Welcome to my blog! I no longer live at Sequoia Gardens and so my blogging here has come to a halt. However, the new owners, the Van Heerden family, have re-opened to the public after several months of renovation. You can visit their site at http://www.sequoiastay.com for more information. And although I no longer add to this blog, … Continue reading
A weighty title to warn you – this one aint goin’ to be easy! Problem no. 1: finding a first pic to introduce this theme; and then the pics to follow… Right. I think I have it. Sissinghurst, from my scanned slides of my 1995 trip. Reading Jane Brown’s Vita’s Other World in our beautiful … Continue reading
This was the view from The House that Jack Built in early 1990; the bridge would today be on the far left, the many trees planted that summer are lost in the scrub and only one of the three oaks of earlier planting can be identified, pale green in the middle of the right quarter. … Continue reading
Nearly four months on since Part 1 and I try to pick up the threads – in my own mind and amongst the photos… In December 1978 I spent a month clearing invader trees on the farm – my first stay of more than a few days on the farm. This dog belonged to the … Continue reading
Three threads, of which two are in the title: a book, and a seasonal marker. But more importantly there is a great question; a Quo Vadis of a kind you ask yourself as the year changes, but especially when your father dies. The late sun on the summer solstice. The light flows up the valley … Continue reading
I start this post with a snapshot I have shared before – taken by my father in the early 50s and showing our valley. It seems there are still ploughed lands – the potato crops were failing fast due to eelworm in the soil and soon the valley returned to grassland and more pine was … Continue reading
Let me introduce you: Yours Truly – aged one year and possibly some days, posed with my birthday presents: one of those pyramids of ever smaller brightly-coloured do-nuts you pack onto a shaft and Lorna, the teddy-bear. I named him after one of my aunts. My mom is no longer there to ask how long … Continue reading
My story starts with a moment I didn’t capture on film, but which 16 years later still enraptures me. I had taken a photo of the stream at Bodnant Gardens in Wales, tall old trees on the banks, streamside ribbons of green, a few red flowers (what? perhaps they were yellow ligularia…) As I dropped … Continue reading
At last! Months later, I get to take up Jean’s invitation to post on my visits to Sissinghurst. Last month I at least laid the foundation when I posted on Long Barn, the Nicholson’s previous garden. As I’ve explained before, in 1995 I spent six months in a campervan, mainly studying gardens in the UK. … Continue reading
Morning coffee on the Limpopo. Two old people, perched impossibly high on a granite slab (how DID they get there?), looking out over the first wintery sun on the river, reminiscing. My father, 81, and his sister, my godmother, 87. The setting: Samaria, her family’s game farm in the very north of South Africa on … Continue reading
By early 2007 the Rosemary Borders were looking the best they ever did. I have told of how they were planned and developed here and here. Pictures of the Upper Rosemary Border have featured over the months, but I will post on it in detail in future. Today I wish to show you, in celebration … Continue reading
This post follows on a post from the earliest days of my blog in late August, which you will find here. It tells how I first planned the borders and how I feel about the results three years on. Let’s take a closer look at the thinking behind the design now. Three distance shots from … Continue reading
A week has passed since my rather pathetic post on the Rosemary Borders. Amongst other problems the connection was so slow that the photographs were quite fuzzy. It has been a hectic week, starting off with a wonderful but exhausting 3 day hike in the mountains, three days on site in a garden I’m currently … Continue reading
This time we’ll really set off on that walk… although the dogs’ expectant looks will show you that they thought I too often stopped to take a pic! My purpose is to give you an idea of the layout of the garden. One of the many lessons I learn during my tour of England is … Continue reading
In May 2006 I took my friends at http://www.mooseyscountrygarden.com. on a walk, and it is much the same walk we are going on now. I am going to show you things warts and all: the hosepipe left lying from last week, and the reed from last month, the edges untrimmed, paving stones awaiting their future, … Continue reading
I’m at it again! Take a look at my new approach to garden blogging at Why Gardens Work.
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