These are dark days indeed.
All traces of life slowly fade from the landscape as the hours shorten and shadows lengthen.
The autumnal dance now done, the trees lie brittle and bare to the sky. The last perennials splay and shiver like a ghost army defeated by the rain and wind.
But with this kind of darkness, there is nothing to fear.
There’s a profusion of things happening lately – running on a scale from good to great.
Here’s the major bit of news: The New Perennialist recently won the Gold Award For ‘Best Overall Electronic Media’ in the 2015 Garden Writers Association Media Awards.
Gold winners were announced at the 67th GWA Annual Symposium held in Pasadena, California.
I was a little stunned by the news. And then elated. Had to pour a dram of single malt. My Facebook friends were euphoric, which is actually kinda touching.
Few tourists think to visit Groningen, the northernmost capital of the Netherlands.
My tattered copy of Lonely Planet lists the main local activity in the sparsely populated region as wadlopen or mud-walking out in the open flats of the North Sea. They also mention something about pig farms.
From what I saw, they’re missing out. Because Groningen also happens to be an ideal base from which to explore an alternate universe of garden design. And that’s exactly what we set out to do last July on the ‘Gardens Illustrated Tour of the Dutch Northern provinces ‘ led by English garden writer, Noel Kingsbury and his wife, Jo Elliott.
