The virus means no one can travel, not even to the lovely seaside garden in Cornwall, so this month, while on lock-down, let’s reflect on a few memories made last April in southern Spain while sailing along the Guadalquivir from Seville to the Atlantic Ocean.

Andalucia is hot even at Easter, but in 2019 there was a heatwave so how the gardens survived in those conditions is a tribute to the Spanish gardeners. In Seville, there is much activity on the water in this busy urban part of the river from rowing and sailing to windsurfing.

• 

• 

• 

But downstream, it’s also a working river with oyster dredgers and local processing – much of it unchanged since the 19th century. Sailing through the flat lands of the Parc Nationale is slow and the sky is big – a good setting for the film La Isla Minima – a murder mystery set in these parts. Then you meet the big swells of the Atlantic to sail south to Cadiz and Cape Trafalgar.

• 

• 

• 

Southern Spain is blessed with a strong Moorish influence in its royal gardens including King Alfonso’s Alcazar at Cordoba and the Emir of Granada’s Alhambra. Both show the successful harmonisation of using symmetry and formal waterways, and sculptural and exotic trees to give that typical Moorish look.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

But there is more. The walls of castles and town houses become backdrops for bold red blooms. And of course, there is the magnificence of bougainvillea.