Heavenly Healer Glamorous Gardener

Celebrating Death

2012-01-24T16:42:00.000Z

Mindful of almost missing the last exhibition I wanted to see at Royal Festival Hall I was determined to catch Boxed: Fabulous Coffins from UK and Ghana in good time, so I headed off this morning to a rainy and drizzly Southbank.

Braving the grim weather was worth it though. The combination of rain and river inevitably means a quiet time and the place was pretty much deserted.

Open? Closed? Where do we go?

It didn't help that one side of the exhibition is hidden behind dark blue velvet drapes. It's a great idea, supposed to conjure up the feeling of being in a funeral parlour, but the signage is pretty poor which is confusing and looks like it's closed. "Exhibition continues on blue side" doesn't mean anything unless you know where the blue side is. "Exhibition continues this way" would have made much more sense.

But I digress, as at times I am apt to do. These coffins are indeed fabulous. One side of the exhibition features coffins from Ghana

I loved the egg, and the burial plan behind it

The lion interior is beautifully lined with printed Ghanaian fabric

Lovely detail on this Viking ship

and the other side from the UK.

Loved this! I found it very amusing.

Aboard the Orient Express

Beautiful original Orient Express upholstery fabric interior

I loved this whole story. Very romantic!

My own coffin plans are quite cliched and predictable compared with these. As an eco-aware gardener I would, of course, go for the biodegradable woven willow coffin, interspersed with stems, twigs and flowers from my favourite plants. If I had my way it would be buried deep into the bank at Magic Plot 7 but I really can't imagine Camden Council allowing that, so I'd plump for one of those nature cemeteries, although I'd quite like to be buried in London and they are always out of town. I'd be equally happy for my burning body to float down the Ganges though I sense that since I'm not a Hindu this is probably out of the question too. Anyway, as I am yet to reach my Golden Jubilee I'm hoping that I still have many years ahead of me to decide exactly what to do. Nonetheless it's good to be prepared!

I like the idea of celebrating death. Other cultures the world over also embrace this idea. I've never really understood the upright, uptight, stiff upper lip, ‘don't talk about it’ British way of handling death and dying. The first time I became really aware of death was at age 9 when a school friend was killed while riding his bicycle in an accident with a steamroller. Rather horribly it happened outside our house and I was shocked to the core that a friend my own age could be gone forever. I went to the funeral with my sisters. I didn't know it at the time but attending that funeral helped me to understand at that young age that death is part of life.

My Nan died when I was 14. For some reason none of us children were allowed to go to her funeral, all deemed too young which was quite odd considering that we'd been to our friend’s funeral unaccompanied five years earlier.

From the late 80s and through the 90s a lot of my friends died, and I do mean a lot. AIDS took most of them in the days before successful combination therapy. Then there were drugs and alcohol casualties. In 1989 my elderly father died. A few weeks later the Marchioness disaster on the Thames took more dear ones. There is one particular passing since then that completely knocked me for six, too personal to reveal here. I encountered death too young and too often. But somehow that early experience at age 9 - understanding that we all die, that death is part of life, and that tragically not everybody gets to live a long and happy life - has served me well in the long-term. I am not afraid of death, nor am I afraid to die. I'm just not ready to go yet, and when I do I want full celebration. I've always loved a party.

Part of ‘Death: Southbank Centre's Festival for the Living’ this is a FREE exhibition and runs until Sunday 29 January.

Life and Death

Love Life

XXX

New Year starts here

2012-01-02T18:09:00.000Z

The New Year began for me today. I know it's 2 January but yesterday was a total washout - literally. After staying out much later than planned on New Year's Eve, finally getting to bed at 5:30am and sleeping until well after noon I woke to a dark and dismal day. Within about an hour of being up and about the rain began teeming down and did not stop. I had to put indoor lights on at two o'clock in the afternoon. Quite depressing. Happy New Year.

But today was a totally different story and so my New Year began. Bright blue sky and golden sunshine felt much more appropriate to a new beginning. I wanted to catch up with some old friends who are visiting from abroad so we met up for a walk across the Millennium Bridge towards St Paul's cathedral.

There is a fabulous viewing balcony very close to the cathedral, "one of London’s best kept secrets" Diane said as she led us towards the Willie Wonka-like glass lift that would elevate us there.

