Friday 27 August '10
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)

Lilian Bayliss school in Lambeth

dinner on the lawn

Jeremy Deller's drawing workshop

Boat trip to Piel Island

digging over the ground at our allotment at Monk Coniston

Forest disco thanks to Glenn Boulter

The school visit from a group of Portuguese speaking kids from the Lilian Bayliss school in Lambeth was great fun. Jeremy Deller came and did some drawing with them as these will be shown alongside his new film at the Sao Paulo Biennial.

Posted by Maria Benjamin on 27/08/10 at 10:18 0 Comments

Topics: 'Jeremy Deller' 'Sao Paulo Biennial'

Thursday 19 August '10
(from Lawson Park Blog)

British Lop

We bought a couple of weaners a few weeks ago, two very cute 2 month old British Lop pigs. Although they look like standard, everyday pigs they are the rarest of the six British rare breeds, but still very edible. One is for fattening up and one we will keep for breeding. Before they go their separate ways, they are loving their lush lodgings.

Originally posted at www.lawsonpark.org/blog/3832/english-lop on 19/08/10 at 23:03 0 Comments

Thursday 12 August '10
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)

Sandwich my Compliment

Our boys Juneau Projects have put our Eastside Projects (Birmingham) Decent Proposal The Musical online here for you audio fans. Karen's microphone's a bit indistinct but it's all good fun. Also features Bedwyr Williams....

Posted by Karen Guthrie on 12/08/10 at 16:18 1 Comment

Monday 26 July '10
(from Lawson Park Blog)

"Future Orchard"

Alistair did a nice new site map for the NGS day, featuring a sketch of the "Future Orchard" at the top of our Wildflower Meadow. This is currently just a mown stock-fenced paddock with 24 blobs of mulch set at regular intervals where this coming winter we will plant some very young fruit 'maidens' (as young grafted apple plants are known).

As with all good childcare we'll then ignore them for the best part of a decade - before (we hope) realising they have turned out rather well and enjoying the fruits of our labours. For now - like all fanatical gardeners I am already working on next year - I am sourcing the 24 trees, 6 of the most altitude, wind and rain-proof varieties from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

So far I have:

'Scotch Bridget' - a locally grafted specimen, she does well in Cumbria I am told

'Gravenstein', 'Brownlees Russet', 'Duke of Devonshire' (Bred at nearby Holker), 'Mere de Menage', 'Monarch', 'Keswick Codlin' and 'Hawthornden' - from the lovely R V Roger Northern fruit specialists

From Irish Seed Savers I'll be ordering 'Yellow Pitcher', 'April Queen', 'Cavan Sugar Cane', 'Kemp' and 'Keegan's Crab' which apparently isn't a crab.

Finally, Wales will be represented by 'Cissy', 'Bardsey', 'St Cecilia', 'Pig Aderyn', 'Croen Mochyn' and a 'Snowdon Queen' pear - yes a pear, found at 1000' on the slopes of Snowdon!

As the nice man at supplier Gwynfor Growers says "that should love Coniston!'

Originally posted at www.lawsonpark.org/blog/3827/future-orchard on 26/07/10 at 19:18 0 Comments

Monday 26 July '10
(from Lawson Park Blog)

When we're not open to the public...

Woodland Garden looking over Old Man of Coniston

...the garden looks like this

Originally posted at www.lawsonpark.org/blog/3826/when-we-re-not-open-to-the-public... on 26/07/10 at 19:16 0 Comments

Monday 19 July '10
(from Lawson Park Blog)

Thanks to the weatherproof visitors.....

....who braved the rain for the third NGS Open Garden here at Lawson Park - numbers were up on last year! One lady fell in the stream en route but was very decent about it, and one chap told me that Lawson Park used to be a dairy 'farm' (something about being bordered by 2 streams...), which was the first I'd heard of it.....

Thanks also to all family, friends and staff who helped out.

