Inspiration

It’s seeming as though it has never stopped raining this May, although I manage to only take my camera out for the brief 3 seconds a day when the sun shines. Have you noticed that most days it rains all day and then the sun comes out just as it’s time to go inside in the evening?

But Wednesday, actually, was a bright and breezy day too. I was in Faversham, in Kent, where the Duchy of Cornwall is planning a large extension to this wonderful town. I’m working on the designs, together with a big team of talented people, but especially my great friend Kim Wilkie the landscape architect. Together, I think, we are all making something that could be quite special. We had a site visit on Wednesday and looking also at the heavenly town of Winchelsea, in Sussex, which like our proposal for Faversham, is planned on a gridded street network, filled with nature, trees, and architectural richness.

I just couldn’t help starting the blog this week by sharing a few snaps from Winchelsea that morning. The fantastic allotments are one of my favourite that I’ve ever been. This very nice couple are not, in fact, the growers of that incredibly fine stand of bearded iris, on the brink of flowering (if you go to Winchelsea this week, I suspect they will be pretty incredible).

And then, a busy few days in London, and out on site all day on Friday in the Cotswolds, in mist and soft rain, and then down to Dorset, where I arrived on Friday evening.  At long last the copper beech has burst in to leaf. That incredible moment when the leaves are the palest colour, magical, before the dusty dark of August. 

Charlie’s veg garden is looking incredible.

Tulips too – still looking amazing, and here we are in late May.  This time last year they were all gone. Now they are in full flower.

Lilacs on the bank…

In the chicken yard on Saturday morning…

May is a saturated month at the best of times, but it really, really has been wet. And while that’s a pain in a way, I think the green landscape is even more spectacular than usual?

We went to Beaminster in the morning and then came back and mooched.

Intermission; Charlie’s tulips – Ivory Floradale – they are extraordinary. 

Sibyl, sitting next to me on the sofa on Saturday afternoon as we all dozed, in the rain.

But then the sun came out… we had a walk down the valley.

Sunday began grey but the trees were amazing that morning.

And then, on our way back home, the sun shone through briefly. The landscape glowed.

We were at Jasper’s and Oisin’s for lunch; back in the afternoon, in the pouring rain. And sure enough, at sunset, the clouds broke and the sunshine came through. 

The tiniest fragment of a rainbow floated above the church.

The china dogs glowed.

Here’s a flashback to the same week last year…. One reason, if I may be honest, why I love the blog is that ability to step back through over a decade now.  What a different year. You can see it in the colour of the light. This year the hawthorn is hardly in flower, the cow parsley just coming through.

But we have it all to look forward to… Have a good week to come.  Stay dry!