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...

A National Treasure!

by Laura | 14 February 2022

I was just looking for some really good reclaimed slates and then Mark was on the end of the phone, and the next day I met him! He has been buying and selling slates since he was 17, his warehouse is immaculate, beyond organised, and he is the nicest and obviously...

Too Much! Ouch!

by Laura | 24 January 2022

For whatever the reasons, this is just too much! Nature left on its own makes a perfect shaped oak tree that we can wonder at and admire. What romance! Our native oak can take 500 years or more to grow as large as it can, and then 300 years to die. So if you see along...