Glassblowing a Christmas Bauble

LAST year I had the pleasure of being invited to Peter Layton’s glassmaking studio in London Bridge to have a go at making a paperweight.

It was a brilliant experience as I had never done anything like it before - and the paperweight itself while obviously not up to Peter’s standard, didn’t look too bad for a first attempt. 

Not only that I was able to chat to Peter about his more than 50 year career, the inspiration for his work and his studio and gallery which is situated in a converted warehouse in Bermondsey Street under the shadow of the Shard.

During the session I was taught how to make the piece by Peter’s studio manager Bruce Marks who has worked there for about 15 years and is responsible for some of the beautiful works of art that grace the gallery.

A few weeks ago I was invited to go back to have another go - not to better my attempt at making a paperweight but this time to make a Christmas bauble.

It is one of a regular series of classes that are offered year round by Peter and his team of artists and I can heartily recommend it.

They vary from beginner’s classes to those for people who are a bit more experienced as well as seasonal events such as learning how to make a Christmas bauble.

Each one is held at the studio which is at the back of the building behind the gallery and where visitors can pop in to see the artists at work. The beginner’s event is a day-long affair in which you can make about four pieces - all of which you get to keep.

I did not hesitate so last week I found myself back in Bermondsey Street and once again under the watchful eye of Bruce.

To begin with he showed me and my fellow makers what the end result could look like before proceeding to give us a quick demo. I say quick because it seemed to be in no time at all that he’d created the perfect bauble but it was utterly mesmerising to watch him at work.

Needless to say we were all a bit nervous - not least because to create the ball shape we would have to “blow” the liquid glass before moulding it - something none of us had ever done before but we were all itching to have a go.

The first step in the process was to put on protective goggles and sleeve and learn more about the tools we would need and how to use them.

Then it was time to select the colours we wanted our baubles to be. They are actually made up of powdered or tiny shard like pieces of glass. After much deliberation I chose red, purple, blue and orange but the palate included all those in the rainbow and more besides. 

We were each given a long metal blowing iron onto which Bruce got a blob of fiery red molten glass from the furnace - which he reliably informed us was an astonishing 1,100 degrees farenheit.

Next we carefully dipped and then pressed the glass into our selected colours one at a time so that there was a different colour on each side. Then it was time to take the rod back to the furnace to heat the glass up again. Bruce told us that once out of the heat, glass cools incredibly quickly so it was important to maintain the temperature in order for it to remain malleable enough to mould and manipulate.

Whilst in the furnace we had to turn the rod constantly, which had the effect of creating a swirling pattern of the colours, before bringing it back out and smoothing it on a stainless steel work bench.

Then it was back to the furnace to collect another blob of red hot glass to coat the original, after which it was turned and twisted on the rod again. Once it was nice and smooth Bruce blew down the rod sharply to create an air pocket. This would ensure the bauble was not a solid piece.

Then it was all about blowing and shaping it to create the perfect bauble shape.

It required a huge amount of puff to blow down the inside of the rod but Bruce was constantly encouraging and helpful. It was amazing to see it balloon out slowly after each time I blew down the rod.

After expelling air from the lungs down the rod and into the glass it was all about turning the rod to smooth and shape the piece. This was done by means of a Jack, a tool that looked like a pair of pliers as well as a wad of newspapers that had been soaked in water which I held in my hand and onto which the glass was moulded and shaped.

It was a complex process and required complete concentration - one false move and the glass could break, drop or lose its shape - and of course for any novice in charge of all this hot glass it was a bit nerve-wracking - but it’s actually quite quick and in less than an hour I had created a sizeable and completely spherical bauble. 

Bruce helped tap the bauble from the rod before adding another blob of molten glass on the top which he shaped into a hook. Then it was into the annealing oven for 36 hours to allow it to cool without cracking.

It was a fantastic experience and one I’ll never forget. And the resulting bauble? Well, when I took it out of its box I was really pleased with the swirling pattern of blues, pinks, orange and purple that all the twisting and turning had created. It was also heavier than I had anticipated but that is because of the double layer of glass that it’s made of.

Fun and creative it’s completely addictive and I’m hooked.

Peter Layton’s Glassblowing Studio is open six days a week in Bermondsey Street. Visit www.londonglassblowing.co.uk for full listings on courses and the gallery.

My trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau....

SIX million people were killed during the Holocaust of which 1.2million were at the notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps. Kate Gould joined 200 students from South London on a day trip organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust to these camps and to see the work being done to keep the horrors of what happened there f

IT'S more than 70 years since the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau near the town of Oswiecim in Poland were liberated by the Allies.

