30 October 2013

garden moodboard - october 2013





I'm joining Karin and Åsa with a monthly moodboard for October - a collection of seasonal flowers, foliage and fruits from the garden. I love the colours here, even without so many flowers I still found beautiful almost fluorescent colour lurking outside.

29 October 2013

last of the ragged beauties





Picked these beauties to bring indoors, the last this year perhaps.

Also if you've been reading this blog for a while you may recall a little rant I had about pinterest, how I didn't like the way people pinned stuff without giving credit. It's been a while since that rant, and I stand by what I said then. But as I see it now, my images get pinned by others and if I make that process easier, by joining in, then at least those images will link back here. So from now on, if you'd like to pin any of my images, you'll find a little button to make life easy. I might even collect a few of my favourites together, and if I find others with that encouraging little 'pin it' button, I might take full advantage and add them to a board of my own.

27 October 2013

things you didn't see






Flicking through my many folders of images I came across these, out-takes, and thought I'd share.

  • this plant has moved to the bedroom
  • lunch at home
  • new plant for the spare room
  • scented phlox from here
  • books are my bag and other totes

24 October 2013

nature in the home



Lou's lovely series is back for autumn and I'm excited to be joining in the fun again. Lou wants it kept simple this season; nothing bought, just what we find in nature. I took a wander round our garden this lunchtime, picked up some pretty leaves mid-turn, the last of the conkers and a little quince from our tree. 

22 October 2013

lately


It's been grey and damp, for what feels like a while now, the mood at home has been tense at times, the nights are drawing in fast, it's hard to rise in the morning when it's cold outside the bed and the light hasn't risen yet. But it's not all bad, happy things happen too. I had a day out in London, here, and D's accepted a new job - when he starts it means he won't be working Saturdays anymore, we'll have the weekends together again, this makes me so happy, proud of him too and excited for the full weekends we are soon to share. 

  • ordered some nice things from here
  • a favourite sound up in the sky
  • a day out
  • observations
  • an accident happened
  • time spent on trains


21 October 2013

time to come in





I recently bought our many pots of pelargoniums and begonias indoors, where they'll stay overwinter. We did the same last year, though just with pelargoniums and they survived happily, so I'm hoping for similar results this year. I haven't tried this with begonias before and after reading lots about waiting for the foliage to die back and lifting the tubers (an ordeal that sounds, to me, like a lot of hassle) I decided to follow Amy's advice and just keep them in the pots - let's see what happens.

16 October 2013

a mid century home









Remember here I shared our visit to the late Sir Frederick Gibberd's garden? Well I promised then to share some images from inside the house. It's a mid century delight; marble floors, high ceilings, stained glass, some great chairs (I couldn't find out the maker), and other furniture, stunning views of the garden, a fun collection of Staffordshire dogs (and a couple of cats). It's all fairly minimalist though a book of images taken of the house before Sir and Lady Gibberd's possessions and collection of art were sold off tells a different story, it was once alive with clutter and colour!

14 October 2013

tate shapes










As I made my way to Tate Modern, last week, I found myself looking up at the sky; the negative space, the shape left behind by the city. A shape that changes almost daily, new cranes appear followed by new towers. As I fall in love with the London skyline it changes once again. I'm not against that change; I'm just saying, it's something I notice more and more and wish I'd been documenting the change (though I'm sure others have). 

Tate Modern is a place I love, there is always an exhibition worth seeing, the huge space feels so alive and it throngs with its mass of visitors, even on the greyest of weekdays. I thoroughly enjoyed both exhibitions I saw; Saloua Raouda Choucair and Mira Schendel. It felt good to see two great exhibitions by inspiring women and ones whose love of the geometric shape shined through in such different ways. 

10 October 2013

garden inspiration

















A few weeks back we visited the house and garden of the late Sir Frederick Gibberd, we've been here a few times now, its one of those places that pulls you back. Unlike other gardens we've visited it's a little raw around the edges, not as immaculate as some, and not filled with flowers, though there are of course some. This garden is big, full of sculptures (Sir Gibberd's wife Lady Patricia was a great patron of the arts), trees, dappled light, water, and a little magic. There are hidden corners everywhere, vistas to discover, and paths that wend their way from one area to the next, you loose yourself in a magical adventure, feeling like an explorer discovering a forgotten land. Part of the house is also open on Sundays and if you're a lover of mid century design this is a must, I'll share that in another post to come. 

[image 1&2] copper fountains by Raef Baldwin, [image 4] Woman with Kid by Fred Kormis, [image 5] Bronze City by Gerda Rubinstein, [image 11] Bird by Hebe Cornerford