opinion, echoed by many, brought the project to a halt.

ABK’s 1982 Proposal - © PA Images

In 1985 the three Sainsbury brothers - John, Simon and Tim - agreed to fund the project in its entirety, selecting Venturi Scott Brown & Associates as their architects. In addition they paid for the restoration and reframing of many of the paintings in the collection. Queen Elizabeth II opened the completed Sainsbury Wing in July 1991. The building has since earned plaudits as one of the most sophisticated pieces of postmodern architecture in the country.

Revisiting these lofty light filled galleries and their exquisite treasures reminded me of the glamorous opening party we attended in celebration of the new wing’s opening; more importantly for us and never to be forgotten, of the friendship we were lucky enough to enjoy with the late Simon Sainsbury.

The Archangel Michael - Pietro Perugino 1496 - 1523

Tobias and the Angel - Andrea Verrocchio 1435 - 1488

Doge Leonardo Loredan - Giovanni Bellini 1435 - 1516

The Baptism of Christ - Piero della Francesca 1415 - 1492

Portrait of a Lady - Alesso Baldovinetti 1426 - 1499

St Bertin Altarpiece (detail) - Simon Marmion 1449 - 1489

Simon was a man of rare distinction, grace and humility and, as Chaucer describes: ‘a verray, parfit, gentil knyght.’ He was also one of the UK’s most generous recent philanthropists. The moment we told Simon about the charity we had founded, Aids Ark, he presented us with a substantial donation and continued to do the same every year for the rest of his life. For this he was much loved by us and for much else besides.

Simon Sainsbury 1930 - 2006 Photograph: Tony Snowdon © The Sainsbury Family Archive

Addendum:

Post Simon’s death, mutual friends James & Clare Kirkman stepped into his shoes by making the same generous annual donation to Aids Ark.

© Text Derek Frost 2025

65 - THE FLOOD, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND - 8 June 2025

In early April 2024 the highest surge tide combined with storm force winds caused substantial seawater flooding across the Needsore gardens and the fields beyond.

The last time this occurred was in the mid 1980’s.

Salt water and a majority of plants do not make happy bed fellows. In consequence, most of the plants which found themselves under seawater and then sitting with their roots in salt-laden soil struggled to survive and then died.

The images below show how our garden looked in the year before the flood.

During the late summer of 2024, post the flood, we gave the tall curved hedges a major prune - they’d become much taller and broader than are appropriate for so small a garden.

Then, at the end of October 2024, we started the post flood repair in earnest.

Nature has a wondrous ability to self-repair; this combined with extensive replanting in April 2025. By the time we left Needsore mid June 2025 our garden was starting to look much happier again.

From the great architect Frank Lloyd Wright: ‘Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.’

© Text and Images Derek Frost 2025

64 THE NEW FOREST, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND - 5 June 2025

Being ‘at home’ along the edge of the Solent and near to Lymington puts us within, albeit at the edge of, the 2005 designated New Forest National Park. For the many years we have been here it has been much visited by us, has been a great delight to us and our many friends with whom we have, so often, walked its many trails. It continues to be so.

Dotted Red Line indicates the New Forest National Park Boundary

Areas of the New Forest adjacent to the Solent Coastline

The New Forest, despite its name, is an ancient forest with an ancient history.

In 1079 William the Conqueror took ownership of it in order to create a royal reserve for the hunting of deer and boar. It was he who declared it the New Forest, a legal designation meaning land reserved for royal hunting.

© Stock.Adobe.com

© Stock.Adobe.com

The term Nova Foresta appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, one of the few forests mentioned by name, confirming its official recognition at that time.

Knowing that Commoners of the New Forest would interfere with his hunting, William prohibited the grazing of livestock, hunting by others, foraging for food and the building of any fences. The de-clawing of dogs to prevent injury to quarry became obligatory.

Commoners of the New Forest are people who occupy land or property within the forest.

After the death of both William and his successor Rufus, the rights of the Commoners were restored in 1217 by the Charter of the Forest at the Verderers' Court which was set up to enforce this.

Verderers protect the Commoners livelihoods, their common rights and the forest landscape. They employ a team of Agisters who assist with the management of Commoners’ animals all of which are free-roaming including a large number of horses.

© thenewforest.co.uk

© thenewforest.co.uk

The 1217 Charter of the Forest - Common Rights:

Common of Pasture – the right to turn out livestock: ponies, cattle, mules, donkeys and sheep.

