RHS Wisley in the Springtime - pt. 2

Way back in April, I visited RHS Wisley with my mum for a little afternoon out - have a look at my previous post here - but we only live about 20 minutes up the M3 from it, so I was appalled that it took me so long to get around to visiting again! Especially since I found out they had a gorgeous glasshouse (you know I love a glasshouse), which is what this post will feature heavily...

The glasshouse is a fairly recent addition and opened in 2012 (Wisley house and gardens were given to the RHS in 1903), with three sections; you can read about the glasshouse at Wisley here, but it really is fantastic. With it's tropical section, filled with giant palms, hanging orchids, and all the ferns a girl could wish for, I could happily spend hours in there. I loved the arid glasshouse too, filled with beautiful cacti and scented flowers, when I visited.

Keep reading for the orchids...!

RHS Wisley in the Springtime - pt. 1

Way back in April, I visited RHS Wisley with my mum for a little afternoon out. Having been several times when I was a little kid, I really couldn't remember it too well, so we decided to refresh my memory.  We only live about 20 minutes up the M3 from it, so I was appalled that it took me so long to get around to visiting, especially since I found out they had a gorgeous glasshouse (you know I love a glasshouse).  

I know that I'm a bit out of season with these pictures - but I had so many to resize and edit, because everything there was so beautiful, that I just hadn't had the time to get around it, and it seemed like such a daunting task - so now I have finally got around to it, I think I'll have to split it into a couple of posts...! 

I particularly loved walking around the initial gardens when you come in, in the spring these are full of magnolia trees, cherry blossoms and acers, all sorts of brightly coloured spring flowers to admire as you walk through to the glass house, which really had my heart.
This pink tree is my absolute favourite - I'm determined to get one for my dad for his garden: it's something like a chinese cedar/mahogany, but the name is 'Flamingo' - which is the most perfect pink with white trunks.

Keep reading to see the bonsai trees...!

The Barbican Conservatory

The first time I visited the Barbican - it was on a sleety day in March, with my friend Tam to see an exhibition. I had seen pictures, and knew I would enjoy the architecture, the feel of the place, but didn't realise quite how much I would love it. I love the shapes, the styles, the plants and the water mixed with the harsh grey brick everywhere. 

At one point, I discovered that there was a conservatory there, and made it my mission to find it and visit it: a simple task, you might say. It only opens on Sunday's, and until very the end of 2014, I worked most Sundays. I think I made three attempts at visiting it, even getting as far as Waterloo once, before having to turn back. 

For my thoughts on the conservatory, keep reading..

ode to an english summer

In the winter I have visions of an English summer, of prancing around in sun-dresses and Birkenstocks, drinking Pimms, and tossing my hair back without a care in the world. But the reality is a humidity that makes you look like lion, hippy sandals that rub, being so sweaty on the train it should be illegal, and I forget that I don't even like Pimms. It's like a crappier sangria.

Sometimes the humidity will break, though, and you get those really excellent, snatched summer moments, when you can smell flowers in the evening and listen to the red kites calling above, whilst drinking chilled white wine in the garden and you feel all pleasantly tired from a long walk somewhere, and the tops of your shoulders and your nose are just a bit too pink but you know it will fade to a soft brown, taking the edge off your year round paleness.

This is how I spent Saturday afternoon - the garden table broke so I just stretched out on the lawn with a bowl of sushi to pick at - my favourite magazine and a glass of iced tea (which turned into white wine as the sun set). The rose-bush in my parents garden is in full swing - I'm trying to persuade my dad he needs a peony bush - it began to feel like a good English summer, not a smidgen of humidity could be felt.

spring forward: cherry blossom season

Why does spring seem to take an age to roll around, and when it does, it seems to come all at once? I feel like after the excitement of Christmas,and then the dull stretch of January and February, March and April are the most exciting months. They give me that autumn-feeling, when I'm desperate for the crisp weather and the change of the leaves. So you slog through March, taking peeks at the cherry tree in the garden, which is stubbornly refusing to show any signs of progress, until one morning you wake up, and the whole garden is green again, and the blossom appears literally overnight.