The camps are perhaps the most potent and recognisable reminder of the Holocaust - the systematic extermination of groups deemed by the Nazis to be not worthy of living - Jews, criminals, Poles, Russians, Roma and prisoners of war.

Although the exact figure is not known, it is estimated that six million people perished during the Holocaust of which 1.5million were children and of which 1.2million were killed at Auschwitz.

And they came to these camps on a lie - despite being told by the Nazis to bring their posessions as they were going to be evacuated to a better place, most were gassed or executed.

So to stand under the gates at Auschwitz with the famous Arbeit Macht Frei (work makes you free) in iron writing over the top of it, is somewhat overwhelming.

In fact nothing can prepare you on a visit to Auschwitz and its sibling Birkenau - the camps where unimaginable horrors to human beings took place between 1940 and 1945.

I was invited to go on a day trip to see the camps by the Holocaust Educational Trust on Thursday of last week. I went with about 200 students from schools across South London as part of the Trust's Lessons From Auschwitz project.

The project aims to increase the knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust on the premise that "hearing is not like seeing".

As well as the visit to Poland it also includes seminars and workshops for the students - aged between 16 and 18 - to share and pass on their experiences of what they have seen at first hand.

And so it was that after a ridiculously early start we arrived at Auschwitz I, somewhat bleary eyed to step into the place where so many died.

It was a very sombre moment to step over the threshold. It was snowing, bitterly cold and there was an eeriness to it.

Now a museum complex, still surrounded by three rows of barbed wire, Auschwitz I comprises rows of buildings which house artefacts from the war including clothing, pots, pans and even hair that were seized by the Nazis, as well as the gas chambers and crematorium.

During our visit our guide Marta Kadluczka took us to some of the many rooms full of these personal posessions.

We saw a mountain of 40,000 shoes, many of which were beautifully made, colourful and stylish, a cabinet of prosthetic limbs including many for children, one of brushes, combs and shaving brushes, another full of colourful pots, pans, kettles and other kitchen staples, one full of spectacles and one of luggage, all marked with names and dates.

And then there was the hair - a huge mound of it behind glass, some of which was made into clothes for the Germans.

We also saw the empty gas cannisters which contained the infamous Zyklon B gas. Marta told us how those arriving at the camp gates were told to strip off for a shower but instead were taken to the chambers into which the gas was piped. It was a slow and agonising death with those inside frightened, scrambling to try and escape and not being able to. To be standing, free, in the place where so many lost their lives felt almost disrespectful.

While many who arrived at the camps were gassed some were kept as prisoners to work in the camps, cleaning out the latrines or cooking in the kitchens.

Conditions in the camp were beyond dreadful and in most cases deadly as even those who were kept as prisoners were susceptable to disease or starvation - or worse, torture, beatings, hanging, medical experiments or being shot at the "death wall".

Many slept on the bare floor, a few fortunate souls had straw to sleep on or slept three to a bunk, but the sanitary conditions were abysmal and there was no privacy.

All vestiges of human dignity were systematically stripped away in the most ruthless way possible, designed to degrade and destroy. Man's inhumanity to man at its worst and in a place where there was no limit to how badly and inhumanely people were treated.

In the corridors we saw photographs in frames of just a few of the many prisoners who were judged to be of use to the Nazis - complete with their names, dates of birth, the dates of when they arrived and of when they died.

The statistics of people surviving an average of three months in these attrocious conditions was made much more tangible.

For me though it was seeing a broken doll in a cabinet surrounded by clothes belonging to children and babies that made my whole being ache with sadness and anger.

In short, seeing all these things that belonged to human beings made it all horribly real. Like I said, nothing can prepare you for what you see and how you feel. It was chilling - and it wasn't just the weather.

Normally chatty teens were left silenced by the things they saw and we walked through the buildings and the corridors within them in silence.

We were equally quiet as we stepped into the gas chamber and for many it was too much to take in.

After that it was a short journey to Auschwitz-Birkenau. If you think Auschwitz is big, Birkenau is staggering in its size. It was the largest of the more than 40 camps and sub-camps that made up the Auschwitz complex and was made up of nine areas, each surrounded by a barbed wire fence.

Entering through the main gate the infamous railway track disappears into the distance.

It is utterly vast and at its height we were told that 90,000 prisoners were kept there at any one time. Now most of it has been razed to the ground with only chimney stacks remaining.

