Art History Isn't Just About The Stuff In Galleries

One of the things I liked about Amanda Vickery's Story of Women in Art is that she didn't stick with the so-called fine arts but made a case for the importance of artists like the interior designer Karin Larsson and the garden designer Gertrude Jekyll- pointing out that they have had a much greater influence on the culture than any painter or sculptor....

The Journey Back

Ivy is nearly two now- and knows who we are without having to be reintroduced to us. Since we last saw them a month ago, Alice, James and Ivy have moved to a village on the other side of Leicester. Ivy gave me a tour of the garden and it was all "grandpa, grandpa, grandpa...."

Stopping in Leicester divides the journey into two easily manageable segments.

So now we're back in Kent and- as always- we might never have been away. The weather, we're told, was as grotty here this past week as the weather in Oldham, but it's pleasant now. The fields are filling up with buttercups.  I miss walking round the fields when we're away.

Erecting Farm Buildings