Did everyone have a good bank holiday weekend? 

Down in Dorset it is the cow parsley moment.  We seem to be a bit later than anywhere closer to London, but this weekend the lanes were cloudy with cow parsley and red with the flash of campion. 

I think that cow parsley would rate as my favourite wild flower. Not much on earth gives me more pleasure than bringing bucket loads into the house.  Here they are in the window of the drawing room.

On Sunday my friend Jane brought over a small bunch of chives. How good they looked on the kitchen table.

This morning I planted 140 dahlia tubers.  Watch this space!

Earlier this week, at the end of a fairly exhausting few days of meetings at the end of a fairly exhausting month, I went for a little stroll through the valley which reminded me why I think from time to time that West Dorset really is the most beautiful place on earth (sorry, everywhere else). It’s back to London next week but for now I’m happy to be with the cows.

As if exhibitions, drawings, lectures and boring old work hasn’t been enough.. what about the most important thing in my life right now?  My veg patch!

Here’s the garden at the Old Parsonage this week. Everything’s a bit behind with that cold late spring, which all things considered might be something of a relief. It’s all taking shape slowly. I’ve planted apple trees and cherries; the vegetable garden is made and is well underway, complete with asparagus bed, rhubarb patch, bean poles and goodness knows what. And the amazing tulips – thank you Jane & Johnny Holland.

And thank you summer for arriving at last, even if only for this weekend.

A few days after our exhibition opening, George, Francis and I spent the day at the RIBA and drew a massive drawing on the wall. A little crazy, and a lot of fun. Here are some photos of the work in progress, and here is a link to the five minute film that my cousin Ben made of the event…!

It’s been a bit of a crazy month. For those of you who follow the blog (hello Bridie, and hello Bridie’s mum!) you may have been wondering if we were okay. A few things have been happening!

First, my exhibition  of drawings at the RIBA – with my friends George Saumarez Smith and Francis Terry. We opened at the beginning of the month and at least something seems to be in the air when both the RIBA journal and Architects’ Journal wrote 12 pages each on the show…

Perhaps the biggest thank you needs to go to our friends Max Rollitt, Edward Hurst and Edward Marnier for their amazing decoration of the room for three days only, when we transformed the gallery into an English country house for a few short hours. Here are a couple of photos! If you covet that yellow sofa, scroll back to the blog in November 2009 and you will see the same sofa that I bought from Max a year ago. Perfect, and much more fun than drawings.