In a gardener's garden

Gardens, like rooms, fall into many categories; some are beautifully conceived spaces with each element carefully selected, some are work spaces and others are the result of one person's personal passion.

While on holiday in Holland earlier this month, I was able to visit a garden I'd dreamed of seeing for many years – Anja and Piet Oudolf's garden at Hummelo. I've been an admirer of Piet Oudolf's work for many years and have visited many of his gardens – I love the landscapes he creates inspired by nature, art and time.

It was a glorious late summer day, we were the first visitors to arrive at the garden on the outskirts of Hummelo village surrounded by open fields. Anja was watering the plants and saw us drive in, she showed us a cool shady place to park the car, then invited us to take our time enjoying the garden.

We had the garden all to ourselves for over an hour before a few other visitors arrived, what a treat . . . I could pretend this was my garden!

This is the back garden, a series of rectangular beds with narrow paths running down to the end of the garden where a painted cut-out 'statue' stands under a tree.

The front garden is the one you may have seen photographed in books and magazines, an area surrounded by tall blocks of clipped hedges contains a tapestry of Piet Oudolf's signature grasses and perennials. I noticed that there are now fewer hedges – the space has evolved and is now a more open and softer than its former design.

Oudolf's style is all about texture and movement . . . and time. In late summer the garden is a rustling, shimmering, sea of grasses and seed-heads. 

And what photographs can't convey is the sound . . . of thousands of buzzing insects and the swish and rustle of the breeze through the ever moving stems.

I think this is the most inspiring garden I've ever visited!


And now for a complete contrast – the garden of an eccentric English gentleman plant-hunter and gardener . . .

Last weekend was Open House London, we took the opportunity to see inside the house of one of Britain's greatest gardeners E A Bowles . . . if you've not heard of him, I bet you know Wallflower 'Bowles Mauve'! 

Edward Augustus Bowles lived at Myddleton House in Enfield; now the offices for Lea Valley Parks, the ground floor rooms are grade I listed and were open for just one day last Saturday. However, the gardens and new visitor centre/museum have been restored and are open throughout the year. The gardens encompass Bowles passions for Alpine meadows, native water-side plants, bulbs and the weird and wonderful of the plant world . . . as well as odd pieces of architectural salvage!

Cliff and I visited many years ago, before the restoration; I remember the secretive, rambling, overgrown garden. Now the greenhouses and cold frames are beautifully restored and full of Bowles' favourite plants and bulbs. The rock garden restoration is still in progress, but will soon be a fitting tribute to its creator where his ashes rest.

Well – with all that inspiration I couldn't wait to get to work on our garden! Now the tree has gone, the left side of our patio has been transformed into a cutting-garden full of flowers grown from Higgledy Garden seeds.

What was needed was another large border to balance it on the other side . . . to fill with perennials and grasses, with spaces inbetween to grow flowering annuals. Cheep and the under-gardeners helped mark out a shape on the lawn and we've started digging :-)

There's still a lot more digging to do, but I've already planted the plants I bought as souvenirs from Myddleton house – and I can admire progress from the bedroom window. 

I've taken some of my favourite books off the shelf to make lists of plants to track down and make more plans for the new plot :-)

Who are your favourite gardeners? Have you ever visited their gardens?

Celia
xx

My new Spoonflower shop is now open!

This is a little bit exciting and I have no idea if it will be success . . . but I've opened a new on-line shop! There's been a lot of beavering away behind the scenes and *secret fabric projects* are in the making as I type, but this morning I've opened the doors for the very first time and you can now order rolls of my new Christmas gift wrap designs.

I ordered two rolls as samples printed on matte paper, they were shipped in a sturdy card carton and they are gorgeous! They complement my new Christmas card range which will be available in my etsy shop from next week.

Celia

xx

The fabric designs will be available to order very soon ;-)

Woo-hoo! I'm back!

Hello! I thought I'd pop in to update you with goings on . . .

After the excitement of FolkEast we needed a break, so we loaded up my Tardis and went off for a holiday . . . not too far away, 260 miles to be precise, not as far away from Suffolk as Cornwall or the Lake District . . . we headed due East :-)

Yes! we took the overnight ferry from Harwich and after a good night's sleep in a cosy cabin, we ended up in Holland . . . our destination was a little thatched bungalow on the western edge of Gelderland.