It most certainly is! The views are amazing and even though there were plenty of people milling around at ground level today the viewing balcony was relatively empty. To top it all the bells of St Paul's were ringing the whole time we were up there. What a treat!

Love London

Love Life

XXX

Another year over

2011-12-31T16:10:00.000Z

Another year draws to a close. Where did the time go?!! 2011 has been no less eventful than any other year with plenty of ups and downs. As always I prefer to focus on the ups and use the downs as learning tools.

Bee enjoying Sedum telephium 'Purple Emperor' at Kew in September

Toadstool on Hampstead Heath in November

I've been almost completely out of action for the last fortnight due to a nasty chest infection for which I had to take antibiotics that completely knocked the energy out of me. I'm starting to feel a wee bit better, although not nearly like my normal self, so I might go out for a couple of hours tonight and have a little social whirl to see in 2012 with friends.

Start as you mean to go on. Happy New Year!

Love Life

XXX

Art by Offenders - too late for this year!

2011-12-26T09:00:00.000Z

I'm catching up on a few things I've wanted to share but haven't had time. One is the annual Art by Offenders exhibition at the Southbank although I didn't get there until its dying days this time around. Too late to bring your attention to this excellent art show for this year, nonetheless here are just a few of my favourite pieces:

I note that the pieces I like best are mostly made at psychiatric secure units. Art is a great therapy.

Next year I'll try to get there in good time so that I can flag it up for your attention before it closes. There may be a few more catch ups before this year is finally done.

Love Art

Love Life

XXX

Happy Yule

2011-12-21T00:01:00.000Z

Here's a beautiful magical Mistletoe berry to wish you all a wonderful Winter Solstice, or Yule.

Mistletoe ©Scarlett Cannon

Read more Yule musings in my i-D Online Christmas Cracker!

Love Yule

Love Life

XXX

I Like Blogs

2011-12-19T09:00:00.000Z

I like blogs. I like writing my own and I like reading other people's, many of which I happily flag up on A Little Light Reading, my blog list on the left-hand side of this page. Mostly I follow gardening and cooking blogs but there are other little treats; things I think are just clever and brilliant, things that make me laugh and other assorted delights.

I've recently started following Pete Polanyk’s Weeds Up To Me Knees. I met Pete when he came to my beginners course at WGF a few weeks ago, which was interesting since he is not a beginner gardener but enjoyed the course enormously nonetheless because he got to learn tips and tricks. All gardeners need tips and tricks up their sleeves. I like Pete’s blog because whilst it's gardening-based there is always a nod to music. If you go and take a look for yourself you'll see what I mean.

I eagerly look forward to any new posts that flash up from The Little People Project, which I think is just genius. It requires no description, just go and see as it speaks for itself.

Just last week I discovered fashion stylist Jeanie Annan-Lewin’s fatfashionassistant. I will work with Jeanie in the New Year on a piece for i-D. I'm keeping the details of that a bit schtum for now though..... Jeanie is one to watch I think.

I also love Regretsy!

Then there are blogs that I miss, that I read regularly but which have become silent over the last few months. These include NeeNaw about life in a 999 ambulance emergency control room, and A Hazy Day Today which always had me laughing off my chair at every post. Disappeared bloggers, you are missed.

Love Blogs

Love Life

XXX

Refurb Project - The Allotment Sundeck

2011-12-15T09:00:00.000Z

When I first built the allotment sundeck I seriously considered lawn camomile for its surface but the cost was prohibitive at the time, particularly since I wasn't at all sure how successful it would be. The runaway success of the camomile path through the centre of the allotment inspired me to follow my original dream and start another allotment refurbishment project, removing all of the grass up on the sundeck and replacing it with lawn camomile.

The first dig. Just past the teacup you can see my digging fork and spade, and the first bit of grass has been removed.You definitely need a kneeler for jobs like this!

Space your plants approximately 6 inches apart

At the end of Day 1 and just a couple of feet has been cleared and planted up at the far end of the path.

I started at the tail end of September, using a hand cultivator and trowel to remove every last scrap of grass and grassroot I could find, a foot or so at a time, and planting my lawn camomile plantlets in the cleared space at about 6 inches apart.

Plants looking good just a couple of weeks later, and time to add some more.

At the end of Planting Day 2

Within a couple of weeks they were looking good and strong so I set to work and grubbed up another whole section of grass and planted another load of camomile plants. It's a long and tough job, and I always take the attitude to do a little at a time so as not to become overwhelmed by the enormity of a long and tough job.

