The Voice Box

I almost missed out on Arizona this year.  Encouraged by the cold wings which were headed to my London base, I decided on a shortened escapade; no Desert Garden and Phoenix, just wonderful Tucson.  In case you are wondering, this has been on my calendar for the last four years. The itinerary is much the same as the years before, a Canyon visit, a couple nurseries, and this time the Ironwood Forest National Park.  I am truly grateful to Marty - Arizona Agave  for the effort in making the visit enjoyable, and that includes the delicious meals at the family Mexican restaurant. I will start off with Arid Lands which I love visiting, and is the kind of nursery that we do not have here in the UK. To get there , I flew from London Heathrow via Dallas Fort Worth in Texas, and I stayed most of the time at Four Points by Sheraton at Tucson Airport. In pursuit of looking at young plants, the nurseries are my first stop. And Tucson has a wonderful selection of the best succulent nurserie

  This is my second visit to China, and I was very impressed to to be in what is now the largest city in the world.  It is definitely more of the metropolis landmark than Beijing, which I had visited last year.  I was staying at the Novotel Shanghai Atlantis in Pudong, and from my room on the 31st floor, the view was fantastic.  Just as I was told, Shanghai does display all the signs of a vibrant financial centre, and convinces you. without a doubt, that it is the best place to do business. To get there, I took a long journey with Qatar Airways.  It involved a six hour afternoon flight to Doha, and later a nine hour flight to Shanghai, which had me arriving the following day in the afternoon.  It was very revealing to me, as I was passing through that part of the world for the first time. DOWNTOWN SHANGHAI SHANGHAI BOTANICAL GARDEN Shanghai has two absolutely wonderful Botanical Gardens.  Both are more than wor