Where the sea comes calling twice a day

摘要

OTTERS CROSSING. DRIVE SLOWLY reads the sign on the road from Lymington as it skirts the Solent, leading you on past the Isle of Wight ferry terminal into the wooded and watery Hampshire countryside. 'How big is your garden?' I ask Catharina van derVorm. '52 acres. 19 at high tide.' What a great line! This is a landscape ruled by the sea. The house is set back from it by lawn, meadow and estuary reedbeds, and perched 5m above sea level on well-drained stony ground. But from the windows of the conservatory, cheerfully stuffed with pelargoniums, the sea looms large in the middle distance, framed by sandbanks, mudflats and the Isle of Wight beyond.