Third planting day and almost the whole path is covered.

Just a few inches right at the near end to clear now.

A week later I made the third and final planting. As you can see, I've managed to cover almost the entire length of the sundeck, with just about 8 to 10 inches left to clear of grass. I'll wait until these plantlets pick up and multiply in the springtime, along with any from the camomile path that do the same, and use the extra plants to complete the sundeck path and fill in any gaps.

Fleeced up for winter

Remembering that the plantlets will look as though they have completely died in the winter, but also mindful that our allotments site is in a hollow and therefore something of a frost pocket, I went up earlier on this week and covered them with fleece for the winter.

It looks rather odd from a distance. Hopefully it will do the job and keep my plants nice and safe and frost-free and ready to burst back into life next year.

And if all goes well I'll be lounging up on that sundeck luxuriating in the perfume that the camomile plants give off every time they are brushed. Oooh, I can't wait!

Love Lawn Camomile

Love Life

XXX

A private tour of the garden at Lambeth Palace

2011-12-11T15:16:00.001Z

I enjoyed a real treat on Friday when I accompanied my WGF colleague Mark and his Greenfingers Horticultural Therapy Group on a private tour of the garden at Lambeth Palace, home of the Archbishop of Canterbury. This is mostly a photographic post!

ancient fig tree

here it is again, set off against this wonderful building

We were warmly welcomed by Head Gardener, Alistair Cook, an engaging and incredibly knowledgeable man with a wealth of experience. He answered loads of questions and gave us loads of information about the garden.

On a beautiful day the low winter sun shone brightly against a blue sky. It was a lovely walk through many different areas and themes, all seamlessly flowing together as a whole.

native planting

more of it...

...and more....

...all absolutely gorgeous!

recently renovated

Everything in the garden was beautiful - from the planting, both old and new,

to the beehives, the benches, even the watering taps.

native hedging walkway

pleached lime walkway - I do love a bit of pleaching

the mound

I kept seeing things and thinking "oh my word, how amazing", as I tried to keep the words in my head and not coming out of my mouth for fear of sounding like an endless looping cliche!

Chapel Garden

This is the Chapel Garden and the wall is being rebuilt after a bus crashed into it. Amazingly there was only the driver and two passengers on the bus and nobody was killed or seriously injured. You can see the new bricks contrast very extremely with the old wall. This will be aged so that it sits better with the ancient original bricks, although I have to confess I was still so astounded at the bus crash survival story that I can't remember the technique they will use. Sorry!

Lovely composting, greenhouse and potting areas too, always my favourite place to be.

And of course the Palace building itself, and its adjoining buildings are all pretty amazing too.

Alistair has been at the Palace for 18 years and tells me that the 10 acre garden is managed by just two full-time and one part-time gardener, with the help of some volunteers, an incredible feat!

It was a real treat, and one I'm very grateful for. Many thanks to Alistair and Sue for their kindness in giving us such a lovely tour. To enjoy your own tour of Lambeth Palace garden go here for details of the next public open day.

Love Gardens

Love Life

XXX

Summer Flowers in Winter

2011-12-04T20:20:00.001Z

Here's a lovely big planter full of mesembryanthemum and Californian poppy.

Mesembryanthemum in November

I grew these from seed whose packet clearly tells me they are an annual variety. Amazingly these photographs were taken in November and these lovely flowers show no signs of abating even today. Can you see the last green tomato growing in the black pot behind? November!!

Even more amazingly some people still insist there is no such thing as global warming or climate change.

Love Summer Flowers in Winter

Love Life

XXX

Lucie Sadakova's Vertical Allotments

2011-11-19T21:06:00.001Z

Interior Designer Lucie Sadakova came to my Introduction to Gardening course today. I was teaching the Growing and Using Herbs module and it was Lucie's second attendance. We first met in April when she came to learn Growing Food in the City, and was so inspired that it led to her developing and finalising her major final year university project, MULTILEVELED-VERTICAL-URBAN ALLOTMENTS. She posted on her blog about it here.