Common of Mast – the right to turn out pigs during the sixty day autumn pannage season for the purpose of foraging for acorns and beech mast. Common of Marl – the right to dig lime-rich clay from marl pits to for the purpose of fertilising land and as a material for building.

Common of Marl – the right to dig lime-rich clay from marl pits to for the purpose of fertilising land and as a material for building.

Common of Estovers – the right to the free supply of wood, already fallen to the ground, for fuel.

Common of Turbary – the right to cut peat turves for fuel.Many of these Common Rights survive today and are still protected by law.

Ancient and Ornamental Woodland, open woodland, together with broad-leaved and Coniferous Forestry, forest inclosures, covers approximately 35% of the forest.

Ancient and Ornamental Woodland refers to areas that have been continuously wooded since at least 1600 AD. These are irreplaceable habitats rich in biodiversity. Many of the trees in these areas have stood for centuries and their quiet presence supports countless rare species. The New Forest is thought to have the highest concentration of ancient trees in Western Europe making it internationally important for lichens, fungi, beetles and much else.

© GoNewForest.com

© GoNewForest.com

The Knightwood Oak, known as the Queen of the Forest, is estimated to be over 500 years old.

Open Moorland comprising Heathland, Grassland and Valley Mires covers approximately 33% of the forest.

Valley Mires refers to a specific type of wetland habitat found in the valleys of the forest. These are peaty, waterlogged areas formed in shallow valleys where water accumulates due to poor drainage.

© SuxxesPhoto.com

© SuxxesPhoto.com

© SuxxesPhoto.com

© SuxxesPhoto.com

The remaining part of the forest includes private land, agricultural holdings, ponds, homes, villages and infrastructure.

The New Forest National Park Authority sets planning policy, provides tourism and environmental guidance, coordinates conservation efforts and collaborates with all land managers, Forestry England, Verderers, National Trust, Wildlife Trusts, councils, and private estates, to safeguard the Forest’s character.

Forestry England manages nearly half of the National Park focusing on Crown lands - this includes ancient woodlands, heathlands, wetlands, forest inclosures, and open forest.

The National Trust look after other areas of the forest including the New Forest Northern Commons.

Both Verderers and Agisters continue to have an important role in the life of the New Forest.

Together with friends who live in the middle of the forest, I share the use of an electric bike. Miles and miles of trails, many suitable for bicycling, criss cross the forest; cycling them remains one of my greatest delights and the source of much quiet and contented contemplation.

© Text and Images (unless indicated otherwise) Derek Frost 2025

ADDENDUM

Jeremy and I walking in the New Forest as we have done so many times and on so many happy occasions.

Thank you Larry L for sending the image.

63 - THE NEEDLES, ISLE OF WIGHT - 28 May 2025

During many years, now approaching fifty, it’s been our good fortune to be ‘at home’ in a small former coastguard cottage which lies beside the narrow stretch of water called the Solent which runs between the southern coast of the British mainland and the Isle of Wight. From there, in our own boat, we have often visited The Needles.

The Needles from Isaac Taylor’s ‘one inch map’ of Hampshire, published in 1759

The Needles are a line of three free standing chalk ‘stacks’, their shape the result of strata folding during the Alpine Orogeny, that rise thirty metres out of the sea off the western end of the Isle of Wight. The formation takes its name from a fourth needle-shaped pillar of rock called Lot’s Wife which collapsed in a 1746 storm.

The Needles Lighthouse, built in 1859 and automated since 1994, stands at their western extremity.

To stare up at the glistening chalk monoliths of The Needles from a small boat, often tossed about in a great rising and falling sea, never fails to promote feelings of excitement, trepidation and wonder. So many boats have met their end against these rock or on the Shingles, a shifting shoal of pebbles lying just beneath the waves and stretching three miles west beyond them.

In 1947 SS Varvassi went aground and sank 150 metres west of the lighthouse. Remains of the wreck still lie just under the surface of the water and can, in part, be seen at extreme low tide. Beware this additional hazard and most particularly if attempting to make passage between it and Goose Rock which lies in shallows just off the lighthouse.

Hazardous waters. Be warned.

On one memorable occasion we were there, just the two of us and making passage to France, when a dense fog sea suddenly found us and hid the jagged rocks and shallows from our view. Then only the eerie call of the lighthouse fog horn warned us of the direction and distance from which danger and potential disaster threatened.