However there is one row of huts that have been kept. It was here we were told that hundreds were crammed into these tiny, claustrophobic buildings in living conditions that are beyond comprehension.

A long bench with holes in it turns out to be a mass lavatory where men were given but a few seconds at specific times twice a day to use. Dysentry was rife as were diseases and rats. It is simply impossible to fully appreciate the conditions that these people had to suffer.

By this time, the weather was getting worse, it was snowing, there was an arctic wind blowing and we were all shivering with the cold. The only way to keep ourselves going was to keep moving. So we walked in sombre silence down alongside the railway track where so many were herded into wagons, one of which remains stationary, lonely on the track, and taken to their deaths.

We followed the track to the end of the line where we saw the remains of two gas chambers and the crematorium. We saw the ash pits, the steps leading down to the chambers and the woods beyond.

We then were taken to the last remaining building which housed a wall of photos of men, women and children, in happier times before the war. No one could have foreseen the terrors and horrors of what was to come for them and no one knows what happened to these people - were they victims of Auschwitz-Birkenau or did they manage to escape. It was an incredibly sobering moment.

Our visit ended with a short memorial service after which we all lit candles and laid them on the railway tracks.

The day was an emotionally charged one not just for me but for the students I was with.

For Fabian Smith-Williams, a history A level student at Haberdasher's Askes in New Cross said it was an experience he said he would never forget.

He said: "I've studied history for seven years and how the Nazis dehumanised the Jews but this is something else. This is the reality of what happened.

"I'm shivering with five layers of clothes right now and can't imagine what it must have been like in this weather for the people who were here who had their shoes and clothes taken from them."

Fellow student Mo Carpenter said: "It was harrowing to be here and it's hard to grasp that it actually happened."

Zavina Eguakun, a student at La Retraite Roman Catholic Girls School in Clapham said: "It opened my eyes to a lot of what went on. Even though it happened a long time ago there are still issues today and we need to be more aware.

"The room with the hair was the most poignant for me - that really got to me. It just looked so ruthless because these were real human beings."

Her fellow student Niamh O'Connell agreed. She said: "It made it all real. You learn about it at school but coming here is a big deal.

"It makes you realise how many people were killed during the Holocaust and helps you understand that it happened and we need to learn from it. It doesn't matter what colour or religion you are, everyone should be treated fairly."

Natasha De Stefano, a history teacher at Bishop Thomas Grant School in Streatham said everyone should have an opportunity to come on such a trip.

She said: "This is my sixth visit and every time I come I notice something slightly different. This time it was the artificial limbs for babies and children. I'm an auntie and it really affected me.

"I think it's also about seeing the photos of those who were here and trying to find the individual.

"It's such a valuable project that the HET runs and I think it's extremely beneficial for the students who are able to come.

"It makes it all real and gives a fresh and real insight into what went on. Being here, seeing it and hearing the stories is an incredible and extraordinary experience that you can't get just by reading about it in class.

"Both my students today have got a lot out of today and it's made them think about the issues in history and modern day problems. It's been a great opportunity for them."

Student Alex Baxter said: "I feel it's life changing. You can see the scale of the horror of it. Being at Birkenau was the worst bit. To see how big it was and what the conditions were like was awful."

Fellow student Laura De Costa Videira said: "I got a more a more visual image of how people suffered. You can't tell from the figures but seeing the objects brought it to life and put it all in a different light. It was harrowing but it gave me a different perspective on it and a better understanding of what happened so I'll remember this visit forever."

Visit http://www.het.org.uk/

FACT BOX

Auschwitz I was primarily a concentration camp which held around 15,000 prisoners. It was initially used for Polish political prisoners but later housed Soviet prisoners of war, "anti social elements" and prisoners of many nationalities.

Birkenau, also known as Auschwitz II, was the main death camp. It was built in 1941 on the site of the village of Brzezinka, 3km from Oswiecim.

It is impossible to give precise figures for the numbers of people sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. However estimates suggest they included 1.1million Jews, 140,000 Poles, 23,000 Sinti and Roma gypsies and 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war.

At the end of 1944 with the Red Army approaching, the Auschwitz administration began to remove traces of the crimes that took place there by destroying documents and buildings.

Between August 1944 and January 1945 120,000 prisoners were evacuated to camps in Germany.

The remaining 7,650 prisoners were liberated by the Red Army on January 27, 1945.

Leading a Merry Dance

IF like me you have already abandoned the diet inflicted after the Christmas excesses, you are probably, also like me, wondering how to shed the excess pounds.