Lucie Sadakova's Multileveled-Vertical-Urban Allotments

This brilliant young woman is addressing the chronic lack of growing space in an urban situation. I always tell my students that even if they only have a tiny balcony they can grow plenty of food if they think vertically. If you have walls then use them, use hanging baskets and wall planters. If you don't have walls then be creative and use old furniture, use shelves, use ladders. When you don't have the luxury of horizontal growing space it makes sense to grow vertically. Lucie has taken this further and designed an entire allotment system based on this way of thinking.

We had a little chat about it today. She talked of a disused warehouse with enormous windows, of removing the glass and creating a sloping spiral pathway, like a staircase, to travel up and down. It's cleverly designed to be very, very open, allowing in plenty of light. Difficult to explain though! So go and take a look here instead.

Smart girl. And fast becoming a rather good gardener too.

Love Creative People

Love Life

XXX

Seeing Detail - Winter Pansies

2011-11-12T15:30:00.000Z

Beautiful Winter Pansies in the window boxes at Lathom School where I teach Garden Club for 7-11 year olds.

Exquisite in their detail, bright and cheering on a grey Autumn day.

Love Pansies
Love Life
XXX

Refurb Project -The Chamomile Path

2011-11-10T15:00:00.000Z

I have three garden refurbishment projects going on right now:

The camomile path

The allotment sundeck

The back garden fence line bed

The Camomile Path runs through the centre of Magic Plot 7. I started it a couple of years ago from about 10 small plantlets given to me by allotment friend Russell. Lawn camomile, Chamaemelum nobile 'Treneague' is a low growing variety which forms a dense mat of rosette-like plants which never flower and are very sweet smelling when lightly bruised. Because it doesn't have flowers it doesn't have pollen - great for hayfever sufferers. It is quite tricky to get started though and very, very slow to grow in the first year, as you will see from the following photographs. This difficulty is why Russell was only able to give me 10 tiny plants.

August 2009

September 2009

The plants disappeared to almost nothing over that first winter and I was concerned that they might have died. Nonetheless they picked up marvellously during 2010 when I was given some lovely flat, red tiles which I set in to the camomile path as stepping stones. By 2011 it has a marvellous look of permanency about it.

May 2010

June 2010

July 2010

May 2011

Earlier on this summer a friend gave me several of these gorgeous 1920s barley twist edging stones. My plan to edge the camomile path with these beautiful red twists was a good one. In August I set one line in and the red stone against the luscious green looks fantastic!

Setting in the barley twist edging August 2011

August 2011

October 2011

Lovely!

As soon as the last of the cabbages are over, which will be quite soon I expect, I will move the netted brassica frame onto next year's brassica bed, weed and clear that edge of the camomile path, and set the other line of barley twists in place.

This refurbishment is an easy one to accomplish. I just need to have patience and wait for the cabbages to finish growing. I'm expecting it to look fabulous by Spring 2012 and I'll keep you posted.

Love A Refurb

Love Life

XXX

The British Guide to Showing Off

2011-11-07T16:57:00.000Z

I had THE BEST time last night at the premiere of director Jes Benstock's new film "The British Guide to Showing Off". The film follows my old friend Andrew Logan, British sculptor and creator of the fabulous Alternative Miss World event, in his quest to bring us the 2009 show.

Arriving at the The Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square was a bit like arriving at an enormous family party - if you had a super-glamorous family of fabulous people! Logan events are always a little like this for me. Knowing Andrew and his partner Michael for over 30 years means also knowing their families and ever-extending circle of friends which makes for a fantastic night out when everybody gets together. The dress code was Show Off, and we certainly did that!

Stephen Chamberlain came as his 1981 entrant Miss La Mort, a long-dead diva

Outside the cinema with Christopher and Jamie. I love having glamorous male friends!

So after a million happy "Hello"s on the steps outside we all finally settled down into a packed cinema to watch the film, and it's a treat! For all of us last night, friends and family, it was terribly entertaining and really very funny. We all loved it. I know it's impossible for me to be objective about it here so I won't even try. I will however show you a couple of things I've found on the Internet just now, reviewing the film:

Wonderfully demonstrating Britain’s fascination with and love for the unconventional, The British Guide to Showing Off is a hugely entertaining and often humorous exploration of that great and necessary notion of freedom of expression, and a reminder of why it’s not to be taken for granted.

Heartfelt and humorous, "The British Guide to Showing Off" focuses on the life and times of eccentric English artist Andrew Logan and his Alternative Miss World competition. Like Logan's artwork, helmer Jes Benstock's playful docu is a mixed-media collage, blending archival footage and photos, commentary from Logan and his relatives, talking heads from the art, fashion, music and theater worlds, and inventive animation.

