Year: 2017
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Doing better in 2018
While this has mostly been a happy year for me full of garden visits, gardens and weddings, it has also been a year when all the blog posts, journal jottings and photographs of things I had wanted to share here began queuing up and arguing with each other in the dark rather than coming dancing…
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The moon in our pocket – or why we need Lia Leendertz’s Almanac today
Lia Leendertz is one of my favourite writers – and her latest project is so important right now as nature seems to feel more and more distant from us, and yet we appear to have a real hunger to learn more about it! The Almanac, crowdfounded via Unbound, revives the tradition of the rural almanac.…
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Not just a tree – John Evelyn’s Mulberry in Deptford
We spent the day in Deptford recently, taking photographs of various street names for a family project, but I also wanted to explore a little of John Evelyn’s history, and his lost garden, Sayes Court. We didn’t find the garden exactly but… I love street names for the quirky glimpses of history they give into…
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Halfway to Heaven in Folkestone
Not quite a garden, but this website has done graveyards before so we’ve got form. And besides, this is amazing. It feels so secret and magical, that even the dandelions look as if they are meant to be there. The Baptist Burial Ground in Folkestone has been left as an ‘island’ for more than 100…
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Searching for silence in The Phoenix Garden
I’ve found a new favourite spot to read and think. Beautiful, eh? A haven of peace, probably miles away from anywhere noisy or busy? Well, no. The Phoenix Garden is a minute off London’s Charing Cross Road and just two minutes away from Tottenham Court Road. Best of all, it’s right opposite Foyle’s Bookshop, so…
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Fancy a London garden mooch?
There are some beautiful, interesting, inspiring, almost secret gardens in London. I did a virtual tour of them a couple of years ago for the Chelsea Fringe, and although some may be out of date now, you can find the full list here Five I would particularly recommend, and which are a little bit different, though…
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Flowers in the Fish Factory
On a recent holiday to Sweden, we were lucky enough to stay in a unique bed and breakfast at Edshultshall on Western Sweden’s wild coast. Ladfabriken (as the name suggests) has been lovingly converted from an old fish factory, and the owners, Johan and Marcel, have a unique sense of style and are such generous…
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A garden and a library….
That’s all you need, according to Cicero, and I’ve just had a joyful residency in both! The Women’s Library at Compton Verney to be precise, looking out at grounds laid out by Capability Brown. The project was part of Spreadsheets and Moxie, a year of research and development into professionalism in the arts for women…
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Time travelling down tunnels with HG Wells at Uppark House
See this photograph… not really a garden, I admit, but it’s the part of the tunnel that leads from the main house at Uppark to the servants quarters, designed so they wouldn’t be seen or heard. Here’s what’s above… But let’s go below again… Because this is the tunnel that the writer H G Wells…
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Nine bean-rows, friends and a poetry exchange
I am lucky enough to be involved with the Poetry Exchange, an organisation which pops up in interesting places and asks people to nominate what poems they consider as friends. It’s a fascinating question – not your favourite poem, or even a poem that you love – but what kind of friend is this poem…
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Scientists in the Garden of Love – Bologna
The Bologna Botanic Garden or Orto Botanico (like everything, it sounds better in Italian) has been a centre for botanical research since the 16th century when the University of Bologna was one of the main centres of botanical research. It’s not big, just over two hectares, and a slope at the end is formed…