Going posh

On Friday Steve and I went to the capital to do some 'advising' on bees and planting in a certain posh area in Central London. In the sort of area where 2 bedroomed apartments sell for £6 million pounds!

One of the gardens we visited to bee inspect!

 After our meeting we headed off in search of lunch.

Pimlico Road: land of men in suits and ladies in pearls with sun glasses on their heads

And this is what we came across, Daylesford - a very lovely organic deli and eatery

Lots of shops with pricey price tags

Inside Daylesford, yummy deli

Great salads

Lots of nice things....

Love the elegant buildings

And all the famous connections

And the cabs heading down Kings Road, the fashionable shopping strasse

There was an exhibition/show about cycling...in Denmark! Can't  seem to get away from my Danish roots, even when I am off to London, lol!  But seriously, the Danes take cycling to a totally different level, and it's actually pleasant to cycle over there; I believe even the crown prince cycles to work.

The reason we sauntered down Kings Road was because I was keen to visit Anthropologie, but we couldn't help having a little giggle about the name of the shop pictured below ;o)

We finally reached Anthropologie and it wasn't disappointing. GOSH what a fab place, imaginatively created and full of fun and colour!

See those blue bowls on the top shelf there, well, a couple of them came home with us....just accidentally, you know

This was truly a pretty shop, and if you ever happen to find yourself in Kings Road, do pop your head in

After a pumpkin spiced latte, we headed home, having had a rather capital day!

Monet goes to College

Another guest blog by Steve

Now, we wouldn't normally recommend sowing seeds at this time of year, but this was an exceptional project. The University of Sussex want some areas of pollinator-friendly vegetation in the heart of the campus, and were poised to go ahead with no delay (I do so love a greenspace manager who says, 'Yes - let's do it. Now!). 

Oh to have the right kit for the job! This cuts, scarifies, rolls, cultivates...

Not wanting to disappoint, we have suggested sowing the 'Monet' mix as a stop-gap; being mainly poppies, it will hopefully germinate quickly and give us a show of colour in the Indian summer we are undoubtedly in for next month (ahem). The sites will then be there and reasonably weed-free so we can do some more ambitious seed-sowing in spring of next year.

A lovely tilth

So, fingers crossed for us - we need a little bit of rain (not too much; during the night would be fine) and some nice warm days for the next three weeks or so. Even though the students are technically off on holiday, we still got lots of expressions of interest and support from passers-by.

Andy Jupp, University of Sussex Estates Manager, mixes seeds with sand

Karin and Andy sowing the mix!

 And this is what it will look like!

For more information about the pollinator friendly seed mixes we provide at FlowerScapes, have a little look here  FlowerScapes