Originally posted at www.lawsonpark.org/blog/3825/thanks-to-the-weatherproof-visitors..... on 19/07/10 at 12:16 0 Comments

Monday 19 July '10
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)

Bronstein's column comes down...

Spanish artist Fernando Garcia Dory assists Adam

Pablo Bronstein's chicken coop column enjoyed a day up for the NGS Open Garden...

Posted by Karen Guthrie on 19/07/10 at 11:25 0 Comments

Topics: 'Fernando Garcia Dory' 'Pablo Bronstein' 'post-modernism'

Wednesday 30 June '10
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)

Craft Salon at The Mechanics Institute

Charlie bends wood

Adam throws pots

We ran a Craft Salon to run alongside the Coniston Arts and Crafts Annual Exhibition held in the village hall. The salon took place in the library where we tucked away the unsightly book carousels and Romance novels and displayed instead bits of pottery, glass, metal work and books from our collection and library. We had artists, craft people, and historians talking and showing. Charlie Whinney and his demonstration of how to steam-bend wood got the biggest round of applause though Adam's history of the Arts and Crafts Movement demonstrated by the throwing of pots came a very close second.

Posted by Maria Benjamin on 30/06/10 at 20:06

Topics: 'Arts and Crafts' 'craft'

Wednesday 30 June '10
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)

Recent visitors

Tidy Architecture Students

Extra Special People

We have been busy over the last couple of weeks with a group of German Architecture students and tutors who stayed at Lawson Park and Low Parkamoor and thought about issues of land use, commons law and access rules while helping tidy our messy wood pile. The left and another group of Extra Special People from Birmingham's Eastside Projects arrived. The weekend consisted of hard toil in the fields for some, and for the others, a social couple of days at the Craft Salon at The Mechanics Institute where we organised lectures and demonstrations in the library as part of the Coniston Arts and Crafts Society Annual Exhibition.

Posted by Maria Benjamin on 30/06/10 at 19:37

Topics: 'craft' 'Eastside Projects'

Thursday 24 June '10
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)

Late at Tate - You Tube can Double Dip

Yes for you folks who missed our spectacular at Tate Britain on June 4th, Jesse Rae has kindly youtubed his whole set with the Thistles and Skip Macdonald. Watch out for the Double Dip now.....

Posted by Alistair Hudson on 24/06/10 at 10:38 0 Comments

Topics: 'funk' 'Jesse Rae' 'Tate'

Thursday 24 June '10
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)

Hide and Horn Online

Long time Grizedale collaborator Peter Hodgson now has his own online shop. Do pay it a visit for finely crafted luxury goods in leather, horn, wood, ceramic and a variety of pet food supplies.

Posted by Alistair Hudson on 24/06/10 at 10:31

Friday 18 June '10
(from Lawson Park Blog)

51 Birds at Parkamoor

Parkamoor has a busy summer ahead, just had an 83 year old lady staying for a week, the party spotted 51 species of birds in the immediate area, the top moments being Hawfinches, Redstarts, Ravens and the double whammy of a Peregrine Falcon taking a Wood Warbler right in front of them.

Next week there are 7 German architects of unknown gender

Followed by a group of 5 ESP artists from Birmingham - (Extra Sensory People)

and so on

Originally posted at www.lawsonpark.org/blog/3806/51-birds-at-parkamoor on 18/06/10 at 17:00 0 Comments

Thursday 17 June '10
(from Lawson Park Blog)

Some evenings are special

The silence of the World cup. not a mountain biker, a lakeside screamer, a barking dog

Originally posted at www.lawsonpark.org/blog/3805/some-evenings-are-special on 17/06/10 at 21:56 0 Comments

Thursday 17 June '10
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)

Coniston Arts and Crafts Society Annual Exhibition

Posted by Adam Sutherland on 17/06/10 at 08:39 1 Comment

Topics: 'Arts and Crafts' 'Charlie Gere' 'John Byrne' 'Mechanics Insitute'

Thursday 3 June '10
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)

Cumbria Tragedy

Our deepest sympathies go out to all those affected by this devastating event.

