Well sighted heroic mice

The longest Christmas holiday in the last 2000 years seems to have passed in a frozen flash. Lawson Park remained frozen solid throughout, the mice have eaten an errant clementine - losing 3 of their number to the traps but the horde surged on, the deer have eaten all the purple kale and all the tropical fish have died due to the failure of their tank heater. All in all a little light death and destruction but nothing momentous. 

The builders are back with promises of mid March finish dates, although it does seem unlikely, the one official opening is booked for 10th July so seems like plenty of leeway.

Dairy Happens

I recently received this image of the Migratory Dairy School, the only known photo, a Ruskin inspired idea executed by the reliable Cannon Rawnsley to huge success. The school took eduction to the people, in this case teaching farmers how to farm diary cows and produce butter. The school, centred on a caravan and tent, set up for 10 day periods in small villages in Cumbria and helped many farmers out of economic straights during the 1890 recession, anyone for butter. 

http://blip.tv/file/1308945

Thomas Rowlandson (detail)

The GSK Contemporary Season opens at the Royal Academy on Thursday, you can see the slightly unwilling Grizedale contribution on the ground floor for free - the rest you have to pay for - it makes sense as it seems we and the artists have done it for free. There are some Rowlandson images that better illustrate our feelings but they are a little to explicit to post. This one is actually of the Royal Academy main staircase.

Deadline is Nov 10th, beg all your inspired friends to apply.

See more info on the post here

I also worked with composer Matthew Welch and the Depauw Tiger Pep
Band to create a marching band version of Black Sabbath's Iron Man,
that closely adheres to the original song in composition."

Go see http://www.agrifashionista.tv/home/

Next month sees the launch of William Pope L's commission and Nathaniel Mellors is up after Frieze week to film us dressed as neanderthals having a bar-b-que. Hang on.....

It's meadow cutting time again, well a bit late actually. The artist group Reactor are bringing their Geodesic dome living utopians - the Geodesians - to develop a series of systems for the processing and use of bracken at all its stages of its development. Hopefully this will provide the thatch for the Lawson Park porch, we discovered that the farm buildings had been thatched with bracken back in the 18th century. Anyone feeling the urge to work hard there are lots of opportunities get in touch re accommodation and food - the Geodisians have a special diet but we will be providing a more standard and hearty fare.

The NGS in Cumbria has more recently included a number of unusual and atypical gardens, among them Sprint Mill, near Kendal, a beautiful and productive garden surrounding an old mill. Mrs XXX would find there a very much smaller vegetable garden and an even more informal layout and relaxed maintenance regime than that at Lawson Park. However, like Lawson Park, it widens the palette of the Scheme by introducing more varied approaches to gardening than present in the many ‘classic’ Lake District gardens we know so well. These approaches include diversity in planting, design and maintenance which will not be shared by all garden lovers.
It is to the NGS' credit that such different gardens can be included under their umbrella.

We welcomed well over 200 guests on the NGS day and have not received any other written, email, telephone or in person negative comments.

All parts of the LP garden – like any this season – were adversely affected by the extraordinarily high rainfall this summer. Previously stable areas became hazardous with wet, and we did our best to signpost these. It would have been a shame to have closed off entire areas of the garden (or worse, cancelled the day), given that able-bodied people could navigate most of the site with care, so we decided to go ahead with the routes as planned.

The entrance to the meadow was staffed and visitors were warned there verbally that areas were damp and slippy. However, the NGS listings did state that the garden was not wheelchair accessible. Next year’s listing includes a more explicit warning to the less able-bodied about the terrain to be expected.

Footpath / access
Grizedale Arts’ environmental policy, as well as limited parking on site, discouraged visitor car use on the NGS Day.
The footpath from the car park at Machell’s Coppice is maintained by the Forestry Commission, not GA. We have passed on comments regarding its condition and on inspection it transpired that it had been vandalised. The FC are now improving it. We have also revised the timing on the NGS entry as we realise that this is misleading. The alternative vehicle track offered much steadier walking terrain and perhaps we should have encouraged its use in preference.

The minibus was provided as a courtesy to visitors who needed it rather than as a provision for all. As it was impossible to anticipate visitor numbers, we estimated that one minibus would suffice, and there were periods in the day when it was indeed empty.

Artist’s residency base:
Building work has been severely delayed due to unforeseen structural problems, hence the extent of progress on the NGS day was difficult to anticipate at the time of going to press. However, the house was not advertised as open to the public. The Lawson Park website (address included in the publicity) contains clear information on the progress of the Lawson Park building. Many visitors were interested in the building work in progress and commented favourably on being able to visit at this time.

Informal herbaceous:
The garden is consciously designed to be naturalistic and so includes less familiar plants and many allowed to grow unchecked and to set seed. Borders are nontheless kept largely weedfree and in excellent health.

Small-holding:
The main vegetable and fruit area is some 80m long by 20-30m wide which cannot honestly be described as “very small”, even for a rural area!
The ‘Paddy fields’ (several acres) were not opened to the public on NGS day due to the ground conditions (but were marked on the map) and included a range of crops – the potatoes on sale on the day were from there. The piggery is also there.
Keeping livestock on site had been suspended during building works.

The apiary:
The bees are regularly inspected and have suffered wet-weather starvation, which caused one hive of the four to gradually die out. It was finally checked and removed shortly after the NGS day, and there is no disease present anywhere in the apiary, hence the hive posed no risk.
The bees are maintained with assistance from Furness Beekeepers, a very reputable association.

The polytunnel:
Was not open to the public, marked ‘Private’, so was not part of the NGS Day.
Contains a trial of 3 tomato varieties (underplanted with herb seedlings) and 3 varieties of cucumber.

Wildflower meadow:
See general comments on weather above. The NGS date is late for meadow blossom, however, varieties in bloom on the NGS day included field scabious, sanguisorba, purple loosestrife, bramble, meadowsweet, angelica, vetch, speedwell and much knapweed alongside unusual and common grasses. More familiar meadow plants such as ox-eye daisies and cornflowers are generally not found in upland meadows in the area.
The meadow has recently been assessed and commended by a number of environmental agencies (including Cumbria Wildlife Trust) for its diversity and wildlife value, counting over 200 plant species. It is being looked at to use as a ‘seed bank’ meadow to sow others.

Grizedale Arts, Sept. 15th 08