So I apologise if you're sick of seeing a thousand snapshots of cherry blossom plastered all over your Instagram or blog feed - but I really couldn't care less, haha. I'm happy to pretend it's not grey and miserable outside this morning, but spring is fully here - and that means summer weather is just around the corner. 

This is the stunning cherry tree that lives in my dad's garden, and has this stunning white blossom all over it. It lasts about two weeks in this state, and it's already shedding it's petals all over the garden, but for those sunny two weeks, it is alive with bees, which makes me inordinately pleased to hear the background fuzz of them crawling all over the tree.

autumn's swan song

I took these pictures a couple of weekends back, before everything took a turn for the worse with my grandma, when autumn was still raging brightly, and the rain November was yet to fully descend on us.. A few weeks later and the tree's have lost all their leaves, the sun rarely makes an appearance and the temperature has gone from brisk to bracing. I don't hate it though, because I know the dark nights don't last for long, we only have a month or so until they start getting longer again, I know the rain won't last forever. Even on a dark Friday morning in a sad little cemetery on a hill over-looking the disused red-brick mills of Manchester, when the wind is so bitterly cold it brings tears to my eyes and my toes take an hour to regain feeling... I still don't hate it because it all feels necessary.

plant life

Gradually, I am trying to turn my room into a jungle. I am collecting plants that remind me of something from The Drowned World. Ideally, I would live in a giant greenhouse and be surrounded by cacti and succulents and giant palm-trees. Until that day, I'll be content with these little ones. 

golden hour

It is officially the last month at the allotment, and that's pretty much all I have to say. All we have left to pick are some potatoes and a few sad onions. I took these photographs a couple of weeks ago as the sun was setting, but I'm going to try and take my good camera down one day this week and get a few last photographs to remember the place..

a love letter to cow parsley

In between being back at work this week, trying to find another job, several doctors appointments, gym sessions and sewing sessions and lunch with a friend.. I have been spending warm, lazy evenings down at the allotment. It usually involves me throwing myself down in the long grass under the steadily growing apple trees, with a handful of not-quite-ripe-enough raspberries, lazily watering my dad's potatoes whilst the sun goes down and trying not to scare away the deer and woodpeckers - it's sort of perfect. 

A few of the allotments have been abandoned over the year, and in their place all sorts of wild-flowers have grown. My favourite being the wild poppies and the cow parsley. I could probably write an essay about how much I love these little white flowers, but I'll save you from that. I'll just tell you how I used to collect them in big bunches every June, and still cannot refrain from snatches up bouquets of them even now. 

Oh, and I just had to share this song I found on Gillian's June playlist - I can see it being the soundtrack to my summer..

bedroom snippets; greenery

I've recently put a lot of effort into re-decorating my bedroom, and getting my bits and bobs sorted - I'm hoping to make this into something of a feature, because I have lots of nice things that I want to show someone, as I'm quite proud of what I've done with the place. My room has had a few incarnations and I promised I would show you when it was done.. So here we go! 

First to show you is my small collection of plants.. I love houseplants and cacti and succulents and they improve the air quality (particularly spider plants and such) so I really love having them around. I have all sorts scattered around my room, and the house actually, but these are my favourites. I think I'm pretty good at growing them too, as the spider plant on the left in the bottom photo was a 'baby' that a friend had given me, and now has tiny 'babies' of its own. Pretty neat. (Cat ornament is something my mum had when she was kid and I love it haha.) 

autumn colours

Not much to say today, just a few snaps of my dads beautiful Japanese Acers in my garden this week - they're lovely trees all year round, but in Autumn they are truly things of beauty. He has a few that are yet to turn colour, you can see them in the background, and are still green so when they go I'll be sure to take some more photos. I want to go for a walk around some local woods and try and get some more photographs this week coming; I really love this time of year!