Always be respectful and vigilant of the sea, the weather and their quickly changing moods.

Others pass by The Needles and often in great numbers. The annual Round the Island Race is one the world’s great sailing races and certainly one of its largest.

© Sail Racing Academy

Alum Bay, its cliffs famous for a multiplicity of differently coloured sands, lies beside The Needles and is a popular destination for the island’s many holiday makers. From there a small number of boats allow visitors a closer glimpse of the stacks and their lighthouse.

Now, without a boat on these waters to call our own, we took the Isle of Wight ferry from Lymington on the mainland to Yarmouth on the island with the express purpose of walking, for the first time despite so many years spent in these parts, the single track road called The Needles Breezer.

A Distant view of The Needles from mid Solent

Yarmouth Pier

From Yarmouth we jumped on the Southern Vectis bus, Vectis being the Roman name for the Isle of Wight, taking the route which ends at the now decommissioned Needles Battery. Choosing to leave the bus at Alum Bay, it’s penultimate stop, we walked the Breezer accompanied only by the call of sea birds.

Here, high above the water and running parallel with the cliff edge, we were gifted with spectacular views down onto The Needles and across the majestic chalk cliffs which lie to their south.

© Isle of Wight Tourism

© MyPix

Beyond only ocean and sky.

© Text & Images (unless indicated otherwise) Derek Frost 2025

62 - RED CAMPION, GUERNSEY - 25 May 2025

Guernsey has a strict rule about hedges which must be cut between June 1st and 15th and again between September 15th and 30th to a height of twelve feet above roads and eight foot above footpaths; all resulting ‘cuttings’ must be cleared immediately to prevent drainage issues.

An equivalent law exists on Jersey.

The Loi (1914) sur la Voirie concerns itself, in part, with Branchage and imposes a duty on all occupiers of property to ensure that any vegetation which overhangs roads and footpaths is cut back as required. Following the two annual dates on which this law demands completion the Visites du Branchage takes place during which the Connétable (Presidente Assemblée Paroissiale), Vingteniers, Centeniers and other members of the Roads Committee check that Branchage has been carried out in accordance with this law.

Fortunately for us, we visited Guernsey before June 1st and in consequence the hedges lining all country lanes and footpaths were verdant, uncontrolled, luscious, exuberant and looking their untrimmed best filled with an abundance of spring flowers.

Here, Red Campion (Silene dioica) is the dominant hedgerow flower with its bright pink, five-petalled flower, gracing every hedgerow in wild and glorious abandon. Curiously, I can’t imagine why, this lovely plant is less evident amongst UK mainland hedges.

Less often White Campion (Silene latifolia), sometimes with flowers the palest pink, announced its welcome presence amongst the hedgerows - a delightful addition to the colourful palette.

Another lovely flower, smaller but much in evidence, was the Three-Cornered Leek (Allium triquetrum) also known as Three-Cornered Garlic. Hopefully its diminutive stature allows it escape from the Branchage scythes.

Again and again we saw the glorious blooms of Hawthorn also called Mayflower, Quickthorn and Whitethorn.

Happily we saw all this before these beauties were stripped of their ornament by the demands of harsh but understandably necessary Branchage.

Venturing along the coastal pathways, excluded from the Loi sur la Voirie, we saw carpets of Sea Pinks called also Thrift (Armeria maritima) in greater profusion than we ever see along the southern coast of England.

There on the cliffs we also saw Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) and raised amongst them hosts of the beautiful darker pink flowers of the now familiar Red Campion.

The season of wild spring flowers is much longed for during the cold wet months of the northern winter; an annual event that never fails to uplift the spirits and to delight.

Video - Guernsey Rivulet

© Text, Images & Video Derek Frost 2025

61 LIBERATION - CHANNEL ISLANDS, UNITED KINGDOM - 21 May 2025

6 - 10 May 2025. We are happy to be visiting the British Channel Islands during the Islanders’ 80th anniversary celebration and commemoration of liberation from German occupation during World War II, on so important and joyful an occasion in the islands’ history.

19 June 1940. The British Government announces, ‘The Channel Islands will not, repeat not, be defended against external invasion by sea or air.’

19 June 1940. The Star - a Guernsey newspaper.

17,000 people leave Guernsey, 25,000 elect to stay behind. ‘My father is adamant we should remain, we were born here, we should remain here and, if necessary, we should die here - we should be brave and face whatever lies in store’.