Posted by Adam Sutherland on 03/06/10 at 05:54 0 Comments

Monday 31 May '10
(from Lawson Park Blog)

Learning how

We had to look up how to trench celery in the classic 'The Vegetable Garden Displayed"....

Originally posted at www.lawsonpark.org/blog/3786/learning-how on 31/05/10 at 10:58

Monday 31 May '10
(from Lawson Park Blog)

The Gardens at the end of May

Originally posted at www.lawsonpark.org/blog/3785/the-gardens-at-the-end-of-may on 31/05/10 at 10:54

Saturday 22 May '10
(from Lawson Park Blog)

My other garden's a bit smaller, but better for the shops....

Meconopsis betonicifolia having a go in East London

A quick plug for What will the harvest be?, which is a gorgeous public garden in East London that I designed with Nina Pope and it's now in its second season as a communal 'harvest garden'. A horticultural and social experiment, it allows anyone to come and grow and harvest food and flowers for free and is open dawn to dusk.

We open the garden for London Open Squares weekend on June 12/13th, 10-5pm both days, teas etc are available and we will be giving guided tours all day long, so do please come along.
The address is Baker's Row, London E15 3NF a- a 10 minute walk from West Ham or Stratford train / tubes.

I'm very proud of this project as I've been able to apply so many of the lessons I learnt up here at Lawson Park, and we have even succeeded in growing the rare blue Himalayan poppy there, from seeds harvested from my plants up here.

Originally posted at www.lawsonpark.org/blog/3775/my-other-garden-s-a-bit-smaller-but-better-for-the-shops.... on 22/05/10 at 22:07

Saturday 22 May '10
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)

Manager post @ Florence Centre, Egremont

A great job has come up, originating in our 'Creative Egremont' project a few years back - managing the new arts programme at the Florence Centre in the former mining buildings of Egremont.

See job details here - deadline Friday 11th June

Posted by Karen Guthrie on 22/05/10 at 19:24 0 Comments

Topics: 'Egremont'

Saturday 22 May '10
(from Lawson Park Blog)

Slow down please

Bog garden 2010: Rodgersia in foreground, Adam's timber deer-guard in background

Due to the long, long winter, spring came late here and the last daffodils have only just gone over mid-May. Looking at pictures of the garden this time a few years ago, it was much greener and fuller.

But given our slender means, we are happy for summer to slide in slowly as we spend 5-8.30pm most days now on the land, weeding, sowing, dividing and planting. The legend that is Mr James Herd has been back rerouting the front Farmhouse Garden pathways and retaining walls, creating a rather more formal and rather more massive border than before - about 100 sq metres - almost all filled with propagated plants from existing stock. I'm trying very hard to minimise maintenance all over the garden, using more shrubs where I can and mulching like it's going out of style, using old chipped wood (almost free but ugly) and spent mushroom compost (good looks don't come cheap). A short-term Japanese intern, Mi, has gamely saved the day by planting the orchard hedge with the already in leaf hawthorn James donated to us - it seemed a terrible shame not to get a season ahead with the plan but the scale of the challenge had beaten me and I had resigned myself to postponing it. As long as we water the plants well we can hope it will thrive.

Vegetables begun in the polytunnel and now planted out include pak choi (about to bolt due to too long in the trays I fear), broad beans 'The Sutton Dwarf' (no staking apparently), and spinach 'Bordeaux'. Verdant Leaf beet 'Oriol' has been extraordinarily hardy, the only vegetable to survive the winter's snow and hard, hard frost and still going strong. French shallots (first in in March) are doing well and spring onions and Chinese radish are both showing now.

Originally posted at www.lawsonpark.org/blog/3774/slow-down-please on 22/05/10 at 00:09