Well fear not because in the interests of public information journalism, I may have the answer.

It comes in the shape of a dance class. Salsa to be precise.

Salsa originated in New York in the 1970s and evolved from earlier dance forms such as Cuban Son, Cha cha cha and Mambo. It incorporates elements of Swing and Hustle and has strong influences from Latin America particular Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Combining catchy, lively and rhythmic music with intricate sexy moves it is very much a dance designed to raise a smile and make you feel happy. It also has the added bonus of potentially burning a considerable number of calories, making it a fun way to lose a few inches.

However, its happy vibe also makes it a great social activity and these days it is popular everywhere, nowhere more so than in Brixton.

Indeed, every Wednesday night at the Prince of Wales pub in Brixton Road people of all ages and abilities strut their stuff at a special Salsa night designed to get even the most two left footed of people into the groove.

Billed as the Real Salsa Sound of Colombia, Cuba, Puerto Rico and New York in the heart of Brixton, the hour-long classes cost £9 a time and feature expert tuition from Elder Sanchez and fellow dance teacher Gabriella.

I have to admit at the outset, I love dancing and religiously sat down with my nine-year-old daughter on Saturday nights last autumn to watch the nimble footed antics of the likes of Susannah Reid, Abbey Clancey and Sophie Ellis Bextor on the BBC's hit TV show Strictly Come Dancing.

However, I acknowledge I am not the world's best and my contact with the dance floor is intermittent - the last was many moons ago.

But persuaded by my natural curiosity, and still buoyed by the infectious enthusiasm generated by the celebs on Strictly, I decided to give it a try and ventured to Brixton to see what it was all about.

Although many had clearly been before, and knew the drill, I was pleased to see I wasn't the only nervous first timer.

Once we were all assembled, the music was switched on and we were welcomed by the main man, Elder.

"Brixton was the birth place of the UK Latin scene in the 80s, specifically in La Crypta underneath St Matthews Church across the road, so we are delighted to be bringing some classes back to the area," he enthuses.

"We've been teaching here since October and normally we have between about 30 and 50 which is fantastic but we are always keen to welcome new people - whether they've danced before or not."

With more than 20 years experience teaching Salsa in the capital, Elder knows what he's about and with the more experienced members of the group dispatched to tackle some more advanced routines, he and Gabriella wasted no time in showing us beginners the first moves.

It starts with listening to the rhythm of the music and learning the basic steps - how to go sideways and then forwards and backwards, shifting weight from our toes to our heels.

Next it was mastering how to twist and swivel our hips and finally they showed us how to incorporate arm and upper body movements.

Once they were convinced we had mastered these individual steps and had gained some confidence they encouraged us to move faster before showing us how to combine everything we'd learned into an entire routine - definitely not as easy as it looks!

Although the classes are divided into beginners, intermediate and advanced, whatever your level, it requires a huge amount of concentration.

While the bottom half is going one way, your top half will invariably be going the opposite direction and by the end of the lesson I was utterly exhausted.

However, although it requires remembering which way to move, which foot goes where and quick reactions, it's great fun and very sociable. And afterwards there is a clubnight til midnight where you can practise what you have learned.

The real beauty is you don't need any special equipment - just a comfortable pair of shoes, a sense of humour and bags of enthusiasm.

And at £9 a pop it's not bad value for five hours of dancing, right in the heart of Brixton. Fantastic.

Salsa & Latin Dance Classes & Clubnight takes place upstairs at The Prince Of Wales on the corner of Brixton Road and Coldharbour Lane every Wednesday night from 7pm.

Ken Loach

FILM director Ken Loach is known for his hard hitting, gritty films which depict ordinary people telling working class stories.

So it comes as a bit of a surprise to find he is actually very gently and softly spoken.

What is not in doubt are his life long socialist values and beliefs which are evident in his treatment of social issues such as homelessness, poverty and labour rights in the films and documentaries he has made throughout his long and illustrious career.

He also has a penchant for egg custard tarts as I found out last week when I spoke to him ahead of a discussion he is leading at the Bussey Building in Peckham tomorrow.

"I've just got a mouthful of cake," he laughs by way of an introduction. "It was one of those egg custard tarts and it was very nice!"

Cake aside, Loach's career, which spans more than 50 years, is peppered with classics such as his documentary Cathy Come Home and films Kes, Riff-Raff, and The Wind That Shakes the Barley which won the prestigious Palme d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.

And despite his age - he's 76 - he is not about to go and collect his pension either. His film Angel's Share was in cinemas earlier this year and he is currently working on a documentary on the post World War Two Labour government.

