2019 January - June
JULY
July was a very busy month. I photographed some stunning gardens from the Cotswolds to the Kent coast, you’ll see them this year. However, one of those has already been published - that of Matthew Rice at Ham Court - you can see this beautiful place in the Plant Issue of Gardens Illustrated.
July saw the publication of one of my favourite gardens. This was a commission by House&Garden and I spent a few days in Cheshire. The hottest Summer days, in fact. The garden was designed by Chris Moss.
Summer also meant Summer evening parties, and there was a wonderfully magical one and that I photographed for Mercurial Moon.
One of my favourite shoots in July was with my dear friend Justine in her studio.
AUGUST
August continued to be a busy month with more travels to Yorkshire. And as I mentioned earlier, this was the month the article of Debbie George and Andrew Sanderson’s house was published in Homes&Antiques.
London gardens again, here’s one designed by Emily Erlam
and one by Non Morris
In August I had a fun shoot at the Big Festival in the Cotswolds, for Country Living.
And a different Food Festival at Soho Farmhouse. Special guest, Tomos Parry
Several visits to Chastleton House. This house is very close to Daylesford farm where I held 4 classes.
and the rest, well, that is to be revealed later next year!
OCTOBER
In October, we finally! went on a wee holiday to Scotland. But even holidays cannot be complete without garden visits, so we went to Cambo (oh the dream!) and Broadwoodside. Both were stunning. Scottish gardens are just magical.
In October I went back to Middleton Lodge but this time to photograph at the Knackered Florists retreat. For me it was a definite treat. I sometimes still find it hard to believe that this is actually my job and I’m having the best of time while I work.
In October, I had a video one-to-one with the moooost wonderful person and teacher and photographer, Sarah Mason. I cannot upload the video I made with the help of Sarah here but you can find it on my Instagram. This was the most inspiring day.
And in October was published another Chris Moss garden I shot last Autumn. It appeared in Gardens Illustrated.
NOVEMBER
November was the month when I had my most one-to-ones, they were suprisingly more about editing images rather than taking them. I loved ever single one of these.
There were also bonfires and fireworks.
and a Dog Modelling class with Honeysuckle and Hilda and Darlingdog .
and I started to get in the festive spirit..
There were more gardens in November too.
DECEMBER
December was about wreaths. And more wreaths. And drinks.
One at Soho House, I didn’t make one here.
I did make one here, this was with Swallows and Damsons, read about it here.
I met Santa ..
And I have a few shoots for local businesses like the Coaching Barn
December also brought some quiet time at home and one final shoot in Yorkshire between Christmas and New Year.
So this just a fraction of what 2019 brought for me and to give you an idea of the work I do as in the busy days, I so rarely get the chance to share anything with you.
I have some very interesting projects lined up for 2020 and I can’t wait to get back to work. I still find it hard to call it work as I just love so much what I do. I am very generous and thankful for everyone who commissioned me and trusted me to photograph their garden, their events or their small businesses.
Happy New Year!
2019 January - June
Looking back on the year is one of my favourite things to do during the quiet days between Christmas and New Year. My 2019 was an amazing year and I cannot but only be grateful for the wonderful people I met, the dream commissions I got and all the beautiful places I travelled to.
When I look back on the year, I usually do it by looking at all the photos I took. Well, not all of them but you see what I mean. I cannot (yet) share everything with you (especially of two big assignments, one in Somerset and one in Yorkshire and that took me a whole year to complete) but I’ve chosen a selection of images that I hope will give you a good representation of the work I do.
I love telling stories with my photography and no matter what I shoot, gardens or stories in the countryside, I always try to stay true to my style. And my heart.
JANUARY
I started the year with a trip up to my beloved Yorkshire. I photographed Debbie George’s beautiful house for a feature in Home&Antiques (I’ll share more about this in the August part) It was the perfect start to the year. I love Yorkshire and little did I know in January that I would go back there many more times in 2019.
January also saw the publication of these images in Country Living and that I took of Bea Andrews of Botanikafloral.
I often shoot for Soho House so the first shoot of the year for them was the soft opening of their brand new diner, Mollie’s Diner in Oxfordshire. This was just a few minutes before the diner was so busy I could hardly move. And the story came out beautifully.
FEBRUARY
February was dark and exciting. I shot a private dinner party in Mayfair. I always like a challenge and shooting in such dark conditions was definitely one.
The first travel abroad was to Belgium with Clare Foster. It started in Kalmthout and then off we went to Bruges to discover some beautiful gardens of Piet Blanckaert. You can see one of these gardens in the January issue of House & Garden. And look out for the February issue for images of witch hazel from Kalmthout.
February brought some flowers and I shot something different, some vegan beauty products for Country Living.
MARCH
Happy day when this garden designed by Arne Maynard and that I shot last year, was published in House&Garden in March. And le voilà
In March I was in the middle of photographing our local artists for Art Weeks and this took up a lot of my time but I thoroughly enjoyed it. And I’m doing it again, with the new artists joining in. So yes, this was most of March and continued into
APRIL
I photographed over 40 artists as part of our Art Weeks (Watlington, Oxfordshire), here’s just a modest selection of the photos from those shoots.
