I suppose my painting highlight of 2021 was the 2021 Wylye Valley Art Trail. It seems a long time ago now but you can see my paintings from the trail on the link below :

Click for the Wylye Valley Art Trail 2021

As far as the garden is concerned, opening for the National Garden Scheme in June was the highling/ The sun shone, lots of people came and sat in the garden and we sold lots of plants and tea and cakes. Altogether we raised over £1,500 which was fantastic! Clicking on the link below will take you straight to the page of photos taken around the time we opened.

Opening for the NGS

As you probably know, the National Garden Scheme raises millions of pounds every year for Nursing and Healthcare charities and you can find out more about them at:

​www.ngs.org.uk

 
When we lived in London I opened our garden for the NGS, but this will be the first time we've opened in Wiltshire. I love opening the garden - half of the joy of having a garden is sharing it and especially with strangers. Gardening is a great leveller. In a former life I once listened, open mouthed while one of the UK's richest and most beautiful duchesses argued with a craggy old man who had an allotment in South London, about the best variety of potatoes. For me, that said it all!

​Why do I paint and why do I garden?
I came to painting relatively late (aged 47) and I still feel something of a fraud. When a painting goes badly, it makes me weep  - but when it goes well, I feel alive. I still play the piano better than I paint, but, whereas I don't play the piano as well as I did when I was 20, I paint better than I did last year. 

Gardening is like painting, but very slowly, and with even less control. There are 3 gardens featured in this site. Crescent Lane, which, sadly isn't mine any more, but gave me huge pleasure and was responsible for getting me into gardening. It still feels part of my life, because I have some of its plants and many of their descendants in Wiltshire and Brittany. My French garden, Kerlaouen in Brittany, is a garden that teaches me to let go and not be in control. I can't, because I'm only there 3 or 4 times a year and this year Coronovirus has so far (September), stopped me getting there at all, so the garden is on its own. It's a good life lesson!

My third, and now most important, garden is Burton Grange, which was a totally blank canvas in 2013 and is now becoming a reality. 

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