He is also preparing to take part in a post show discussion of The Ragged Trousers at Peckham's Bussey Building tomorrow.

The play, written by Stephen Lowe, has been adapted from Robert Tressell's 1914 book which charts a year in the life of a group of painters and decorators as they renovate a three-storey house for Mayor Sweater.

It traces their struggle for survival doing backbreaking work for low wages and the themes within it chime very well with those Loach has featured in his films over the years.

"The issue of workers creating wealth for other people is still very relevant," he says. "I read the book about 50 years ago but have never seen the play so I'm very much looking forward to it.

"It was written at about the same time the Labour party was formed and is a classic piece of socialist and working class literature. I know so many people who have been influenced by it, myself included.

"It's about how the system works and has to if it's to function. It explores the issues facing working people and it exposes the mechanism of society and how the wheels go round.

"It also goes right back to the inception of the Labour Party which I don't think has ever been a socialist party," he says. "It was trying to make capitalism work for ordinary people and that was its fatal flaw.

"It has never stood for the ideas on which it was founded which makes this such an important book."

I ask him if it's significant the play is being performed in Peckham.

"Peckham is one of those areas where people feel so alienated and removed from the sense they own or have any share in how society is run and feel they have nothing to lose," he says.

"That's what was so evident about the riots. It was an inarticulate shout of rage. It certainly shows us something is wrong with the way we organise society.

"This book shows that very clearly. These are ordinary people who are faced with similar issues to us now - unemployment or a cut in wages or the dismantling of the Welfare State which was actually Labour's biggest achievement.

"The system now can't pay for it and people are faced with the reality of that in their daily struggle.

"What we need is a new mass party of the left - what Labour should have been."

I ask him if he wants to set it up.

"I think it's a bit beyond me!" he laughs. "But I will be there waving the flag!"

Interview with Joe Swift

TWO years ago the Horniman Museum embarked on an ambitious redevelopment programme – to totally revamp and transform its award winning gardens.

Last week they were formally re-opened to the public by garden designer, TV presenter and the museum's patron Joe Swift.
I took a stroll with him to check it out

Perched on the top of a hill just off the south circular the Horniman Museum is one of the jewels in south London's crown.