The entire civilian population of Alderney, about 1,400 people, is evacuated to mainland Britain.

28 June 1940. German bombers attack Guernsey killing forty four Islanders just days before the German invasion and occupation of the island. German reconnaissance flights mistakenly identify trucks loaded with barrels of potatoes and lined up in the St Peter Port Harbour as military trucks.

It was only on the day of the bombing that the BBC announced the demilitarisation of the Islands. The official message confirming this did not get to the Germans, via the US Embassy in Berlin, until the following day.

1 July 1940. Copies of the German ultimatum are dropped over the islands. Islanders are told to demonstrate their surrender by flying white flags from all buildings. Sheets, pillowcases and some old vests are hurriedly hung up. A white cross is painted in the middle of the Royal Square, Jersey.

Jersey Bailiff Alexander Coutanche appeals to the people to remain calm and follow German orders. After pulling down the Union Jack that flies over Fort Regent he drives to the airport to meet the invaders.

The Bailiff is head of the Superior Council which thereafter acts as a buffer between the occupying army and the civil population.

The Swastika flying over Guernsey Airport

18 October 1940.

In the early weeks of the occupation food supplies on the Island are relatively plentiful and goods are brought in from France. It isn’t long before stocks start running low. By the summer of 1941 the meat ration is down to 50gm. a fortnight per person. Tea and coffee become rare luxuries. The Islanders live on vegetables - even the peelings are cooked and eaten.

During the occupation fishermen are accompanied by Germans and made to surrender the lion share of their catch to the occupying forces.

23 March 1942. Hitler issues direct orders to fortify the Channel Islands. He regards them as a vital part of the Atlantic Wall—a network of coastal defences and tunnels designed to prevent Allied invasion of Nazi occupied Europe. He believes the Channel Islands are of great symbolic importance as ‘British soil under German control’ and demands they be turned into ‘impregnable fortresses.’

Organisation Todt, a Nazi civil and military engineering group, is tasked with overseeing the massive construction efforts. Forced labor, including prisoners from Eastern Europe, Russia, Spain and North Africa are used for this purpose. Conditions are harsh and for those classified as slave labourers in-humane and often deadly.

On the island of Alderney, then emptied of its civilian population, conditions are worst and as many as 1,000 labourers die.

The British suppression of war crime investigations related to Alderney is a disturbing and still-sensitive chapter in the legacy of World War II. Despite evidence of atrocities committed by the Nazis on Alderney, British soil, there will no war crime trials specific to the island and no justice for the victims.

‘Lager Sylt on Alderney is the British Buchenwald that history tries to forget.’

18 September 1942. Twelve hours notice is given that men born outside the Channel Islands and aged between 16 and 70 will, together with their families, be deported to internment camps in Europe and, for those amongst them who are Jewish, to much worse. 2,500 Islanders are deported to the horror of their neighbours and friends.

Deportation Order

6 June 1944. D-Day and the start of the Liberation of Europe. The Islanders are awakened by the drone of aircraft overhead. The Allies storm the beaches of northern France and the Islanders hearing the action with mounting excitement believe their liberation to be imminent.

‘We thought, any day now they’ll rescue us.’

As June turns into August, the Islanders realise with sinking hearts that the invasion has passed them by. French ports are now under the control of the Allies, the Islands are cut off from all new supplies.

15 September 1944. Bailiff Coutanche warns the German Military Commander General Rudolph Graf von Schmettow that stocks of most essential goods will be exhausted by the middle of November. The Germans insist that supplies for the civilian population are not their responsibility.

Winston Churchill is determined that no supplies will be sent to the Islands, that sending them will only prolong German resistance. The Islanders face starvation.

20 December 1944. From the Supreme Council: ‘Other than for children under four the sugar ration will cease.’

27 December 1944. Following a much delayed exchange between the War Office in London and the Germans, an agreement is reached allowing the SS Vega, an International Red Cross boat, to bring supplies to the islands. The boat carries 100,000 food parcels from Canada and New Zealand containing tea, coffee, biscuits, chocolate, marmalade, cheese and tinned meat plus medicines and other supplies like salt, soap and tobacco. The boat will make a further six trips to the Islands.’

SS Vega moored at the Cambridge Berth in St. Peter Port Harbour, Guernsey. A steam supply train can be seen on the left side of the photograph preparing to pull carriages laden with Red Cross parcels.