I haven't had time to download the photos I took, in fact I didn't take that many. We hired bikes to explore the local area, took the train to Amsterdam and couple of times and had some trips by car a little further afield, including one just over the 'border' (such as it is these days, just a missable sign on the grass verge) into Germany on the Rhine.

Having got back into drawing after the very inspiring #DrawingAugust on Twitter (see all my August sketches here) I took a brand new sketchbook and my watercolours to keep some sort of holiday journal. The resulting paintings can be seen here . . . I'm adding a new page each day and Tweeting for #paintseptember.

Meanwhile things are getting interesting in my studio, various projects are coming to fruition :-)

Coming soon:

Christmas Cards and Gift Wrap

Fabrics

New small woodcuts 

and a feature in a very well known magazine
(I've just been sent a proof to check, so it really is happening!)


Stay tuned!
I'll be back soon
Celia
xx

Lovely Folk at FolkEast

At the eleventh hour I decided to pull a new print out of the hat, this is my special 'Folk East 2013' linocut hanging up to dry. It features the impressive facade of the folk festival venue Glemham Hall with the FolkEast sun and swallows in the sky and Suffolk hare and seagull landing on the roof. In the garden the topiary bushes are fiddling and whistling a toe-tapping tune to make even the flowers dance.

I'd opted to have a stand for just one day, Saturday; I'd also agreed to do 'demonstrations' so was allowed a second table and an extra free day-pass for an assistant (Cliff). To drive across Suffolk from our corner of the county to almost the coast and set up our stand by 9am, meant getting up at 5am – the sunshine and heat of Friday had deteriorated into persistent rain, we tried not to get downcast.

Ta-dah! here's my stall all set up and ready to roll! From the 10am start there was a steady flow of people through the Art Arcade tents, they were all friendly and polite, lots were very interested in the blocks I was carving – each of a flying swallow  - from different materials: eraser rubber, Japanese vinyl and lino. 

But, for most of the day very few bought anything. The showers came and went and came back. Across the field form the main stage we could here Gypsy Fire's most enjoyable set. I had time to run across to the food area to buy tea and flapjacks but I was mostly busy all the time. Cliff reported that takings still had barely covered the modest stall fee. The rain turned into a torrential downpour of biblical proportions, the ArtArcade roof drummed with the deluge drowning out the music, people sheltered inside and so there were even more to talk to.

Then it brightened up! The field of tough Suffolk grass didn't turn into a quagmire and more people arrived at the festival arena for the headline acts in the evening.

There was a general move to start to pack up the art stalls, but Cliff sensed sales were up! We decided to stay put for another hour and thanks to being able to take credit card payments (via PayPal on my website using my iPad) our takings were respectable.

With the stall dismantled and everything packed into the car, it was time to enjoy the festival. Sadly I'd missed the Vintage Market and Social Knitworks yarn-bombing teepee as they had closed for the day, but we had been tipped off that Sam Lee and Friends were worth seeing on the Broadroots Stage . . . and so they were! 

After that we realised we were starving! So we bought a tub of chow mein pork noodles and wandered over to the main stage in time to see the end of the very last ever gig of Eliza Carthy and Jim Moray's Wayward Tour . . . Eliza was a frenzy of fiddling and powerful voice as she bounded back and forth!

We were now in the mood to stay to the end, so Cliff fetched our waterproof picnic blanket from the car and we found a good vantage point at the top of the slope from which to see The Dhol Foundation – a fusion of Punjabi drumming and dancers and just about any and every music genre you can think of – great fun! And it got even more fun when Eliza Carthy and Jim Moray joined them for a folk mash-up extraordinaire.

So, all in all we had a great day – we met lots of lovely people and heard some great music. And after being awake for 19 hours we  arrived home absolutely shattered!

I might even be prepared to do it all again next year . . . and maybe for more than one day.

