Saul Steinberg - Legend

Jamie and I already have 4 Steinberg prints in our home, however we enjoy very much coming to The Home of Steinberg aka Woody Bay Hotel to see the larger collection. Jamie's current fave is this one below.

If you aren't already familiar with Steinberg then you should make it your mission to become so. His works incorporates elements of calligraphy, collage and cartoons and doesn't lose its freshness over time. This is the one I like:

Holloway

For me, one if life's great pleasures is the giving and receiving of books. While you might normally be the best judge of what you want to read, often someone else's view can open up a whole new avenue. I love to receive books from the Garden Poet and The Mother and I also try and make sure that I share these in return.

Having said that, the 3 books I bought the GP for Christmas were not really avant-garde selections. They were all about travel and poetry which is definitely his bag and the most obviously suitable for his canon was Holloway.

So, the reasons why the was a no-brainer addition to the GP's canon are:

• One of the writers is the wonderful Robert Macfarlane 
• It's inspired by Roger Deakin, another approved writer
• It's a beautiful book - hard-back, illustrated and no longer than it needs to be
• It fuses history, poetic prose and personal experience

Which brings me back to my original point. A great joy in life is the giving and receiving of books. The most ideal course of events is giving someone a book they really love which you later have an opportunity to read. So share your books and your recommendations because you never know the joy this could bring.

Small headed and delicate Hydrangea

From Marwood - proof that most plant families have one for everyone. If you don't like large and blousy Hydrangeas you may still fall in love with the water colour delicacy of this one.

And if you've not had enough of Marwood yet..

The first time Jamie and I visited Marwood we popped along to the church and graveyard and now it's an integral part of the visit. Not for any nefarious or smutty reason, but first because it's a beautiful space and the archetypal English rural setting. While I have no desire to leave my urban home for a picture postcard village, I can appreciate the beauty and the effort that's gone in to keeping it just so.

Like most of the churches in North Devon, the church in Marwood is Norman and towers over the village with it's stony walls and simple shape. The graveyard is most notable for the amazing job nature has done, with a little help from a strimmer and a laissez-faire maintenance style. The second reason why the graveyard is notable is the average age on the tombstones - even 3 centuries ago the average lifespan was in the 70s and 80s. Maybe there is an argument for being surrounded by beauty? Or something in the water.

Lovely Style at Woody Bay Hotel

I'm an avid fan of Pinterest and spend a lot of time poring over different home styles. It occurred to me recently that the aesthetics in the living room of Woody Bay Hotel are amongst the best I've seen.

Now you could say that this is bias as the style team behind this triumph are the Garden Poet and The Mother. I do however think they have a knack of making the diverse and at times mis-matching elements fit into a harmonious whole.

That's not to say the effect was achieved through a calm and Zen like process. GP and TM will have tested the design through a rigorous process of to-the-death arguing and took a while to get to this final point. The main thing is that this is a calming room to be in and when you are in it listening to the grandfather clock ticking steadily, your normal life feels a long way away. I think a lot of my own style pretences come from this room - muted eau-de-nil shades, books everywhere and light flooding the room. It's a good place to start any design ethos.

Life's Tough in Marwood

Marwood Gardens near Barnstaple, is one of my favourite places in the world. On Tuesday I visited this amazing hide away with Jimbles and the Garden Poet. We had quite an amusing drive over as Jamie and I tailed the dashing GP in his open topped car through the green Devon roads singing along to the Pixies and discussing the legacy of Courtney Love.

I've not been to visit at this time of year for quite a while and it was amazing to see so much in bloom, if a little disquieting. It's the funny spring we've had this year. In addition it was enjoyable to see the lushness and flowers coming this much further south and I hope that's what we've got to look forward to this year back in Edinburgh.

One of the revelations for me at Marwood was the Primulas. I've never been a massive fan and they always seem to me a bit of an after-thought. Used a Marwood as a garish and vibrant block of planting in the bottom of the valley they are extraordinary. Indeed the repeated sections of boggy planting at Marwood are truly beautiful right now with the punctuation of spiky and small headed yellow iris.

I say these colours are garish, however somehow they are tonally in keeping with the colours around them. Garish with love! In recent years, the dominant planting styles have been tapestry or drift planting. At Marwood, maybe because they have National collections of Astilbes and Magnolias, they plant in groups. It isn't a style I would utilise in my small patch of heaven, however there are advantages. You can see the individual plant and it's individual characteristics - upright stems, bright foliage etc, rather than losing the plant in one planting scheme. I think there is an argument for planting schemes that allow you to see the individuality of the plants within them, and I'll ruminate on that. I suppose the answer is probably less variety of plants and more recurring planting which provides more repetition, rather like the grouped planting here. Not sure I can commit to that.

New Birkenstocks

I recently treated myself to a new pair of Birkenstocks. The last pair was bought in Venice when I had really sore and hot feet and have been my go to summer shoe for the last 8 years. They've lasted well but have still seen better days so I decided this month to be an adult and buy a replacement pair. I was feeling pretty proud of myself until I was exiting the shoe shop and a 60 year old man was trying on the same pair and extolling their virtues - just as I had. Oh well, that's the problem with classics, you are never the only one wearing them.

Petch's Pride?

After 3 long years the trendy Sutton's Pride foxgloves have reached for the sky and dominated my front flower bed. There really is nothing more fascinating than watching the bees bustle in and out of the silken gloves. I'm converted and am about to select next year's crop - maybe if I sow them now they will be ready next spring?

Life's Tough in Woody Bay

Yeah Right!

Casting your votes now - Icelandic or Welsh? Or Both?

Regular visitors to this blog will know that I am a massive fan of poppies. This year I was too lazy and disorganised to sow and pot on my usual Ladybird variety, so I'm a little bereft as we head into the usual flowering window.  Patty's Plum is promising a lovely show this year which will go some way to filling that gap, but it's also been a bumper year for wild poppies. I've had Icelandic poppies for several years at the front, but this year they have magically made their way to the back too (I prefer magic to bird poo). This unexpected intervention has caused me to slightly re-think my colour scheme to include yellow. I've seen show garden schemes that are mostly white with hints of blue and yellow and that's inspired me. So thanks magical intervention of nature and bird poo.

In addition the Welsh poppies have arrived at the front and are adding a lovely pop of colour which is welcome. Yet more evidence of the wondrous and anarchic nature of the Papaver family.

There's a reason they call it spring green.

As with most of the UK, Edinburgh has experienced a warm and wet spring with limited sunshine. The results of this are pretty lush - the fern-like skirts of this acer sweep down to obscure the mossy soil and remind me why I have it. The waning bluebell peers out - the only one I've managed to keep alive!

In many post-apocalyptic visions the work has been over-run by cannibalistic climbers and I'd have to nominate clematis for a role in my vision. I think it would be rather beautiful, if a little eerie. This particular clematis is omni-present in Edinburgh at this time of year and must really like the conditions. I'm considering a late summer clematis for the back garden as the honeysuckle hasn't really taken off the way I'd hoped. My raised beds and thick planting will provide clematis with the damp feet they need to do well.

I've also realised a dream finally, of water in my garden. Jamie and I have created the smallest water feature below and it's a small thing but quite lovely. We simply lined a dark terracotta pot with pond liner (and I have metres of the stuff left if any is required) and planted it up with 2 water plants and a lot of gravel. A few days later and the water has cleared and the plants have revived. I'm hoping it will also provide sustenance for wild creatures without enticing them to a cat-based deathas.