Makes Salvador Dali looked like a painter and decorator. It's the cinematic treat of the year.

Best of all it's on general release from 11 November, at the ICA in London and all over the country. Go here for more information including venues and dates, and you can also see a FAB trailer!

Afterwards we were all promenaded through the streets of Soho to the after-party in Greek Street by Andrew's brother Quentin and The Kitwitches, Molly Dancers from Norfolk and contestants in the 2009 event. What a hilarious sight that must have been! A huge throng of alternative, unconventional, creative friends - freaks, trannies and drag queens, artists and other assorted creatives - walking together through the tourists and the taxi drivers and the Chinese restaurant owners, led by a motley bunch of Morris Men in bad drag. Heeheehee!

I was thrilled to discover that Roy had the seat next to mine.
What glamorous good fortune!

Fabulous Michael Davis

Walking through Soho with Roy and Russian artist Andrey Bartenev, who'd flown in from Siberia and come directly from the airport

When we got the club Andrew was seated on the AMW 2009 throne being photographed.

He quickly beckoned me to go and sit on his knee

where we posed for a bit, like you do.

The Molly Dancers started their performance, which didn't photograph very well as you can see.

Then I thought I'd pop around the club and take a few glamorous portrait pictures of friends to post here. I managed to get one or two

Bishi, reigning AMW Miss Fancy Chance and a bizarre blonde creature in the Ladies bathroom.
Can anybody tell me why Bishi isn't a huge star by now? She's a huge talent.

Chris wearing an air conditioning unit as a hat?

... and that's when my camera battery ran out!

The British Guide to Showing Off website is here*

*If you look at the photo-collage and go down to the right-hand bottom corner and you will see me at age 23, with extremely short extremely blonde hair, and extremely red lipstick!

and Andrew Logan's website is here.

As a last note, if you do go and see the film keep your eye out for Brian Eno's cat - very, very funny!

Love Showing Off

Love Life

XXX

What's cooking?

2011-11-05T12:04:00.000Z

Seeing as I'm in catch-up mode right now, in life and not only on the blog, it was interesting to have a look through my photographs taken over the last couple of months and get a really clear idea of just how plentiful the ongoing harvest on a small allotment can be. Even though we food-growers know this well, and indeed the basis of my own teaching is aimed at those growing in an urban environment often in the tiniest of spaces, when you see your own crop all backed up in pictures it's still a fabulous surprise. Even more amazing when you consider that this is just a few weeks-worth, and only of the stuff you bothered to photograph!

So what's been cooking recently? All of this for starters..... and mains, and desserts!

Purple Haze carrots

Beautifully golden, large, sweet and juicy corn, these were grown from last year's saved seed, originally a Franchi Seeds of Italy variety, though I can't remember which one!

Beetroot. I always grow several different varieties of beetroot and this year I did 4, including the pink and white striped Italian Chioggia and cylinder-shaped as well as the usual round purple type. There are still plenty in the ground and we’re already into November.

Land Cress. Stronger in flavour than watercress, it self-seeds easily and needs no running water to grow.

Mizuna

Borlotti beans. I made a seasoned, slightly spicy tomato sauce with all those excess tomatoes (which continue to come from the polytunnel at WGF), including Tigerella (below), and had Borlotti beans on toast. Yummy scrummy!

Tigerella tomato

Red cabbage

More courgettes

Here is the last courgette of 2011.

Sprouting broccoli, just about finished now.

HUGE raspberries!

And what might possibly be my highlight of this year, the single and much-cherished Blue Banana squash

It started off very green

As it ripened it started to go greeny-blue

At full-term it was an interesting shade of greyish-blue

I like an ‘al forno’ dinner when I have a nice range of fresh home-grown veg to cook.

Chop it up, chuck it in the oven with some delicious fresh herbs and seasoning, with olive oil or with a sauce, and leave it to cook while I relax after a hard day at Magic Plot 7. For me it's the ideal after-gardening dinner.

Love Food

Love Life

XXX

I'm back!

2011-10-31T16:08:00.000Z

It's been a while. The last four or five weeks seem to have been amongst the busiest in recent memory. I've been rushed off my feet both personally and professionally. I'm not complaining but have needed to catch up with myself. I took full advantage of the clocks going back an hour over the weekend and managed to grab myself a full 10 hours sleep on Saturday night. Bliss!

