The Winter Garden, The Great British Garden Revival and Solstice Blessings

Hazel

Buds of Chrysanthamum Anastasia

Cirsium

Skimmia

On the eve of the Winter Solstice, the sun is shining here in Dorset, after an awful week of gales and lashing rain.

I was hoping to get out and tidy up the garden over the Christmas break but unless it dries out a bit, the soggy mess will have to just stay put.

I am really enjoying the BBC series The Great British Garden Revival. There just isn't enough gardening programmes on the television these days and don't get me started on Gardeners' World having to make way for sports - grr makes my blood boil!

Anyway back to The Great British Garden Revival. The cottage garden episode was just fantastic with Carol Klein championing my favourite garden genre and although I don't have any house plants, Tom Hart Dyke was so enthusiastic, I found him really engaging. I love people with an absolute passion for a subject.

My garden has some winter colour, with some geraniums still hanging on in there and strangely my Cirsium, with it's crimson pompom looking splendid like a Christmas bauble, is still in flower.

Wishing you all bright winter blessings for the solstice and love and light for 2014.

Squashes and Succulents Take Shelter on the greenhouse bench

 

                                                                   

The squashes have now been harvested and are on the greenhouse bench so their skins can cure.

I have had a really good harvest this year, 20 in total. Maybe it was the good weather we had this summer or maybe it was the variety I choose, which is suitable for our climate, I'm not sure but one thing is for sure, they just take up far too much room, so I don't think I'll grow them again next year.

I have brussel sprouts and leeks for Christmas dinner growing and a few spring onions and beetroots, which will need to be harvested soon.

My beautiful succulents have now been moved into the greenhouse, out of the cold and wet our English winter weather gives us. These are succulents left over from my wedding last year. I love their jewel like gloss and the gorgeous shapes and colours of them, I can see myself aquiring more next year.

A Visit To Barnsdale - Home of the late Geoff Hamilton

 

No one comes close to Geoff Hamilton, when it comes to presenting Gardener's World.

When my children were growing up, they knew that as soon as the theme tune started, I was not to be disturbed, it was the highlight of my TV viewing week.

I especially loved the Cottage Garden series, so when I recently visited Barnsdale in Rutland, Leicestershire, home of the late Geoff Hamilton, the garden I wanted to see most of all was the Artisan Garden. I was not at all disappointed, in fact I had such mixed emotions, sadness at the passing of Geoff but absolutely joy and gratitude, that he had created such a wonderful space and that it was still there for us to see today.

Just beautiful.

The Garden House - Devon

I had wanted to visit The Garden House in Devon for many years and when my husband asked me where I would like to go to, on our 1st wedding anniversary, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to visit this garden.

By the time we got there, the sun was high in the sky and very hot, not the most perfect situation for plant photography but as it was a day just for me to photograph for pleasure and not for any client or my employers, it just didn't matter a jot, I just had the most wonderful time photographing this beautiful garden.

Summer Solstice at Knowlton Henge

 

This summer solstice evening was spent in the most peaceful place at Knowlton Church and Henge on Cranborne Chase in Dorset.

The Norman church ruins, is on the site of one of the greatest Neolithic and Bronze Age ceremonial complexes in southern England. 

There were a few groups of people doing ceremonies, which was wonderful and the energy was beautiful.

The sun stayed behind the clouds but shards of brilliant light filled the air.

Love and light to all xx

Heading East to Dungeness & Prospect Cottage

A well earned break took us to Pett in East Sussex, where we stayed in this gorgeous shepherds hut.
For 4 days, I didn't look at the Internet or answer emails, just relaxed in the fresh air, visited Sarah Raven's garden at Perch Hill and Prospect Cottage on Dungeness, lived in by the late Derek Jarman.

I had wanted to visit his cottage since reading his book Derek Jarman's Garden, which made my heart beat madly when I saw it, as it was a little dream of mine, to visit it, for such a long time.

After, we wandered over to the shingle and towards the sea, so I could photograph the plants which inhabit the coastline for my project Against The Elements.

Understated Elegance - Amy's Wedding Flowers

My son John got married to the lovely Amy a couple of weeks ago at Lulworth Castle in Dorset.

It was the most wonderful wedding in the most romantic setting, I have ever been to.

They went on their honeymoon the next day but not before dropping off some of the flowers from their table setting. A mixture of white roses and soft pink calla lilies, they just looked so beautiful.

I couldn't resist photographing them, which I hope Amy will approve of - a reminder of how beautiful her flowers were after the last bloom has faded.

Rhubarb Rhubarb.......

The first crop of the season, forced Rhubarb.

I'm not even sure if I like Rhubarb but it looks so pretty and my husband is a fan, so I have been growing this crown for a couple of years, just taking a few stalks and now in it's third season, I think it's ready and willing for us to take more stalks this year.

I have read that the forced stalks are much sweeter than those which haven't been, they certainly are a more vibrant colour but as they say, the proof of the pudding, Rhubarb in this case.

All I did is pop a terracotta pot on top with a piece of brick to exclude the light and today we had the big reveal. It was rather exciting to see all those cerise stems, so we pulled them, rather than cut them, not all, just enough to make, what I am hoping will be a delicious compote.

Easter Filled With the Scent of Hyacinths

All my good intentions to spend 4 days in the garden over Easter came to nought, as I had places to go and people to see plus it was so cold.
The sun popped its head out now and again but it did nothing to warm the air, so wrapped up with hat and fingerless gloves, I braved the cold and did some weeding before I was driven by the wind into the warmth of the house.
The kitchen was the place to be with the heady scent of hyacinths filling the air from the vase on the table, a cup of hot chocolate in hand and of course the obligatory chocolate eggs - heavenly!

NGS Book Launch 2013

Last Thursday we made our  way though the traffic to the Southbank from Dorset to attend the launch of the NGS 2013 Yellow Book.This year they have chosen one of my images, from the couple of gardens I visited last year, Atheling Villas in Hampshire and the photograph above was taken the previous year when I visited Tanglefoot near Winchester.

Founded in 1927 the NGS has donated more that 22m to charities over the last 10 years and this year they will be giving 2.128m to nursing and caring charities raised from 3800 private gardens opening in England and Wales last year.

After the book launch we headed over to the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich to see the Ansel Adams Exhibition Photography from the Mountains to the Sea.

I don't practise landscape photography, preferring the intimate perspective on life but it's a discipline I would love to learn. I love his photography and this quote from him...

"What I am trying to do in pictorial photography... is the representation of material things in the abstract or purely imaginative way."

To finish off our trip, we travelled across town to Notting Hill to pay a visit to Granger & Co restaurant.

I have been a big fan of Bill Granger for many years and intend one day to visit his restaurant in Sydney. This I still want to do but until that day, I was very happy with my meal in Notting Hill.