30 December 1944. Islanders begin receiving their first Red Cross parcels.

There are no Red Cross parcels for the German soldiers who help with their distribution but are forbidden to take anything for themselves. The Islanders are now better off than they are. Patrols of German soldiers go foraging for berries and limpets on the beaches. They shoot cats, dogs, their own horses and even seagulls for meat. Morale in the German garrison has all but collapsed.

8 May 1945. Liberation commences when, at 10am, Kapitain Reich tells the Bailiff of Guernsey, ‘The war is over’, one of the most significant moments in the islands’ history.

Winston Churchill gives a speech saying, ‘Our dear Channel Islands are to be freed today.’

In Royal Square, St Helier, Jersey, ‘you could hear a pin drop, people simply gasped in amazement, they found it difficult to believe this could be true, people started singing the National Anthem followed by a cacophony of cheering, there was an outpouring of emotion.’

9 May 1945. The first liberating soldiers arrive on the shores of Jersey at 12.30pm. British troops led by Colonel Robinson make their way to the Pomme D’Or Hotel. Climbing onto the balcony they haul down the Nazi flag and replace it with the Union Jack.

On Guernsey, Vice Admiral Huffmeier, German Commander of the Channel Islands, is taken into captivity by British forces.

Later in the afternoon, another 200 British troops arrive by landing craft at Havelet Bay, Guernsey.

RAF aircraft fly past in salute.

12 May 1945. The Islanders are still starving and need vital supplies. One of the first ships to arrive carrying supplies is the US 516 which arrives at Old Harbour in St Peter Port, Guernsey. Further supplies subsequently arrive at L’Ancresse, Guernsey.

US 516 unloading her cargo at low tide in the Old Harbour in St Peter Port, Guernsey.

Germans, now prisoners-of-war, are disarmed and tasked with work to help get day-to-day aspects of life operating normally.

POW’s leading a consignment of cows, transported to Guernsey from Sark, to the recently re-opened slaughter house.

7 June 1945. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visit Jersey to an enthusiastic welcome. From the King, replying to an address of welcome from the Islanders, ‘There is much to be done before your islands can regain their former prosperity, but I am confident that, by your endeavours, which have the fullest support of my government, the destruction wrought by the enemy will soon be repaired and your fields restored to the abundance for which they have so long been famous. Our thoughts have often been with you during your years of trial and we join with you in the hope that the war against the remaining enemy may be brought to a victorious end and that under God’s good providence, the nations of the world may enjoy everlasting peace.’

Jeremy and I are grateful to be visiting the Channel Islands at the same time the Islanders’ are celebrating and commemorating the 80th anniversary of their occupation and liberation, during so important an event in their rich history.

Anthony Eden - UK Prime Minister following Winston Churchill

© Derek Frost 2025

60 EXBURY GARDEN, ENGLAND - 17 May 2025

Exbury Garden is a 200-acre informal woodland garden in Hampshire, England, with large collections of rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias.

Created by Lionel de Rothschild from 1919 and open to the public, his grand children and now great grand children continue to oversee its ongoing development and care.

Located along the banks of the Beaulieu River it’s a garden we’re lucky enough to know well and have visited on numerous occasions.

Many consider it the finest garden of its type in the United Kingdom.

© Text and Images Derek Frost 2025

59 PORTUGAL IMAGES - 14 May 2025

© Images (excepting posters) Derek Frost 2025

58 SUBWAY ART - LISBON - 11 May 2025

If you enjoy seeing ‘Art on the Move’ head underground and take a ride on the Lisbon subway.

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© Text, Images and Video Derek Frost 2025

57 MONSERRATE, SINTRA, PORTUGAL - 9 May 2025

Another glorious view of the Atlantic ocean; on this occasion from Praia da Adraga, due west of Sintra on the Iberian Peninsula, some thirty kilometres north west of Lisbon and where we walked parallel to the crashing surf followed by a delicious ‘fishy’ lunch beachside at Restaurante Adraga. Ozone and taste buds heaven!

From the beach the road inclines sharply up to the hills of the Serra de Sintra towards a chain of forested granite mountains overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Here, ever since the Middle Ages, Portuguese monarchs have come during the summer months in search of cooler weather, to escape periods of plague and in pursuit of abundant hunting. First they took up residence at what is now called The National Palace of Sintra. In the mid 19th century King Ferdinand II created a second residence here now called The Pena National Palace around which he planted thousands of trees amongst the existing forests of oaks and umbrella pines. Others members of the Portuguese nobility, following Ferdinand’s example, established residences and gardens of their own here in what is now called the Parque Natural de Sintra-Cascais, now defined by UNESCO as a ‘World Heritage Cultural Landscape’.

