Gardening Leave.

The Gardening Leave charity was set up by Anna Baker Cresswell in 2007. It seeks to improve the mental and physical well being of ex servicemen (and women) using horticultural therapy.

A site has been started in London, following the success of two other sites in Scotland. They used walled garden areas which provide a conducive environment for the horticultural therapy to work.

More here

What a brilliant idea, given what sacrifices these man and women make. And fascinating to see the power of gardening, growing, and plants in action.

Lost and Found

Nurseryman John Hoyland

How much of yourself do you put in a photograph you take? If you don't like dogs, how much trouble to you go to to get a picture where the dog looks as good as the subject? What do dogs say about their owners? (Please don't send answers, just in case a dog is reading this.)

John, thanks for a great shoot.

Garden Design Magazine, US.

Childhood, home revisited.

How to Sell Yourself

In the rag trade, and it's spring, chuck some flowers in the window, even if you're selling floral dresses... But what on earth are therapy culottes and therapy vests? Maybe they keep you Jung. The old ones are the best.

If you're chugging on the high street, selling charity (?), you're meant to get eye contact with your target while walking backwards. Great demonstration of eye avoidance tactics here by three pedestrians.

Wooden Churches.

Vauxhall

John Grimshaw's spring.

My grateful thanks go to John Grimshaw for allowing me to photograph his flowers and where he works.

Would having a dog improve your quality of life?

There's plenty of anecdotal evidence that says it would. I recently met someone who had eighteen cats.

That's all I have to say on the subject.

Irina Werning

My nephew sent me the link to this photographer's site. The Argentinian photographers name is Irina Werning, and the project is titled 'back to the future'. She recreates old photographs with the original subjects with fantastic attention to detail, including location, props, and film grain.

Worth a look, it's beautifully produced.

Plants on the Equator.

It's a very strange place, where elephants have been found at 16,000 feet and a leopard at 17,000 feet. And despite being almost slap bang (scientific phrase) on the equator there's snow too, even a glacier, though not for long if you believe all that CC stuff.

I didn't see a leopard or an elephant, though not for want of trying, and a fair amount of huffing and puffing.

If you want a brilliant account of climbing this mountain, go no further than 'No picnic on Mount Kenya', the true story of three Italian POWs who escaped from their British camp in Kenya during WW2, just to climb it (and then return to their camp!). A movie was made of the book, called 'The Ascent', and if you have a copy, I'd love to borrow it.

Despite being far better equipped than the Italians (who had to make their own climbing gear) it was still hard work and pretty nippy at height. Recommended though.

Vivian Maier

You may have heard some of the news that's been circulating about the photography by this woman who died in 2009. She worked as a nanny in Chicago, taking photographs in the street in her spare time. Her work was unearthed by John Maloof, who came across her negatives in a suitcase in a sale. He tracked down a further hoard, including unprocessed rolls of film, and has spent the last four years organising the photographs.

Eighty photographs can be seen at the Hilaneh von Kories Gallery in Hamburg, in a show titled 'Twinkle twinkle little star'.

There are obvious visual echoes of the work of Dianne Arbus amongst others, but it's refreshing to see work of 'unknown' street photographers. Part of the appeal may be in the angle of view, using a camera where the photographer looks down into the viewfinder, resulting in photographs that are taken from below the eye level of the subject. This is seldom seen today, due in part to the use of medium format cameras with eye level viewfinders.

Street photography, to some extent, has become more difficult to practice, especially if you point a camera at people. For some reason there appears to be more resistance to being photographed in public. Heaven help you if (especially if you are male)you point your camera at a child in the street, however innocent your intention may be. People used to joke about you being from the 'tax office' but now it's almost as if photographing people in public is sinister. How nice it would be to return to the days when it was not so, but the genie seems to be so far out of the bottle that it's unlikely. Even the Met police have tried to curtail photography in some areas, as have the National Trust. Anyone who has pulled out a camera in a shopping precinct will know that it's a red rag to the little men of the peaked cap brigade.

So it's great to see these wonderful photographs from a time when street photography wasn't seen as being harmful.

Alottments. And TLN.

My thanks to Naomi Sachs for the following:

http://www.healinglandscapes.org/blog/2011/01/the-allure-of-allotment-gardens-an-interview-with-photographer-charlie-hopkinson.

It's well worth looking at the work of TLN while you're there. Very very interesting. More to follow, with photographs.

On Blogging.

Recently a friend bemoaned the lack of postings on my blog. I admit it, I'm an infrequent blogger (loath that word). Perhaps blog activity is a barometer that reflects the rest of ones life. Or, that sometimes there doesn't seem to be anything going on that's worth putting on a blog.

Not so.

I came across some photographs on Flickr the other day, while I was researching something. The person who had posted them has put a caption alongside to the effect that he didn't know who would be interested in the images, he was just going through the motions. 'Au contraire' as Del Boy might say. So, in that vein, here are some images taken yesterday, that I can't imagine anyone would be interested in. I even question why I took them.......

Phone me, if you can remember the number.

Remember when you had, in your brain, before auto dialing, countless phone numbers. How do you split up a number?

This is my work one: 07976 402 891. That's how I break it up. How off putting when I see it broken up 0797 6402 891 or any other countless variations.

Like wise, London Numbers. 0208 852 6636. Yes? Or should it be 020 8852 6636? Or, are there more important things to worry about?

Read on

Whilst I'm on books. Below is a new book by an unknown author. More to follow, but it's nice to see what a novel looks like before the publishers get their hands on it. And when they do, if they use one of my photographs on the cover all the better.

Crime Pays

Crime writers are well paid, goes the saying. I'm not a big devourer of crime (or mystery as it's known in America). Most of the exposure I get to fictional crime is via tv shows. In Oxford there can be up to ten murders a day when either Morse or Lewis are on shift. Someone ought to have a look at halving the crime rate there by suspending those two. Better perhaps to read the work of:

Mark Billingham, Val McDermid and Stephen Booth.

Dear Bill,

The tin on the right of the photo belonged to my Mother. She wasn't an ardent Royalist; she used it to keep her buttons in, and it was part of her sowing box. I once mentioned this to a well known (female) garden presenter, and also said I thought it might make an interesting mini photo project; photographing the boxes and tins that women kept their buttons in. I was told, with an absolutely straight face, that it was a sexist idea, and that I should include men in the project. Actually, including men would be a good idea, but without them? Sexist? I took a deep breath at the time.

Anyway, it's a red herring. The reason for the photo above is that I saw an identical tin , for sale, in a cafe in Covent Garden, while I was waiting to go and photograph an actor there, so I bought it (it's on the left in the picture). I wonder if there are loads of them around? They'd make a nice collection; so, if you're sitting on one (figuratively speaking) and would like to sell it, please contact me.

This winter will doubtless have supplied enough images for Christmas cards for many years to come. What effect will the recent weather have on the sale of such cards? Everyone with a digital camera can now take a half decent photograph, so making your own has never been easier. Plus, I've received some e cards this year, a trend I'd love to see die, but I wouldn't bet on it. Definitely not the time to go into the Christmas Card business. Talking of Christmas Cards, have they been banned where you are yet? Or, at least been forced to be called something else, like a Seasons Greeting Card? Sad, innit?

Lastly, I can't remember if you were swishing about on the slopes of Verbier in the early 1980s? I'd love to hear from anyone who was, so I could have my memory massaged, or even re booted. I can remember the Farm club, and the Milk Bar, but precious little else, so please contact me if you can help.

Not yet received an e card for the season we're in? Feel free to treat the one above, as being specifically sent to you. No really, the pleasure's all mine.