So now I'm back, but where to start? Get the whingeing out of the way and then catch up with the news? OK, a short list of ailments:

Plantar Fasciitis in my left foot - unbelievably painful, it came on extremely suddenly a few weeks ago so I've been taking anti-inflammatories as needed, even though I am very anti-chemical medication wherever possible. A couple of visits to my extremely good GP and I now have a podiatry appointment to look at the possibility of orthotic insoles.

A relapse in my right forearm meant a good deal of pain in my hand to the point where I couldn't hold a pen. As I use a tablet instead of a mouse this meant that even simple computer work became impossible for a short while.

An awkward night’s sleep twisted the muscle in my right thigh which turned me into a limping wreck for a couple of days.

ALL BETTER NOW THOUGH! Sleep cures everything, isn't it amazing!

This Goldfinch fledgeling was rescued after it fell out of a tree at WGF

The news in brief:

The bonkers heatwave hit us with a full weekend of high, high temperatures. I sat up on the allotment sundeck in shorts and a strappy top watching the conkers and acorns fall from the tree in an autumnal flurry whilst I enjoyed a full roast! Then it got cool again, although still mild for this time of year. I have been busy all summer refurbishing a very narrow bed in my back garden which is looking rather fabulous already. Up at Magic Plot 7 the refurbishment continued up on the sundeck, where I dug out all the grass and replaced it with lawn camomile. Autumn tidying is now in full force, but the weather has been so mild there is still plenty of food in the ground.

I had a lovely day trip to Kew with my Cranstoun group. The children in my after-school garden club in East London gave all of their produce up for the harvest festival. I looked after Errol and Nibbler for a week while Ross was on holiday and have since spent many hours poring over the dog rescue centre websites. My Introduction to Gardening classes are up and running in full force again. Much else has happened, much of it too personal to share, but much that can be and will be posted on here over the next few weeks in catch-up mode. I'm back, so keep checking in.

Love Life

XXX

Red Tomato Rescue

2011-09-25T09:00:00.000+01:00

The blight hit my friend and neighbour Ross’ garden a couple of weeks ago. At time of writing my garden seems to have escaped it (so far) despite being only a 4 or 5 minute walk away from his place.

It did manage to reach South London however and the Greenfingers group’s raised bed at WGF took a bad hit.

A salvage operation was underway! Our brilliant Horticultural Therapist, Mark Gibbons, rallied his group to rescue any fruits that still looked healthy and all was not lost. After sharing out I was very kindly given a large bag of juicy red tomatoes to take home which got cooked up that night with an oversized round courgette from one of our beds at Cranstoun. Along with some shallots and onions from my plot and some fresh herbs from the garden it made eight portions of rich and hearty pasta sauce/ratatouille base which smelled amazing. It's gone into the freezer to help see me through the winter months.

My own bed at WGF had no red tomatoes growing on it. Instead there is Yellow Pear, from Franchi Seeds of Italy, which is also my main variety at home this year along with a single Tigerella plant and a few Roma plums. Mark tells me that yellow tomatoes seem to be more resistant to blight than the red varieties. Certainly this is very obvious at the farm. Our raised beds are only a few feet apart from each other and yet my tomato plants with their yellow pear-shaped fruits are cropping well already, with plenty more on the plant at present still unblemished, while all red tomatoes have been lost. The yellow tomatoes in my garden are doing well also.

Let's see what happens. Does anybody else have experience of this? It will be interesting to find out more.

Love a Horticultural Rescue!

Love Life

XXX

Seeing Detail - Perennial Sweet Peas

2011-09-21T09:00:00.000+01:00

These have just finished flowering in the back garden:

Exquisite pink perennial sweet peas. I look forward to seeing them again next year.

Love Flowers

Love Life

XXX

Our 600-year-old Oak Bench

2011-09-16T09:00:00.000+01:00

About a week after I started my job at Walworth Garden Farm we took delivery of a 600-year-old felled oak tree. As a huge history fan I find it completely mesmerising and extraordinary that this tree has seen such a lot in its lifetime. Grown from an acorn planted in the reign of King Henry IV or V (how amazing!), it had fallen from its site on the edges of a lake at Bletchley Park.

the first cut - January 2011

It arrived at in January and gifted local artist Arthur de Mowbray has been working on it ever since. Because it was such an old tree and it had fallen, all of the rot, most of it running right through the centre of the trunk and which you can see in the photograph above (the dark area), had to be removed before any serious sculpting work could begin.

morning - 5 February

by mid-afternoon it looks like this

at end of day there is still a long way to go!