Sir Francis Cook, then one of Britain’s richest men, was attracted to do the same and in 1855 bought an earlier building ruined in the 1755 earthquake and partially remodelled in the late 18th century by William Beckford who surrounded it with a landscaped garden park of his own making. Here, together with architect James Knowles and botanist Thomas Gargill, Sir Francis created the magnificent Palace and Park of Monserrate, still much the same as you see it today.

Now, the property of the state, Monserrate has been recast as a place for public enjoyment; we were delighted, courtesy of our hosts, to visit it.

© Text and Images (excluding historic b&w) Derek Frost 2025

56 AZULEJO, LISBON 8 May 2025

The Museu Nacional do Azulejo - meaning ‘tile’, is housed in the former Madre de Deus Convent, founded in 1509. Its collection of ceramic tiles is one of the largest in the world and concentrates on Portuguese and former Portuguese Empire ceramics from the 15th century to the present day.

During my visit I focused on looking at examples of 20th century work in the museum’s collection.

Fabrica da Bempostinha 1920

Maria da Lourdes Castro 1934

João Abel Manta 1928

Jorge Barradas 1894-1971

Ivan Chermayeff 1932-2017

Eduardo Nery 1938-2013

The Shadow - Fernanda Fragateiro 1962

Querubim Lapa 1925-2016

Fabrica da Bempostinha 1920

© Text and Images Derek Frost 2025

55 - PUTTING ON THE RITZ, LISBON 6 May 2025

From the grand roundabout encircling the rather pompous monument dedicated to the 1st Marquis of Pombal, the chief minister to King Joseph 1 from 1750 to 1777, we walked up the hill along the left side of Parque Eduardo VII passing the charming Pavilhão Carlos Lopes.

From the top of the park there’s a great view over the city past the apparently despotic Marquis on his pedestal, down the Avenue da Liberdade to the waters of the Tagus and the hills beyond.

Here, at the top of the park and from such a commanding position, there’s an important commission waiting to happen. The current dismal offering really does need to be replaced by a piece of sculpture of greater scale, significance and quality.

Beyond the park to its right side and worth a glance, you’ll see, housed in a ordinary but handsome early 20th century classical style building, the Diwan do Imamat Ismaili, home to the cultural and religious centre of the Ismaili community; closed when we passed but apparently open from time to time.

Of real architectural and artistic interest is the adjacent Palácio da Justiça also know as the Civil Courts Building designed by Januário Godinho and João Andresen and built between 1962 and 1970.

Along this building’s grand external colonnade and skilfully integrated into it’s crisp design, the tiled panels by Jorge Barradas, Júlio Resende, Querubim Lapa and Amândio Silva looked particularly good in the evening light.

Standing adjacent to the Palácio da Justiça, convenient for the transfer of detainees for court appearances, is the high-security prison commonly referred to as Cadeia de Lisboa or Prisão de Lisboa. Having passed its entrance, forbidding metal gates adorned with double key symbols and flanked by two crenellated towers, we headed down R. Rodrigo da Fonseca where our hosts had once lived. Should you follow in our footsteps don’t miss paying attention to the many handsome buildings populating this smart residential area.

At the end of this street there’s a undistinguished building commissioned by António de Oliveira Salazar, Portugal's President from 1932 to 1968, who demanded of it a luxury establishment to host his ‘distinguished’ international guests and proof that Lisbon could ‘do luxury’ as well as any other European capital. Porfírio Pardal Monteiro commenced his designs for the building in 1952 and, following his death in 1957, the project was completed by his nephew António Monteiro and Jorge Ferreira Chaves. Salazar’s hotel opened in 1959 and now goes by the name of ‘Four Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon’.

By now, feeling slightly fatigued, a cocktail at ‘The Ritz’ seemed like a great idea so in we went; happily so or we would have missed sight of hotel’s extensive mid 20th century art collection. If you’d like to share this bounty and have an iPad scan the QR code below.

My favourites, amongst many ‘strong likes’, were the striking tapestries designed by José de Almada Negreiros and woven by the Manufactura de Tapeçarias de Portalegre.

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© Text and Images Derek Frost 2025