Celia
xx

btw let me know if you'd like to buy a special Folk East 2013 linocuts . . . I have some left.
The Folk East 2013 linocut is now available to buy here for £35.00 inc. p&p to UK addresses (for shipping overseas please add the £7 overseas shipping surcharge)

Variations on a theme - Tomatoes

At the beginning if June I would not have believed that the summer would be so gloriously warm and sunny! It's been such a treat to eat all our meals outdoors (I think we had two meals outside last year) and in the greenhouse the tomatoes have been thriving.

Today I was able to pick some of all the seven varieties
Red Cherry
Liguria
Imur Prior Beta
Orange Strawberry
Madame Jardell's Black
Marianna's Peace
Tigerella

I love the variation of shapes and colours. Even more interesting is the subtle differences in texture and flavour.
I'll try to add some tasting notes later, but for now here's a photo.

Celia
x

August is show time!

The past few weeks have been so busy! I'm gradually synching with the timetable of the retailer's year . . . the Christmas cards are printed and already I have orders coming in from my increasing list of stockists, it's all very exciting!

Summer is the month for holidays and festivals, I'm taking part in two . . .

The first is this weekend, Saffron Walden Maze Festival; Helen at the Church Street Gallery asked for prints on the theme of "A State of Bewilderment" for the special maze-related exhibition.

My linocut 'When I find you' will be available at the exhibition, framed and unframed (in the smart new packaging). Cards are also for sale, if you are unable to get to the exhibition you can buy the cards here.

So, with my prints and cards safely delivered to the gallery for the opening of the exhibition tomorrow, I could turn my attention to FOLKEAST. This major festival has moving to a stunning new venue - Glemham Hall in Suffolk. A huge amount of work has gone into making this year's festival fatastic in everyway (I know, beacuse my best friend Kathy has been working her socks off making the web site and facebook page look great, as well as designing the printed programme while her other half is gearing up to run the sound). So when fellow Suffolk printmaker Mandy Walden got involved to organise 'something arty' on the festival site, I could hardly say no to taking part.

On Saturday 24th August I'll be at my stall in the Art Arcade on the FolkEast festival site, selling my prints and cards and also demonstrating cutting lino and wood blocks and maybe doing some printing too. So, if you're at the festival please drop by and say hello.

With just over a week to go there's still a lot to do! Framing, packing, etc. But why not add more pressure? So yesterday I started work on a new linocut specially for FolkEast . . . I'd better do some carving!

Celia
xx

Big Butterfly Count 2013

Small Tortoieshell on Marjoram

There has been much in the media lately about the plight of Britain's butterflies; the idyllic picture of flowery meadows a-flutter is sadly no longer reality.

Red Admiral on Buddleia

After last year's record wet summer and the long harsh winter, it is good to see butterflies back in good numbers . . . but is this true of all or just some species and habitats?

Gatekeeper on Whitecurrant leaf

To find out what is going on across the UK, Butterfly Conservation is holding a Big Butterfly Count. If you have a Smart Phone or Tablet you can download a free App to make recording and submitting your survey really easy. 

Large White on Buddleia

I've just done a count in our garden (it only takes 15 minutes) here are the results:

4 x Large White

1 x Small White

2 x Green-veined White

2 x Meadow Brown

1 x Gatekeeper

11 x Peacock

2 x Small Tortoiseshell

1 x Red Admiral

2 x Comma 

Of course Buddleia is great for attracting a crowd of butterflies and nettles are the food plant of a few species BUT there is more you need to do to help our native butterflies – here are my tips for attracting more butterflies to your garden:

- don't use pesticides or fungicides

- leave messy areas, not just nettles! rough grass is important for the life cycle of many species.

- grow native British wildflowers and shrubs

- grow lots of herbs and let them flower

If you haven't already done so, please take 15 minutes this week to do the Big Butterfly Count.

Celia

x

PS the photos were all taken in our garden during my 15 minute survey, with my iPhone.

#DrawingAugust

Some of you may remember that last August I took part in the #ippdailydraw, you can see all my drawings here . . . mmm? 25, looks like I didn't manage to do one every day!

This year a similar challenge has been set by Jean Stevens, here are the rules (they are very simple) basically draw a picture and share it on Twitter with the hash tag #DrawingAugust.

There are over 125 participating artists, so at the end of the month there will probably be about 3000 drawings to be viewed here.