The sound of the chainsaw was replaced by the comforting tap-tap-tapping noise of the wood chisel. Arthur has spent the last few months shaping and crafting with loving care and an enormous amount of respect for his material and his craft. For me, it has been a real pleasure to have him around, often on Saturdays when I have been on site teaching. He always has time to speak to my students who wander off to have a look at what he is doing during the lunch break, and answer the many questions that they have about his work.

WGF butterfly bench by Arthur de Mowbray

It's been a long job but now it looks like this!

The butterfly is the WGF logo. The hands holding the butterfly make for very comfy sitting.

The detail is gorgeous.

He's a genius!

Apparently it is not completely finished and will eventually be a rocking bench. Ooooh, I can't wait! I'll keep you posted.

You can see more about Arthur and his work, including a rather lovely film by clicking here.

Love Crafts

Love Wood Carving

Love Life

XXX

Sunburst!

2011-09-12T09:00:00.000+01:00

I've started eating the Sunburst patty pan squash. They are sweet and meaty and delicious.

beyond embryonic stage, the first small fruit - 9 August

more fruits, and getting larger - 15 August

a fair size - 15 August

It's been an absolute joy watching them grow, from tiny embryonic golden nuggets through small fruits starting to take on shape to full sideplate-sized scalloped beauties. They were easy to get started too, and hardy through our bonkers British weather extremes this summer. I'll definitely grow them again.

courgettes and squash harvest - 21 August

To give an idea of scale, the yellow courgettes in this pic are what I would call ‘regular supermarket’ size. So the smaller Sunburst is not so small at all, and the green courgette is huge, the larger Sunburst absolutely enormous*!

*As a little aside, I sliced it in half and baked it in the oven cut side down, then stuffed it with a couscous, tomato, shallot, green bean and fresh herbs mixture and baked it again. It fed two people easily; actually we were stuffed!

still more! still larger!

Looking forward to eating more, there are still plenty of fruits on the plant.

Love Sunburst

Love Life

XXX

VV on i-D

2011-09-06T09:00:00.014+01:00

Following on from my blog piece back in June, I'm happy to announce that my Vintage Vacations article and film is finally up at i-D Online. It's a great piece, even if I do say so myself!

very young Helen and Scarlett, striking a pose for i-D magazine in 1981

here we are again, trying to strike the same pose in 2011

Helen and I had an enormous amount of fun trying to recreate our 1981 i-D Straight Up pose. Forget straight up, it was all either of us could do to keep a straight face!

Go here to see the full article.

Love Life

XXX

Cheap Pots Conclusion

2011-09-04T09:00:00.000+01:00

The blight finally hit our allotments a couple of weeks ago. As usual it struck just as the huge and juicy green tomatoes were turning colour, rendering the entire crop fit only for the rubbish bin. Fortunately it doesn't appear to have travelled down the hill to Kilburn yet, and the tomatoes growing in pots in my back garden continue, at least for now, to give some hint of promise for the future. Now we just need some sun to ripen them.

I had completely given up growing tomatoes at the plot over the last five years or so, for the blight there hits hard and fast. I'd put a few in the ground this year that were going spare after I'd potted up for the back garden and given a whole load of small plants away to friends. So although it's no less depressing to watch your tomato crop disappear overnight, at least I have back-up at home.

Magic 7 Veg Box - one of many

Because of the plot/blight issue I always grow first and second early potatoes and maybe a salad variety, rather than a standard maincrop. This means they are up and out of the ground before the blight has a chance to get them. Regular readers might remember that I planted only inexpensive seed potatoes this year - a bit of an experiment to see if cost affects quality.

They haven't let me down at all. I have been lifting potatoes for weeks and weeks now. Whites, Reds, Salads and a couple of a mystery variety too!

