Seagulls, seaside & summer

Hello again

I have just been on holiday with my family. We decided, like a lot of others, that a UK holiday was the order of the day bearing in mind the environmental cost of flying. We are trying to fly only once per year from now on, so the UK holiday industry had better watch out.

I am a supporter of local trade and I really wanted the holiday to be an advert for what we (UK plc) can provide for tourists. We chose Suffolk as our destination and rented a cottage in Woodbridge. Sadly, the downside of holidaying in the UK is that the 80:20 rule applies eg the weather is (at best) 80%, service you recieve is 20% below the standard you would hope for, the accomodation is 20% short of excellent. It really is a case of so near, yet so far.

With the changing environment, British people want to holiay in the UK and for the good of the larger economy we want to attract foreign tourists to the UK. For this to be a success we must go the extra metre (which is the most difficult metre) and make the UK experience as good as it can possibly be - don't fall at the final hurdle.

Let the British holiday set the standards for the rest of the world, not be an "also ran". People don't mind paying a bit more if the service is excellent and people don't mind a bit of rain if they receive a warm welcome. We must exceed the expectations of the tourist and charm them into holidaying in the UK, year after year.

I shall get off my soap box now,

Until next time

Allotments - go on, get one.

Hello

I might have mentioned in previous blogs that I have an allotment. We took it on, as a family, at the end of 2007 at which point it was chest high in brambles and shin high with couch grass. Over the last 9 months we have dug it, put edging boards in, built the ever important compost heap, put up a decent sized poly tunnel and acquired the ubiquitous allotment shed.

With low expectations for our first year, we have had an abundance of produce, much more that we hoped for; potatoes, carrots, courgettes, cabbage, tomatoes, rocket, kohl rabi, beetroot, radish, onions, garlic, shallots, beans (runner, french & broad) and most recently sweetcorn (see image). We still have squash, jerusalem artichokes, globe artichokes, aubergines, rhubarb to come. On top of that we have had cut flowers on demand from the sweet peas and the multi-headed sunflowers that just keep flowering and flowering.

It is easier than you think, just get one, get stuck in and you will find that all the plot holders near you will offer you advice, seeds, plants, encouragement and best of all cups of tea. At first it does seem like all work and no reward but (like giving birth I suspect) when the rewards arrive you forget about all the backache & blisters and sit back in your deckchair with a nice cool drink and bask in the smug self-satisfaction that you don't have to buy your veg from Waitrose or similar.

Try it,

Until next time...






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Snails, what can you do?

Hello

I seem to have been fighting the good fight all year against slugs and snails, both in my garden and on the allotment - see the photo of said critter on my precious young Acer forestii. So much so, that as the weeks and months have gone by, I have become more creative (devious) about how I deal with them. It is now time to take stock of the situation.

I am not keen on the use of pellets; bad for slugs (good), bad for birds (bad). Beer traps are effective, but a waste of beer. If someone filled my swimming pool (if I had one) with beer, I'd probably get drunk, fall in and drown as well. Encouraging wildlife to scoff them down seems good, birds and hedgehogs are welcome but they don't eat enough, the slugs & snails have the upper hand. I am now considering eating them myself; l'escargot, Surbitonstyle. I understand one has to feed them a healthy last supper (five days long) to rid them of impurties and then out with the garlic butter etc etc.

I have even taken to picking them up and throwing them at least three gardens away, to a wild garden further up the road. I realise that this sounds a little cruel, but I reckon they are tough enough to survive, the snails have their shells to hide in and the slugs seem to bounce. Anyway, if I was a slug and the options were, as listed above; I'd take my chance with the short flight of fancy. Imagine, you spend all your life in the undergrowth and then for a brief moment you are flying high in the air, across gardens, over fences, ponds and lawns. What a tale you would have to tell your offspring but would they believe you?

If anyone has any better suggestions, then please don't hesitate to comment

Until later

Waterwell - for Garden Lighting or Irrigation

Another show garden!

Hello again,

Hot on the heals of the successful BUPA garden at the recent 2008 Chelsea Flower Show we are now straight into planning the next show garden at the Hampton Court Flower Show. The esteemed garden designer, Sally Court, has been asked (at rather short notice) to design & build a garden to celebrate the National Year of Reading. The garden is being designed to appeal to the imaginations of children and to trigger an interest in books and reading. Nearer the time, when the designs are finalised, I will update you on Waterwell's plans for the irrigation. & lighting.

Until next time...

Gold

Hi again,

Good news, Cleve West has won a coveted gold medal at the 2008 Chelsea Flower Show.

I have to say that, it was thoroughly deserved; quality design, well executed landscaping and fantastic planting add up to another success for Cleve. Because Cleve is a modest guy who doesn't make a big deal out of his success, I shall try to do it on his behalf. The garden, sponsored by BUPA, is intended to benefit people with dementia and is a great sensory journey; sight, sound, scent and touch all working in harmony.

