Monthly Archives: September 2018

Ada and her garden village

It’s not often I’d guess that a local election manifesto gets taken that seriously, is implemented and referred to and read decades after it was written,  and even  talks about gardens. But an exception might be  the 1922 election address … Continue reading

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Once the Queen of the Parlour…

Everyone’s maiden aunt and granny had one, and Gracie Fields sang of having the biggest one in the world. A dreary, dark green, flowerless clump in a pot in a corner of the parlour. Often forgotten about for weeks on … Continue reading

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John Evelyn’s Elysium Britannicum

John Evelyn is, like his friend Samuel Pepys, best known for his diary,  detailing life in the second half of the 17thc. He was a landed gentleman, government official and a high Anglican of uncompromising piety but also a man beset … Continue reading

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East comes West

Dr Johnson wrote in 1738 : “There are few nations in the world more talked of, or less known than the Chinese.”  He was reflecting on the latest book about China to be published, one which Patrick Conner in Oriental Architecture in the … Continue reading

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St Fiacre

I forgot to celebrate St Fiacre’s day last year. I bet you did too.   But I did better this year and did so in the appropriate surroundings of the Gardens Trust’s annual conference in Birmingham which is taking place … Continue reading

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