Thank goodness for that - only having lived within striking distance of this Tudor House, Walled Garden and Parkland just down the A3 between Guildford and Godalming - for nigh on 19 years - we got there! And we were not disappointed. This is a busy estate and a very busy wedding venue - so…
Art in the landscape
Dale Chihuly – Glass at Kew Gardens
I'll let the photos do the talking for this piece - Dale Chihuly back at Kew Gardens - last visiting in 2006 if memory serves and a welcome return. Several locations across the gardens and I don't think I saw them…
A long-overdue visit to the gardens of RHS Wisley – a riot of colour and scent this early May Day
Hawthorn, Bluebells, Azaleas and Rhododendrons, flowering Viburnums, a craft fair, tree-trunk sculpture, sunshine and fragrance. A fine start to a long-overdue visit to these gardens. Sunshine and a few scattered squalls, sometimes a bit over-bright for good photography, but glad to have made the effort to get out here today. The Craft Fair - huge -…
A dry – and later, damp, Cutting Garden, some Clematis and Hydrangeas and a Peony ready for her close-up … A Petersham Nurseries Day with a macro-lens
The Cutting Garden at Petersham Nurseries, warm and dry and sunshiny first thing, a little drizzle at the end of the day, but both beautiful to photograph. Fluffy, aka Fino, one of our cats, hoping for extra helpings ... And a late-afternoon look at the Garden Shop, having picked out some beautiful Hydrangeas and Gardenias…
A late-September taste of the gardens at RHS Wisley
A mid-week, late morning, late September tour of the RHS Gardens at Wisley. Blue skies peppered liberally with white clouds (today was a brighter, warmer clearer-skies day than yesterday, but probably overbright for my photographic skills so here we are ...) It is still quite definitely late summer, rather than full-on Autumn. Very few of…
Continue reading ➞ A late-September taste of the gardens at RHS Wisley
Floating Flowers …. almost igniting this huge bronze bowl at Petersham Nurseries (a new institution!)
We have really enjoyed floating all manner of seasonal flowers in this wide, shallow and beautifully scrolled bronze bowl, which we began in February. Then it was a huge brass urn from the Bank of Rome (it was one of a pair, one since sold, the other, available...) but we swapped to the lower, pedestal-less…
Petersham House Gardens – formal gardens, generous borders and a vibrant Cutting Garden
After a cycle ride along the towpath and the Thames sparkling in the sunshine, and nearly being late for taking so many photographs, a look in the Kitchen Garden first, which was the vegetable garden but has been co-opted into an additional Cutting Garden, as well as having the peony beds, Hellebores, many old roses…
The Great Pagoda at Kew Gardens – there be fearsome Dragons
The newly restored Great Pagoda at Kew Gardens, replete with fearsome dragons. Built in 1762, it was one of a series of oriental-inspired buildings smattered through these new gardens, though the only one to have stood the test of time. The dragons are beautiful, colourful, gilded and sparkling, and quite fearsome. On the lowest tier…
Continue reading ➞ The Great Pagoda at Kew Gardens – there be fearsome Dragons
Kew Gardens, Part One (there will be more tomorrow now I’ve actually booked for the Great Pagoda)
A first look at the newly restored and be-dragoned Great Pagoda. Of course I didn't think to book, so shall be returning tomorrow at 10.30am for that pleasure. I have ascended the Pagoda before, pre-restoration about what, five years ago? But the Dragons are new, 1.8m long on the lower level carved in wood, greatly…