I had a busy day yesterday, so I ended up taking my sketchbook and a pen with me to a performance of Richard III in the garden of St John's College Cambridge. I had 15 minutes between eating my picnic supper and the performance beginning, to take out my pen, do a quick sketch then pack up and take my seat.

This is what I drew:

#DrawingAugust Day 1

You will be able to view all my drawings

for #DrawingAugust 2013 here.

Celia x

Nice ices for a heatwave

It's hard to believe that a few weeks back the gardeners among us were bemoaning the long long long winter and longing for some sun to warm the soil. Then in a flash Spring came and here we are past midsummer and in the hottest of heatwaves for, well, ages!!! I know some of you live in places where 30C is a pleasant warm day, but here in the UK we go through a giddy happy phase, then get pink and sweaty and a tad stressed, then we can't sleep (because we don't have fans and air-con and stuff like that) and then the government issues a health warning and we worry we all might die.

Anyhow, back to the plot . . . the soft fruit plot to be precise;  our currants have loved the soaking they got last year followed by a good old fashioned snowy winter, so that when the warm weather came they blossomed and the recent heat ripened the fruits that hang like strings of pearls, rubies and jet beads in the bushes.

I had protected the White Versailles Currants from the birds with a wire mesh cage . . . there is just one bush - it's fruits are precious.

We have many Red Currant bushes, an unknown variety that was in the garden when we moved here; I planted the prunings and they all grew! This year we didn't net them, the larder is still stacked with jars of red currant jelly from last year, so I was happy to share them with the local Blackbirds.

The Black Currants are another unknown variety that came with the garden and my enthusiastic growing from cuttings! The berries are HUGE! The Blackbirds prefer the Red Currants, so there is no need to net them.

On Saturday afternoon I spent a few happy hours picking currants while listening to TMS on my iPhone headphones via wifi. I had found the perfect recipe for some of our currants on Fenland Lottie's blog – Frozen Fruit Yogurt :-)

First I had to clean and de-stalk the currants, cook and purée them – three times for the three separate colours (this took a lot longer than I thought!). I don't have an ice-cream maker, but neither did Fenland Lottie (her's had broken) so as the three tubs of mixture started to freeze I had to take them out of the freezer and beat them. Then I realized the White and Red Currant ices were way too tart (mouth puckeringly so!) so I tipped them into mixing bowls, added honey and beat them thoroughly before re-freezing.

It all took a long long time.

And a lot of energy . . . my energy – I worked hard for these ices!

Tonight we tasted them – they were worth all the effort!

And when the thermometer soars again tomorrow I know how I can cool off ;-)

Celia

xx

As UN-alike as peas in a pod

Here is the promised review of the peas growing in the Pigeon Proof Pen, I've introduced them in their flowering stage: Curruther's and Robinson; Shiraz and Tutankhamun; and Salmon Flowered.

Here are their pods . . . definitely not all alike!

Let's start with the green pods . . . 
Tutankhamun's pods all develop near the top of the plant, the pods are medium sized, straight and usually in pairs. The pale green peas inside are beautifully sweet and have a classic pea flavour - perfect to sprinkle in a salad without even needing to cook.
If you want to win a prize at the village show, grow Robinson! the pods are magnificent – they grow singly on long stalks, the pod is attractively long and curved and contains up to a dozen beautiful bright green peas which have an excellent fresh garden-pea flavour.

After the clusters of gorgeous flowers, the petite pods of the Salmon Flowered pea, develop in clusters at the top of the plants. These are perfect pea pods in miniature and when young the peas are sweet and very flavoursome. Older pods will contain firm round peas which are lovely added to pot-cooked pork or chicken dishes.

Shiraz is the first purple podded pea commercially marketed as a 'mangetout', these pods here have gone over – you need to catch them young before the peas start to swell to use them as 'mangetout' but I can confirm that stir-fried or steamed the young pods remain blue-purple in colour but don't have the flavour of a classic green mangetout like Carouby de Maussane. At this later stage the peas can be shelled - they are sweetish but lacking in a good pea flavour. Next year I will grow a green mangetout alongside so I can use a mix of the two and have the flavour and the novelty colour to use together.