It has graced Forest Hill for more than 100 years and is set in 16 acres of gardens.
In the past these gardens have often been overlooked by visitors keen to see the artefacts in the museum which was established in 1901by Victorian philanthropist and tea trader Frederick Horniman.
But not any more. After a £2.3million refurb and 16 months hard graft by head gardener Gordon Lucas and his team, they have been extensively remodelled, re-landscaped and opened up, to reveal a stunning collection of interlinking spaces.
The gardens were formally re-opened on Thursday last week by garden designer, TV presenter and museum Patron, Joe Swift.
He arrived fresh from triumphing at the Chelsea Flower Show the previous week where he picked up a gold medal for his first show garden at the popular horticultural event.
Wearing his distinctive fedora hat, he is every bit as affable, chatty and down to earth as he appears on TV.
What is apparent from the off as I join him on a tour of the new and improved features is his passion and enthusiasm for the Horniman and its now "fantastic" gardens.
“I love this space,” he smiles enthusiastically, gesturing to the vast expanse before us.
“It’s fantastic. There is so much to see and it's like a celebration. Last time I came here was in the autumn. Just seeing it all finished and the way it frames the views across London is amazing.”
Joe was invited to be part of the project when the idea was first mooted two years ago but is very modest about his involvement.
"They asked me to be patron three years ago and then Gordon [Lucas] showed me the designs and it all made perfect sense.
"I was asked for my input and gave a few planting ideas but really they had everything pretty much spot on."
Looking around it's easy to see why Joe is so impressed.
Work done includes the refurbishment of the sunken garden,the display gardens, the restoration of the 100-year-old Bandstand and the creation of a new specialist plant area.
Other new additions include a Sound Garden with a musical play area and a Community Food Garden.
Later this year an open area for the animals will also be introduced.
The most significant development has been the introduction of a Gardens Pavilion, complete with a living sedum roof and ground source heat pump, which will be used by schools and other groups to learn more about the museum’s collections and how they link in with the gardens.
It is, Joe says, an amazing achievement.
"What has been recreated here is exactly what was inthe brief and Gordon and his team have done a brilliant job in bringing it to life.
"The quality of the planting is outstanding and the way it all links together and brings a sense of what's in the museum, outside, is incredible. I’m proud to be involved."
What makes him smile most is the many children clearly enjoying and exploring the new and improved space.
"Seeing them here today having fun in what is basically an enormous outdoor classroom – that’s what it’s all about – making a connection with nature.
“That’s why what has been achieved here is so great as it offers kids the chance to get out into the open air and learn about nature, plants, the environment and where food comes from."
It's this passion for educating the horticulturists of the future that fires him up.
"In times of austerity it's always horticulture and the arts which are the first to get their funds cut and it's so short sighted. We don't value them enough which is madness as we are supposed to be a nation of gardeners!
"We need more investment to train the horticulturists of the future. We need to grow more of our own plants, reclaim land for community spaces and invest in real gardeners.
“This redevelopment is so important as it shows the value of horticulture at a grassroots level. It should be an exemplar for others to follow. It's inspiring and I think Gordon is a legend for what he has achieved."
Pausing for breath, Joe is asked to give youngsters from Horniman Primary School a hand with some planting. Without a word, his jacket is off, sleeves are rolled up and he gets stuck in to the obvious delight of the kids and their teachers.
Afterwards he chuckles and says: "Actually they didn't need me - they seem to know what to do which is fantastic!"
I ask him which his favourite bit of the park is.
"Well that's a really tricky one,” he says. “I love the borders and the World Food Garden is very interesting. But the entire planting scheme is just so great, I love it all really. Just seeing plants growing and kids getting a kick out of it all is excellent!”
Before he goes off to explore the gardens properly, I ask him what his next project is now he's achieved his goal of designing a show garden for Chelsea.
"I'd like a bit of a rest to be honest," he laughs.
"I'd wanted to do Chelsea for such a long time but never got round to it as it takes a year of your life.
"I had been presenting the show for 10 years and this time last year I decided it was now or never and to make it happen. And I'm so pleased I did.
"I couldn't have made a better garden and the fact my gardening heroes Cleve (West), Dan (Pearson), Andy (Sturgeon) and Chris (Bradley-Hole) came and said they liked it was the icing on the cake. To win gold was like winning the World Cup though - it was just fantastic!
"However, it was a lot of hard work as it's all about the quality and the right plants and the spacing. The creative process was intense and the three weeks of construction were hard work
"I won't be doing it again though!"
I tell him this is a shame but he says he wants to concentrate on his presenting and his passion for creating urban community spaces.
Not bad for someone who didn't know what to do when he left school.
"I've been very lucky. I went to art college and was in a band and then went travelling and worked in a kibutz in Israel and realised I wanted to be outdoors. A job driving vans for a gardening company in north London followed before someone asked him to design a garden.
It was he said a pivotal moment. "I had no idea where to start but it was such an exciting thought that I decided to train as a gardener and I never looked back."
In between his TV commitments, presenting Gardener's World Live on the BBC each year and other gardening shows, he runs his own garden design company.
"This is my passion and in particular creating community spaces. We have so many areas crying out to be taken over and looked after by people who want to create little enclaves of tranquility and space in their communities."
He is currently filming a new series where he works with groups to create such areas.
"It's so satisfying because everyone is so enthusiastic. It's great to work with people who are so passionate and it's hugely rewarding for me."
And with that he's off to explore and inspire the next generation of gardeners.

Parting is such sweet sorrow

Friday was a very sad day at SLP towers. We lost our deputy editor and our news editor as well as three reporters thanks to the voluntary redundancy process that was dumped on us in late January. I came home and cried! It was so sad to see them all go and the office will be a very different animal from next week. There are still three more members of editorial who are due to leave in the next three weeks so by the time we get to April it's going to be fairly horrific. However, two new reporters are going to be recruited and I've been given the chance to go full time which I have accepted. So it's not all bad by any means.

I know this is a good step for me as it's going to be excellent experience. However I'm just really sad that Paul (dep ed) and Lawrence (news ed) won't be there to help steer the ship. Without them I'd have really floundered over the last 18 months. They cracked the whip but were always really fair and never seemed phased by the copy they got from me! They also were really excellent at making constructive criticism - in short they were very good at their jobs and the SLP is going to be all the poorer for losing them. But because they are so good I'm sure they will have no problems finding other work.

The rest of us will soldier on and I am sure it'll be OK. It'll just be different and I've got the best possible opportunity now. The only downside is not being there for my kids as much as I'd like. Tom starts school in September and Lucy goes into Year 3. I'm sure they'll cope though.

so, could be the start of an exciting next few months. Onwards and upwards!