Hot on the heels of my trip to Eltham Palace to check out the 1930s planting, yesterday saw me visiting Painshill Park in Surrey, this time to visit an 18th century landscape garden. A bit of potted garden history for anyone interested. The "landscape" style of gardening became popular in the UK around the 1700s; … Continue reading Painshill Park: the weirdness of landscape gardens
London
Falling in love again
Of course we loved our house when we first bought it. You’ve got to really love a collection of bricks to hand over the best part of half a million pounds, after all. I remember when we first viewed it: I was seven months pregnant, we were looking at 13 houses that weekend and we … Continue reading Falling in love again
Loving the 1930s: Eltham Palace day trip
I always wonder, at some point in a blissful three day bank holiday weekend, whether every single weekend would be as good if everyone only worked a four day week all the time. Surely so much office working is just faffing around, chatting, making coffee, checking emails and so on, that actually it could all … Continue reading Loving the 1930s: Eltham Palace day trip
Trips to the Horniman museum
At last! Another post in my Making the most of London series. A mere year since the last one, ha ha... Overstuffed walruses, giant totem poles, kitchen gardens growing lentils; what’s not to love about the Horniman museum? It’s one of those collections of eclectic eccentricity that the British seem to do so well. Luckily … Continue reading Trips to the Horniman museum
5 ideas from Hampton Court flower show
Last Wednesday I spent a gorgeous sunny day wandering round Hampton Court flower show. It was an English summer personified: the drowsy song of bees in the air, the sun beating down with occasional white clouds drifting across the blue skies, endless (endless!) stalls selling Pimms and rather a lot of people dressed in striped … Continue reading 5 ideas from Hampton Court flower show
Wonderful Wisley
Last Sunday, we strapped the sprogs into their car seats, cracked the windows open to let in some warm summer breezes and set off along the A3 heading for RHS Wisley. I wasn't sure how enjoyable the rest of the Wolves in London clan were going to find the excursion; all of them so far … Continue reading Wonderful Wisley
I want this so badly
Before accepting that I must keep my old tumbledown greenhouse in the garden, for the time being at least, I spent a long time searching online for a greenhouse slash garden shed slash potting house. It seemed such a straightforward idea to me. One little building that housed plants, tools, and all that junk that … Continue reading I want this so badly
Pimp my greenhouse
As spring turns to summer, my thoughts turn to the unwieldy beast at the end of my garden. I speak, of course, of my greenhouse. When we first moved in, I planned, immediately, to replace it with something sophisticated like this: Then I saw the price tag. And so, I must reconcile myself to living … Continue reading Pimp my greenhouse
A love of trees
If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know have a bit of a penchant for photographing flowers. (For which read, my feed is stuffed full of floral photos, mostly taken on my daily wanderings round Peckham Rye Park.*) But there was another reason that my feed was 90% flowers: my crappy iPhone 3 which objected … Continue reading A love of trees
A photo a day: August 17th
We went blackberry picking this morning in Camberwell Old Cemetery. The cemetery is a two minute walk from our house and worth a visit as about a third of it is fantastically overgrown, with winding little lanes overhung with trees and a huge amount of brambles. There's something really romantic about the old graves, just … Continue reading A photo a day: August 17th
Wolves in London 