Curruther's is an old fashioned purple podded variety with tough leathery pods – these are translucent and become more red as they age, with a pale bloom on the outside. The peas inside are pale pea-green and tightly pack the pod; even at this stage the peas taste sweet with only a slight mealiness. Cooked, the peas change to sage-green in colour but don't be put off - the flavour remains very good.

I can't resist snacking on a few pods of peas when I check the Pigeon Proof Pen, and there are plenty for using in our suppers. I will of course be saving a few pods for seed for next season . . . the new pea in the pen, Robinson, is a keeper and I'll save most of this year's modest trial harvest to sow next year.

Celia
x

Hampton Court Palace Flower Show

Thanks to Lucy and Ecover, I 'won' two tickets to the RHA Hampton Court Palace Flower Show – it's probably 15 years since we last went to one of the big garden shows, so Cliff and I were looking forward to our day out at Hampton Court.

The weather has turned from what seems like perpetual winter to a scorcher of a summer, I needed something cool and comfortable to wear so I ordered a dress - but on the evening before our day out 'Track'n'Trace' said my Emergency Frock was still in Plymouth. Imagine my surprise the next morning when I discovered the parcel was now at the local Post Office and ready for delivery! Unfortunately the minutes ticked by and there was no sign of the postman – we really needed to set off, it's a 100 mile drive to Hampton Court from Suffolk; we'd got to the outskirts of the village when the red post van was sighted, so I leapt out of the car, ambushed the postman, got the cheery blue polka-dot package and did a quick change in the passenger seat as we sped along!

Once we'd reached "leafy Surrey" we used the Park&Ride for the final part of the journey - well worth the £5 and very efficient.

So here are my thoughts on the show . . .

 The Ecover Garden

This is the garden that Lucy helped to plant, I appreciate it had to have a connection with Ecover products and branding but to me they did look a bit like props that had been plonked among a very lovely frothy blue-and-white-with-a-hint-of-pink plantscape. All very pretty . . . it one 'Best in Show'.

My favourite parts of the Ecover Garden were the shady bits at the back, which had some beautiful ferns – in fact ferns popped up in lots of the show gardens (I would love more and different varieties, in the shady areas of our garden.)

Desolation to Regeneration

This was one of the 'concept gardens' and I think the most successful because the idea was clear but not over-played; I loved the planting and attention to detail – even down to sound effects and smoke. There was clever use of Foxtail Lilies and Kangaroo Paws to depict flames and embers gradually merging through ash grey foliage and grasses to lush green new growth.

Ashes to Ashes

One of many gardens with a 'we're all doomed' message (if the weather had been rubbish it would have been rather depressing) however, I loved the colours in the ground cover planting around the tombstones, which were a bit too school-project-like for me.

The Clints and Grykes Garden

Cliff and I both liked this design inspired by the flora of a limestone pavement; it is like a sculpture with shade-loving ferns (again) in the cool dark gaps between the blocks. The strong sunlight and heat on Friday demonstrated exactly how this environment works.

Macmillan Legacy Garden

As we walked around the show gardens it was obvious that some plant choices more than others attracted insects – the bees, hover-flies and dragonflies (you can just see a flash of turquoise on the left of the photo) were loving this mix – grasses, foxgloves, burnet and campion – just like a roadside verge but re-interpreted in subtle rusty colours dotted with white. Wouldn't it be great if there were a prize for the garden design that attracted the most insect life during the show?!

It was even hotter inside the marquees, we could only bear to be inside them for a few minutes at a time before needing to recover outside where the temperature was 'only' 29C. The Foxtail Lilies caught our eyes again – I've never grown these, but fancy giving them a try – I love tall spires and the amber and cream ones were particularly beautiful.

This display of Alliums by Warmenhoven really stood out from the others in the huge Foral Marquee – it had such style and confidence and was meticulously finished.

So, did I buy anything?

I very nearly didn't, but in the floral marquee I spotted a stand of scented-leaf and species pelargoniums and couldn't resist having some to add to my collection.

I was a long hot day, after flicking through the official catalogue of the show and seeing some of the BBC coverage and other blogs, I realise there was lots we missed – but at the time, finding a patch of shade and having a rest from the heat and enjoying an ice-cream were priorities over making sure we'd 'done' everything . . . and we did enjoy having a day out together in the sunshine.

