80 - I Have this Thing with Glass Houses

@alfiesstudio / @carenbarry / @haarkon_ / @theroundwindow / @letterloves / @jenlittlebirdie

I have a deep love of the tropical feeling that you get in a "typical" glass house: botany from strange and distant shores, so many new and strange plants to look at, all those textures and hues that are so very different to those of typical British flora. Conversely - albeit generally on a smaller scale - they are also the very epitome of the Great British garden: tomato growing, over wintering plants that need bringing in and protecting from frost, prize marrows for village shows and all that.

A while back I started (what has become) a hash tag project over on Instagram #ihavethisthingwithglasshouses. It began as a way of recording the plant related places we had been (and serve to brighten up the cold or dreary days) and has evolved to become a guide to the very best in botanical glass houses near and far.

Join in for more glass house goodness on Instagram - I'll try to feature a round-up every now and then and guest-post reviews as part of my new "outdoors-in" series - know somewhere amazing you'd like to see featured? Tag me in to a picture on Instagram (@alfiesstudio) or get in touch here...

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79 - Ficus Elastica

It's probably safe to say I'm somewhat obsessive of all things botanical - one look at my product range will tell you that, I'm sure. That having said, it is only recently that I've started to feel brave enough and confident enough to expand beyond the peace lily who just won't die (and has gone from a 10cm window sill pot to something I think we need floor reinforcements for) and fairly forgiving succulents, to something a little more maintenance intensive and requiring, y'know... actual plant knowledge (as well as the time to act on it - which I'm prioritising as one of the perks of working from a home studio).

First up on the list - Ficus Elastica. I drew one of these beauties years ago, it was one of the first botanical cards I ever released and I've been longing for a real one ever since. I finally scratched the itch and bought one. He arrived on Saturday and I am so in love with him now he's here in all his leafy goodness. The architectural qualities of the leaves are just awesome and the colours so intense that I feel like I could lose myself in them like a child in the woods (without bread-crumbs for guidance). He's obviously only a recent acquisition - I'll let you know in due course how easy he is to care for or any particular findings.

Look out for my piece on my "Greener House Dreams" over at The Good Life Experience Megaphone Series (coming this weekend I believe) to hear more about my aspirations to bring the outside in and what kick started my plant buying spree.

This is the first post in a new "outside-in" series where you'll be able to read all about my outside-in adventures, botanical reviews, latest plant obsessions and a new monthly round-up of #ihavethisthingwithglasshouses findings. More on the latter next time, so stay tuned...



Top image by Holly Booth. Detail of Ficus Elastica my own images.

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78 - Wild Things

We spend some of our best days together on the beach, wild, free spirits.

Wild things at play. Wandering wild things. Watchers of wild things. Wowed by wild things of wonder.






Date: The final day of a busy half term (22nd February 2016)
Place: Robin Hood's Bay, North Yorkshire
Soundtrack song: (feel) In Winter - Siren - Tori Amos probably different in shorts in summer (actual) The Killers - All These Things That I've Done (some spectacular car drumming and sing along from the littles).
Comments: A beautiful and awe inspiring drive through the North Yorkshire Moors to get there and that ever brilliant moment of spotting the sea shimmering in the distance.

Just enough facilities to cover a drink, ice cream and replacement bucket and spade but not overly commercial. Public toilets open - even in winter months.

We played like wild things on the beach for a short time before it was taken by the tide, played chase with the waves on the slip way, wandered the winding roads in search of dry socks after being caught by the tide, watched a swirling mass of angry sea flatten out to slumber and travelled a little way down the coast to Scarborough and ate the obligatory fish and chips in the car looking on to the wondrous full moon.
Nearby: Boggle Hole, Ravenscar, Whitby, Scarborough.

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77 - Arrivals

Five hours late, flight delayed. Late night arrival.

The thick feeling of different air and smells, a new and heavy kind of heat.

Passport control, move on, one by one through a wall with doors to unknown territory.

Watching the luggage carousel, wondering whether our belongings have made other plans. There is a surge forward to make a claim on possessions, we check everything is present and correct, no more, no less.

We wander out in to the middle of the night, the culture shock hits us like a truck sideways on.

The taxi takes us through avenues of palm trees that tower over and above us. We can see someone watching TV, their apartment wall is missing. Many are.

I feel we are not in the proverbial Kansas anymore Toto, our adventure is just beginning...

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February 2006 we travelled to Cuba for our honeymoon. Our first long-haul, a life changer.

Our eyes were opened to the difference in geographic locations in the world which we had not before truly experienced.  The kindness of people (challenging our own suspicions).  We learnt always to travel with hand sanitiser and that if something looks funny, don't eat it.  That you will never truly believe the colour of the sea or the trillions of stars visible at night in certain parts of the world.  The sadness of a sunburnt dog so bitten by fleas it has no fur left to shade it from the scorching sun. The smell of a petrol refinery that turns every scorched hot pavement day back in England in to an early morning in Cuba.  The feel of communism and politics so prolific, it is everywhere - especially in the Russian plane that takes us from an island back to the mainland in the depths of night to a disused airport where we feared we might come to an untimely end...



Those first days as a married pair set the tone for the next ten years... sickness and health. Bitter/sweet. Shocking. Life changing. Sad. Exciting. Tiring. Awesome. Wondrous. Challenging. Inspiring.

The adventures we have had, the things we have seen, the sorrow and joy we have experienced.
It all makes us. Every day.

Here's to the next ten years...

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76 - The Daily Lie.

I have done the unthinkable... some time ago now I said no to early starts for vanity's sake and yes to an extra half an hour in bed.

I used to find the pressure to look good on the school run quite panic inducing and crippling, the need to look perfectly put together and like I have all my sh*t together before 8.30am causing an almost daily meltdown. I am a night owl and definitely not a morning person, so getting my kids in to school before the proverbial bell rings is a miracle in itself, let alone doing it in perfectly applied war paint. I asked myself who the make up was for, it certainly wasn't me, so what was the point?

I no longer wear makeup unless I want to (there are times it just feels good to look super pampered and preened and like a team of stylists have been at me) or my face will be recorded in some form other than by memory (wedding photos for example). Just because you can, doesn't mean you should, right? I got sick of what felt like a daily lie, for me, a feeling of having to say "look at me with my perfect skin and no dark circles under my eyes from burning the midnight oil", when underneath the primer, foundation, concealer and powder (and seriously - do you realise you what you are putting on your face - look at and decode your make up's ingredient list for something far more frightening than any horror flick you'll ever see) lay the truth. My skin could be better, so what? Do you really care? I didn't think so...

For more information on the make up thing - http://www.safecosmetics.org/get-the-facts/chemicals-of-concern/ makes for an interesting read.  I don't claim this to be the authority on the matter but it might spark your interest for further research, just because you aren't physically eating your make up, doesn't mean it doesn't wind up in your system - be smart, don't just look it!

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