Woven willow – learning a new skill & Christmas at Chatsworth House

8th December 2025

I love woven willow & specify it when I can for my clients. It’s a great natural screen, utilises amazing craftspeople’s skills & looks terrific in the right space. I’ve written about it before way back in 2014.. As I said in that blog I have several large woven sculptures here in our house & as it’s a barn conversion a few cow heads look in-keeping with the look I’ve put together…This is Toro (he’s Spanish!) who guards my studio & this below is Bob … we don’t normally name inanimate creatures in our house but this one was made …

Farewell Diane Keaton

14th October 2025

I’ve admired Diane Keaton since forever! I watch her films all the time & never seem to tire of them. The First Wives Club with Bette Midler & Goldie Hawn is a great film. Watch it – it’s fun & the 3 of them singing “You don’t own me” at the end is fabulous. Something’s Gotta Give is a particular favourite that also stars Jack Nicholson & Frances McDormand (who is brilliant in it!). It’s a great story & the setting is gorgeous – a most wonderful beachfront house in The Hamptons which I’ve always envied. Acting aside, she was …

Before & after!

17th May 2024

I do love to show people before & after photos of gardens I have designed. It’s always great to prove what can be done & for me it’s reassuring to see the end results of my time at my drawing board & the toil involved in creating beautiful gardens. I saw a client yesterday who was originally incredibly nervous about making any changes at all but really wanted a lovely garden. She is now over the moon! …they use the garden constantly & will be celebrating a big birthday in it this summer. I hadn’t realised but yesterday she said …

Would you like a studio tour?

26th July 2022

I work from home here in the Cotswolds & have been lucky enough to build my own studio ( correction! I actually used professional builders!!). We live in a barn conversion & my studio building was originally a Cotswold stone animal shelter when this was all part of the main farm back in the 1800s. It was converted to a double garage 20 years ago but that meant cars had to drive through our courtyard to get there. That was stupid, so we reconfigured it all & connected it via a link extension to the house. We now park cars …

I skived off work on Friday to see Grayson Perry

15th April 2019

I’ve always loved old maps – particularly the illustrated ones of London & the Thames. My parents had a copy of one with ‘fluvius’ written through the water – it was enlarged & filled a large part of a wall in their bedroom but the detail was still small & just wonderful. When I first saw Map Of Days by Grayson Perry it reminded me so much of that image but this perhaps was even better. The detail, word play & humour in it was just brilliant. It was so intriguing I really wanted to see more. I have always …

Chelsea week & lots of media attention!

27th May 2017

It’s been a pretty manic but really interesting week this week. It kicked off last Saturday with photographer Oscar Kornyei from Metro newspaper visiting. We are selling our house & Metro had decided to showcase our place as the cover photo for their property section. Jo Knowsley; a journalist is delightful & was so enthusiastic about our house it was quite infectious! Having lived here for seven years I’d got used to our garden & had forgotten all the stuff we’d changed to make the house our own, but it came flooding back as we were chatting. Oscar …

Using water in the landscape

31st March 2014

Using water in the landscape I love to see water in the landscape – whether it be a lake or a small bowl with a single water lily. This cover photo was taken in Bangkok by a very smart shopping centre. It’s such fun & very stylish which works very well in a public space such as this. It would cool you down in the Thai heat too if you felt the need! I’ve used water in many of the gardens I’ve created as they form fantastic focal points or provide sound to soothe or smother, depending on what might …

Wondering about willow

6th March 2014

Wondering about willow I do love willow. I love it as a tree – particularly the contorted type, but also in its full glory beside a lake. I love it as cut twigs in a vase & I love what creative people can do with it – just look at the top two pictures today. Aren’t they amazing? By artist Emma Stothard. Today’s post about willow came about as we are creating a new parterre here in our own garden. It’s a series of formal squares with a tree in the centre of each (I’ll post photos of it throughout …

A matter of taste

29th January 2014

A matter of taste Whenever I travel I purposely look out new & interesting things to inspire & motivate me. I love to see differences in culture, lifestyle & taste. I was in Brussels last week & I found interesting architecture (some very beautiful – some not as in any city), stylish shops, lots of chocolate specialists where chocolates are displayed liked expensive jewels & the most delicious seafood. I’m not sure why but there are two whole streets right in the centre off the Grand Place we named fish streets that were filled purely with restaurants serving nothing but …

Sculpture in the garden & landscape

27th January 2014

Sculpture in the garden & landscape I love to see sculpture in the landscape & regularly specify pieces where I am able. They are fantastic as sight-lines & vistas or as an unexpected hidden gem. They can be simple little glass baubles to catch the light like these by Neil Wilkin the very talented artist or his amazing sun-catchers shown here at Westonbirt a few years ago. I instantly fell in love with his work when I saw these… I take photos wherever I am as I love the medium. Just look at these – aren’t they amazing! I took …

Chelsea Award Winning Garden Design