The weather forecast hints at a month or so of hot, dry sunny days ahead – it looks like the Emergency Frock has been a good investment!

Celia
xx

Pick flowers . . . Be happy!

Have you noticed? There's a quiet but ever growing revolution happening . . . British grown cut flowers are back in fashion!

When I was small, my world was filled with buckets of flowers – my grand-parents grew flowers commercially, my Grandma dis-budded carnations for other growers and grew Sweet-Williams on her allotment, the whole village seemed to be surrounded by fields of flowers! During the 1980s and 90s the flower fields disappeared and British cut flower growers almost disappeared. 

So when I discovered (via Twitter) more and more cut-flower growers popping up across the country, my cut-flower genes woke-up – I felt the need to grow flowers to fill a bucket!

Some of you already know flower grower and seed peddlar Ben aka Mr Higgledy Garden – his first flower patch was a short distance from our garden, one day he and his talented assistant visited me shortly before Ben relocated to flower fields new in Cornwall; and I can tell you that Ben is as bonkers handsome and charming in real-life as he is on the web.

You don't have to wait until next spring to start sowing your flower seeds, there are flowers that do best if sown the previous autumn.

In the Flowery Revolution there aren't any rules – annuals, biennials, perennials, weeds and vegetables gone to seed – if the flowers are pretty enough for a posy then use them!

My bucket of flowers includes:
Sweet Peas: 'King's High Scent' and 'Beaujolais' - seeds from King's Seeds)
Ammi Majus and Cornflower 'Black Ball' - seeds from Higgledy Garden
Astrantia major, Alchemilla Mollis, Lychnis chalcedonica, Anthemis 'E C Buxton' – all perennials growing in our garden
Ox-Eye Daisies, Linaria (self-seeded 'weeds') and Scorzonera (a root veg that keeps resurrecting!) all flowering in the vegetable garden


If you buy flowers from a florist, ask for British Grown flowers.
Look out for a local flower farmer near you (many of them or on Twitter #britishflowers).
Or grow you own.

And be happy!
Celia
xx

Cambridge on a sunny afternoon

Hello, have you been enjoying the rather fabulous summer weather? Have you been watching some loooong loooong matches at Wimbledon?

This afternoon I heard snippets of the tennis commentary as I drove into Cambridge, the Tardis laden with bags and bags of old magazines. I don't know what possessed me to hang on to them for so long, almost 15 years of RHS The Garden mags. I used to read every page and keep them for future reference (in the days before Google) but they got stashed in the far corner of the room we rarely go into and forgotten. A few years ago I tried to find someone who may have a use for them, without success.

Feeling in a decluttering frame of mind I announced on Twitter that all The Garden mags would go in the paper recycling bin unless someone spoke up sharpish . . .

"Squeaky Gate wants them!"

So . . . that's where they've gone . . . to the lovely people at Squeaky Gate in Cambridge, a charity that works with people who have slipped outside the education system for whatever reason and need a helping hand to regain their confidence and believe in themselves and the skills they have through music, performance AND this summer through a very exciting garden design project. They are getting lots of help from the talented gardeners at Cambridge University Botanic Gardens and an eminent garden designer . . . my mountain of magazines will be cut up and used to inspire their garden ideas.

Happy that I'd got rid of my clutter and met some lovely people along the way, I headed out of the scorching city centre to the leafy lanes of Grantchester to rendezvous with Rachel - you may remember we collaborated on a collection of silver and enamel jewellery designs. Most of the pieces have been sold and we decided to end our joint venture, today we settled up the final payments between us over afternoon tea at The Orchard Tea Garden in Grantchester. If ever a place is the epitome of tranquil academe on a sunny afternoon then it is here - where the ghosts of Rupert Brooke and his languid friends stretch out on green canvas deck chairs under the twisted boughs of apple trees, just a stones throw from Grantchester church . . .

Stands the church clock at ten to three?

And is there honey still for tea?

In this timeless corner of England, it always will.

Celia
xx

PS this blog is brought to you from a tent in our garden, I'll add links later - blogger app won't let me do them on my iPad

PPS has Andy Murray won yet?

PPPS Now with added links x