Spring came and with that some stunning bouquets by Honeysuckle and Hilda. I had a lot of shoots this year with Clare, most of them at Daylesford Farm (where I was teaching too but so typical, I never had the change to take any images of my classes)
And there was a chilled event with Rick Stein in Chiswick.
In April, my 1-2-1 teaching season opened too. I travelled up to Shropshire to teach Tammy at Wild Bunch Flowers and then to Cheshire for another one-to-one with Carol Siddorn from Carol’s Garden. I will not be able to mention everyone here I would like to say a very big thank you to everyone who came either to my home or booked one of my classes at Daylesford Farm. I absolutely love teaching and I really enjoy passing on the love of photography to anyone who’s inspired..
MAY
May was beautiful. I travelled back to Belgium to photograph those gardens of Piet Blanckaert that I mentioned back in February.
and then came a wonderful trip to the South of France (more on this later but I can tell you that an absolutely stunning garden was involved)
I spent quite a lot of time in London too. There was the Chelsea Flower show
and I also shot an event at the studio of the very inspirational couple, Annie Morris and Idris Kahn.
Another article I shot was published in the May issue of Country Living.
I spent a whole week in beautiful Derbyshire to shoot a story for Country Living. Again, this will come out in May so I’ll tell you more about it then.
JUNE
Summer arrived and with it, lots of parties. I do love recording parties in meadows like this 40th birthday party here in an Oxfordshire village.
and there was another party related BBQ learning event at Soho Farmouse
and a lovely lunch hosted by Emma Harris aka @aquietstyle.
June brought my first ever front cover of Gardens Illustrated from this feature of the magical walled garden at Middleton Lodge, designed by Tom Stuart-Smith.
I continued travelling down to Somerset and on my way home from those shoots, I always stopped discovering new gardens and country houses. Like Great Chalfield Manor. I can never tire of seeing new gardens and of the English countryside.
Then there was the wonderful Strawberry Hill Flower Festival where I had the change to photograph the stunning work of so many creative florists. Here’s just one work chosen for you of Botanical Tales and Atlas Flowers.
to be continued with the rest of the year!
Christmas Wreath Class with Swallows and Damsons
I consider myself very lucky as I often work with the country’s most experienced and creative florists. I’ve always admired the work of Anna Potter of Swallows and Damsons but I’ve never had the chance to meet or let alone learn from her. My lucky day has come and so my December started the best way possible when I went to her Christmas Wreath class.
Anna’s class was held at the Samuel Worth Chapel in Sheffield situated in a beautiful cemetery.
There were wreaths too but Anna’s presence was most inspirational.
Ah yes, there was mulled wine and mince pie too. And off I go.
And two hours later, there was my wreath. I really like it and just to know that I made it makes me really proud. Despite it not being a the shape of a perfect circle, ops.
I’d like to say a special thank you to Honeysuckle and Hilda who kindly offered me this class because she knew how much I’d love it. We went to the class together and the drive through the frosty Peak District was very scenic. The perfect start to December.
Paper Stars
What else to do on a quiet Sunday afternoon other than make some botanical stars as I call them. I made these from an old school book (not mine, mine is safe) and I think they look really pretty. I like how these will be around all year but at this time of the year, you can make them from more festive papers to create a different look. Anyway, if you have been inspired, this is how I made them.
You will need paper (it can really by any paper you can imagine, from sheet music to shiny golden or simple brown paper. Glue. Twine and a pair of scissors.
From the page shown above, I made the star you’ll see at the end of the blog post and that is the same size as the one next to the page shown here. You can make big ones with bigger pieces of paper, of course.
So make sure you have two pieces of paper to start with and both the same size.
Accordion fold your paper. Then fold each into two in the middle. Then tie the two together in the middle with a piece of twine/string. This will be your hanger for the star too, so make sure you leave them long enough.
Once you’ve added the twine (but I guess this step can be done at the beginning too) cut the ends as above. These will be the end points of your star.
You can now start glueing together the sides as above. Make sure to glue the twine as shown above, as that’s where your star will hang from.
Glue all sides until you get the full circle, your star.
Repeat. And enjoy.
Chastleton House - Garden
And here’s the continuation to the previous post - Chastleton House - the garden of Chastleton House. Perfectly imperfect as it is, no words needed.
Chastleton House
I realize I haven’t posted for ages and the story is the same as before, let the pictures talk for themselves. Absolutely LOVED visiting Chastleton House. Read all about it here and see what I saw there below.. Enjoy! And visit it if you can. An absolute treasure.
PS - I updated this post as I went back soon after the first visit with friends and added some more photos and separated the garden form the house into two blog posts. Voilà.
Great Chalfield Manor
Medieval manor house par excellence. Another little gem of the National Trust although still privately owned and lived in, Chalfield Manor was my perfect stop on the way home from a shoot in Somerset. It was pouring rain so I only used my phone to take pictures but despite the rain, I absolutely loved discovering this beautiful garden.
Welcome to Yorkshire at Chelsea
This May has been a crazy busy month, with lots of travels but oh, with so many beautiful gardens! I started this week at the Chelsea Flower Show where I was happy to find yet another Welcome to Yorkshire garden. A little bit of magic in London, almost a fairy tale garden but most importantly, there were lots of foxgloves too. I will share more photos from Chelsea later on but I know that most of you loved this particular garden a lot, so here it comes..