We (Waterwell) can only take credit for the lighting. We created a framework of light by uplighting each of the six Amelanchier trees and then used a fabulous colour change LED light to bathe the "boule" in a constantly changing wash of light that ensures the boule is the centerpiece of the garden at night as well as in the day.

Have a look at this image, more to follow when we can organise them.

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"Boule" on the grandest scale

Me again,

It has been a while since I blogged but I have vowed to myself that from now on I shall try to be more regular, frequent and brief - that sounds awful doesn't it?

To update you (with my Waterwell contractor's hard hat on), we are in the process of helping the renowned garden designer, Cleve West on his garden at the Chelsea Flower Show in London. The garden is being sponsored by BUPA, their first foray into the competitive world of show gardens and is based around a garden designed to benefit people with Dementia and Parkinson's Disease.

The focal point of the garden will be the huge, 7 foot diameter, textured concrete "Boule" that will sit on the edge of a reflective pool. The "Boule" has been created by the French sculptors, Serge and Agnes Bottagisio-Decoux.

Our involvement is to light the garden for the gala night on Monday, one of the key society events of the London social scene. We will be using a unique, one-off light fitting designed by one of our suppliers, the Italian manufacturers, IGuzzini. This new light uses an array of 36, one watt Luxeon colour change LED lamps. Using this fitting, the huge “Boule” will be intensely lit from one side with concentrated, colour change light to produce a constantly evolving scene. The illumination of the “Boule” with an ever-changing spectrum of colour will be the centre piece of the garden at night, bringing it to life and creating drama and excitement for any occasion”.

To contrast the colour change effect on the “Boule” there will be soft ambient uplighting of each of the six Juneberry trees (Amelanchier lamarckii). This gentle, warm light will provide the backdrop or “setting” for the illumination of the “Boule”.

In my next blog I hope to attach an image or two of the lighting effect that we produced for the BUPA garden so that you can see for yourselves if it lived up to the hype.

See you next time, Simon

More Art(icles)

Further to my last blog, I thought I'd take the opportunity to update you on the results of the Psaier auction.

I went along to the auction with a friend, who is predominantly a garden designer, (of some note) but is also a writer, artist, allotmenteer and to some extent, a developing eccentric (a work in progress). His intentions were mainly to view the auction, see how it works but maybe to buy "a little something" if the right piece came along.

My intentions were originally quite simple, go along, see if anything grabbed me and make a bid. Having previously purchased six other pieces, I had assured my wife that I wouldn't go overboard..... However, between my last post and the auction I had visited a client on business and got talking about art. It turned out that her husband has a Warhol print and she has collected a great deal of art (including a number of original David Hockney pieces). Her problem though, was that she was about go on holiday and couldn't attend the auction. As I was going to attend, I offered to bid on her behalf and suggested she look at the catalogue online, tell me what she liked and what she would like to pay. She emailed me a list of 8 pieces that she was keen to buy.

On the day of the auction, I got stuck into the bidding on behalf of my client, racking up the works that she had asked for. My friend Cleve, now also became infected with auction fever and bid on a very unusual commercial piece that Psaier had done of a pair of used shoes, much to the amusement of the auctioneer and the other participants. Later, another, bigger lot came up which was of a number of pairs of shoes with gold and pink glitter dust adorning them. Cleve had not viewed this piece but the auctioneers good natured prompting about Cleve presumably owning a shoe shop and my gentle dig about his new found foot fetish, got him going and Cleve, being on his toes, got the upper hand, put the boot in and socked it to the auctioneer. It was soled in no time. Sorry about the puns. It turned out to be a really good piece and possibly the bargain of the day.

For my part, I managed not to get too giddy until it came to a huge, quite unusual piece (approx 1.8m diameter) that Psaier had done in respect of Ossie Clarke the 1960s & 70s fashion designer. The lot had a guide price of £1500 - £2000 (way beyond my budget) but there was no interest and with a reserve of £1000 there were still no takers. At this point I achieved on of life's minor achievements, I haggled with the auctioneer, in the middle of a live auction.

I called out an offer of £500
The auctioneer exclaimed "I'm not here to give it away"
I repeated my offer of £500
The auctioneer countered with £800 as his best position before moaning "this [auction] is going the wrong way"
I upped my offer to £600
The auctioneer refused
I repeated my offer of £600 as my last offer
The auctioneer, finally beaten, wearily said "you've beaten me, it's yours for £600"

At that point, Cleve nudged me and quietly said "I have seen it all now". Mastery of the understatement or what?

So, other than the practical difficulty of getting my lot home (crudely tied onto the roof of my car) and then having to explain to my rather shocked but patient and broadminded wife why I had bought it and why I liked it, a good day was had by all.

You never know, the art might even appreciate as well, time will tell....

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