Front garden fabulousness

Saltaire Festival 2019
Many of Saltaire's houses don't have front gardens but Viv's is one of the larger houses on Albert Road, built, they say, for the more significant members of Victorian Saltaire's community: senior managers at the Mill, teachers, accountants and lawyers.

Someone had decided to sit and rest on their bench... It would be too impolite to call this lady a scarecrow. She was beautifully made with felted wool features. (Great hair!) There were some baby succulents for sale too, so sweet, and a selection of tiny, colourful, crocheted hanging baskets. And, yes, more blue and white pottery and pretty fabrics.

Also on display was this pair of worn leather clogs, with heavy wooden soles, that were traditionally worn by mill workers. This pair had rubber soles over the wood. They found them under the floorboards of their house, so it is possible they belonged to a previous occupant of the house who worked at Salts Mill. If only objects could talk, what stories they'd tell!

Back yard blues

Saltaire Festival 2019
It sometimes shocks me to realise that I've lived in Saltaire for 20 years this year, longer than I've stayed anywhere else. I love it and one of the things I love most is the sense of community, how I have a social network fostered simply through bumping into people in the street, or at events in which we have a shared interest, or even through being 'friends of friends'. One such acquaintance is Viv. I wouldn't exactly say we're close friends, as we've never been to each other's houses (in fact, I didn't even know where she lived until recently) but we've stopped and chatted at various times over the years and I'm always pleased to see her. We met a week or two ago in the village and had an amicable chat. She mentioned then that she was opening her garden as part of this year's Festival and invited me to visit, so of course I did. It was only when I arrived at her house that I realised I'd taken a photo of it before - HERE.  She's clearly a lover of blue and white. Her pretty, walled back yard had a selection of blue glassware, blue and white pottery and fabrics, as well as some lovely plants and a fine selection of succulents, nurtured by her partner.

I've never really paid much attention to succulents until recently. I was interested in the amazing display they have a Cliffe Castle (HERE), and then noticed the variety of plants in the alpine house at RHS Harlow Carr. I've even planted up a small stone trough with some this year. The leaf forms are fascinating: whorls, crinkles, spikes and layers. It's magic too when they suddenly throw up a flower, intricate and vibrantly coloured. I think I'm rapidly becoming a succulent fan.

In the glasshouse

A Bird of Paradise plant, Strelitzia reginae. You can see how they got their name! 

The extensive glasshouses at Cliffe Castle were rebuilt as part of the recent renovations, and follow a similar plan to the original Victorian ones. It was fashionable for well-to-do Victorian gentry to have glasshouses on their estates for growing exotic plants and fruit, and the Butterfields' were more vast and ostentatious than most. The planting now is lush and exotic and there is a whole shed full of cacti and succulents, which look extremely well cared for. I'm not a huge fan of them but, looking at those on display, I was actually fascinated by the many different shapes, sizes and intricate structures. I began to understand their appeal to collectors.