The potato hopper has filled up several times already. It never stays full for long though. All potatoes have been delicious and plentiful, and so I conclude that in this solitary experiment my poundshop seed potatoes cropped equally as well as any of the more expensive ‘quality ‘ seed potatoes I have bought in the past. It could be the soil, which is amazing after so many years of being lovingly managed, it could be the biodynamic planting, which certainly seems to make an enormous difference to the crop yield. Or it could be that sometimes you simply pay more for a brand name. The downside of the poundshop potato experiment was the choice of varieties available, but unless I am looking to grow a specific type of heritage potato I will definitely go for cheap and cheerful again.

Love Cheap Pots

Love Life

XXX

Seeing detail - Rudbeckia

2011-08-31T09:00:00.001+01:00

Two different varieties of Rudbeckia in my back garden:

This one is a dwarf bedding variety

This one is a much taller variety, twice mistaken already for a small sunflower.

What colours!

There are many, many varieties of Rudbeckia, sometimes commonly known as Black-Eyed Susan or Coneflower (yes, in the same family as Echinacea or Purple Coneflower), and are named after father and son 17th-century Swedish botanists, Professor Olof Rudbeck the Younger and Professor Olof Rudbeck the Elder.

Love Rudbeckia

Love Life

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August at The Edible Bus Stop

2011-08-27T13:18:00.000+01:00

I had a meeting in Clapham North last week so decided to pass by The Edible Bus Stop since I was in the area. You might remember the last time I was there was way back at the very beginning of April when they had only been working on the space for about a fortnight. It looked a bit sad, but nonetheless full of hope!

back in April

Right now, after only one season, it looks absolutely amazing. There is plenty of food growing everywhere you look, much of it inter-planted between ornamentals.

There is a fabulous herb garden, there is veg, there is fruit, there are pumpkins and squashes, beans and peas, and flowers . There is everything you would expect to see at such an aptly named place!

I said it before and I'll say it again - it's a BRILLIANT idea, and it's both heartening and encouraging to see that it's really taken off and is now firmly on the map, and in the hearts of the local community.

Love The Edible Bus Stop

Love Life

XXX

Tooled Up

2011-08-15T09:00:00.002+01:00

My investment in glorious new tools continues.

I ordered myself a Joseph Bentley border spade a few weeks ago. I had been given some garden vouchers for my birthday and wanted to invest in a new luxurious spade with a lifetime guarantee. My old Draper stainless steel border spade is still going strong, but I wanted the JB to match my beautiful border fork of the same brand, a gift from my sister a couple of years ago.

Unable to use garden vouchers for an online purchase I had to find a local garden centre who either stocked Joseph Bentley or would order in for me. There is a garden centre within walking distance of my home, in West Hampstead, but I have to confess that I don't use it very often in recent years. I have a tendency to take action with my purse, and there is a lady working in this garden centre who was incredibly rude to me a couple of years ago, prompting me to shop elsewhere. The next closest garden centre is Clifton Nurseries, beautiful but overpriced. I won't bore you with the full details, but after a phone call to ascertain their stock I took a trip down there to place my order only to find that they didn't have the tool that I wanted in stock after all. I decided to give them another chance and placed an order. A couple of weeks later my order arrived and I went back to pick up my lovely new border spade. As I went to pay they charged me £6 above the price quoted. When I protested I was told that the girl who quoted me the price had "made a mistake" and also that it was "only a quote". What does that mean? A quote is a quote, not an estimate. A quoted price is the price you pay! It was only after I explained that what they were trying to do was against the law that they eventually backed down, I paid the original price and left with my beautiful border spade. I won't be returning to this garden centre again for I knew it was beautiful but overpriced, and now I also know that the staff are useless, rude and not above attempting illegal retail practice.

None of this detracts from the beauty of a fantastic handmade gardening tool however. I'm loving my spade. I love Joseph Bentley tools!

Where to shop now though? Camden Garden Centre is a good option, as is The Boma Garden Centre, although both are a train or bus ride away at least. It's a dilemma. I am always keen to support my local shops but I am equally firm on my resolve that I will never reward bad service with my custom.

Love a good garden centre

Loathe poor service

Love Life

XXX

Seeing detail - tradescantia

2011-08-11T09:00:00.001+01:00

More lovely flowers in my back garden.

Tradescantia Virginiana, one species amongst 71, originally brought to Europe by John Tradescant the elder, a naturalist, gardener and the first great British plant hunter. John Tradescant died in 1638 and was buried in the churchyard of St-Mary-at-Lambeth, now the Garden Museum.

Love Garden History

Love Life

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