Community spirit still alive and well

Responding to a call for help from a designer I greatly admire, I dashed up the A1(M) to Peterborough last week. Chris Beardshaw had been invited by the DIY SOS Big Build Team ‘Children in Need Special’, to design a landscaped garden and playground surrounding a newly built community center that will primarily house the Little Miracles Charity, a parent led support group for families with children that have additional needs, disabilities and life limiting conditions.

The project commenced on Tue 17th Sept 2013 and by the time I arrived a week later the entire main building had been completed externally and the landscaping was in full swing although with completion due in three days, there was a significant amount of work still to do. So all checked in and hard hat adorned, I entered the site to get stuck in.

Main building and surround

Contemporary Temporary?

‘Really, are you sure, an arch spanning the Long Walk?’ For those who don’t know the Long Walk is a perfectly straight path/road that stretches 2.64 miles from her majesty’s castle residence in Windsor up Snow Hill terminating near the foot of the imposing ‘Copper Horse’ statue. You receive stunning vistas from either end, in fact from any point along it!

I'm a big fan of modern art sculpture, specifically the large outdoor varieties and appreciate installations that contrast against classic architecture. This however would have to be something truly spectacular to have any sort of impact in this location, particularly in terms of scale.

Un Jardin Magnifique

It’s been a long break since my last post, I've been enjoying an actual summer with sun this year and given that our choice of family holiday was decidedly risky weather-wise, we were extremely lucky!

Our destination was a small chambre d’hôte in Saint Denis sur Sarthon, Normandy. What do you mean you've not heard of it? To be honest I’m glad, I think it’s generally and somewhat inappropriately only used as a stopover for those heading further south or a quick weekend break for Parisians, but as our fellow short staying guests frequently exclaimed as we told them we were staying for 10 days ‘I wish we’d booked our stay here longer,’ this house and location definitely deserve more time.