27. Mud

Back in Scotland, where they didn’t get the Spring memo. I attempt to do some gardening in my own tiny plot and end up making some nice mud pies. Then I attempt to do some dry stone walling at my parents’ place, which of course becomes wet stone walling. But help from Troy and a break in the weather for a couple of days results in good progress on the boundary retaining wall and I finally get to put a bunch of copestones on top – the icing on the cake.

One of my goals for the Easter hols is to create a website for my new business. Following the expert guidance of The Site Wizard, I start by buying up domains. tracyrich.com is already parked by someone else. Curses! But I buy tracyrichdesign.com and tracyrichstudio.com. Not sure which I’ll choose yet, so opinions welcome. Next, I’ll draft up some beta pages ready for uploading to a Web Host. Heck, I’ll be Web 3.0-ing in no time.

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26. Half

If my maths is correct, we’re now half-way through the course (and the blog!). It feels like we’re coming to the end, though. It’s the last week of term before the Easter break and lecture time finishes in May, so things are winding down in terms of being with the other students and living in Oxford. A long, scary summer looms where I’ll have to start my business and ‘get out there’. I can’t hide in the ivory tower forever.

I’ve started doing some research for the Essay assignment to take advantage of Oxford library. The essay has to be in after Easter break and we can pretty much choose what we want to write about. I’ve chosen women (of course!) and will see if women artists, architects, and garden designers have influenced design principles in the last century – or not, as the case may be.

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25. Glow

Two more famous and inspirational designers descend on Oxford. First, a masterclass with the master himself, John Brookes. Our course is greatly influenced by John’s design principles, as Duncan worked with him for a while. I could definitely see the strong linear and circular ground patterns in the slides he showed of his designs. In his long career I think he’s been roped into doing a lot of ‘English’ gardens oversees, so many of his plants are traditional but still strong. And he gets to work in some amazing places.

Next up a whole day with Anthony Paul. He entertained us with tales of New Zealand and breathtaking houses owned by the rich and famous. He’s one of the few designers that I really like so far (see link under Designers on this page); his naturalistic, yet blocky planting and use of local materials are definitely my style. Despite warnings to the contrary, Anthony was strangely complimentary about everyone’s end-of-the-day exercise where we had to come up with some garden art in half an hour and present to the class. We all left with a rosy glow.

Finally, a search in Google Trends indicates that people most show an interest in garden design in April – especially those who live in Milton Keynes and, more conveniently, Oregon!

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24. Circular

We’re told to have the weekend off. Many of us have designers-block for Project 3 as it’s our first foray into curvilinear design. ‘More sexy curves!’, says Duncan. I seem to have come up with something I hope will work, inspired by location and the chalk hills that surround the site. I guess being a Geographer has some genius loci advantages. I’ve developed sort of a spiral design involving an inverted hill fort (almost-circular pond), chalk outcroppings (bold strips of white wildflowers) and pillars of fire (weathering steel sculptures alongside the pond boardwalk that can be lit up at night). Goodness! It’s all very elemental but I’m holding back on the druids for now.

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