No problem!

by Laura | 21 April 2023

This wonderful tree nursery in north Germany moves huge trees as if they were saplings. Everything is possible, and you can see from the second photograph that you would never know that the tree had just been planted. The choice of trees in every species and size you...

Water Lilies

by Laura | 31 December 2022

Here I am looking small and insignificant in front of one of Monet’s enormous canvases in their gallery in Paris.  The two close up photographs show his magician’s skill in painting at this scale and his complete mastery of colours.  And these were painted in great...

Finding English oak planks

by Laura | 7 July 2022

In deepest Wiltshire, looking for two top rails for a pair of important oak gates, where the grain hopefully would follow the curve of an old design. English oak is completely different from oak grown in any other country, even though it is the same species, Quercus...

A Genius!!

by Laura | 2 April 2022

Joanna came to Oxford to give a talk and she was so brilliant, interesting, supremely eloquent, razor sharp and wittier and more elegant than ever! ← York stone Finding English oak planks → Back to Other...

York stone

by Laura | 30 March 2022

Here are three photographs from a fabulous quarry I recently visited near Bradford in West Yorkshire. Wonderful, friendly, warm hearted people made me so welcome. Their skill and dedication I know I am going to always remember. My journey was to find British stone,...

Layers of time

by Laura | 1 March 2022

In an off-the-beaten-track corner of Rome a week ago, I realised that the layers of living, shown here by the excavation, have a quality which is present in so many of the gardens where I work. How many untold years have people cultivated this soil before? Who were...