A year in Greenwich Park: Tranquil sunny mornings and long borders

I guess there's a reason we have the saying "flaming June" and the weather for *most* of the month demonstrated why. Blue skies, sunny days, in fact extremely sunny days meant warm, sunny and tranquil mornings for my daily wander through the park.

And with skies as blue as this, it really was glorious.

It's been a month where I've sought out shade and the cooler, tree lined avenues. I'm finding that more often I'm choosing shade over sun these days, somewhere along the way I've got all sensible and I've no idea how that happened!

The trees have been blossoming this month - I need to do more work with my tree recognition skills - as there's few I recognise right now by species. And pointing out these are big trees, really doesn't cut it, does it?

Unlike previous months I've had very little variation in my routes to work and as the month went on I realised my 'park time' had been low, especially with a few days off and so I needed to change that. With such lovely days it'd be a shame not to leave the office at lunchtimes and a plan was hatched to get out most days, whether that was just to eat lunch, or more often taking a walk like this one along the long border behind the Queen's House.

And it's pretty long as long borders goes. Initially I looked at it as one, and then more closely and I realised that the large swathes of colour and plants were in fact six or more plants planted alongside each other, and it's this block planting that gives the impact.  I'd watched from a distance on my walks into Greenwich as the gardeners and landscapers filled the border with plants and flowers of all colours.

When you look more closely you see that there's not really any spectacular plants - I mean they are all beautiful, but none as individuals are striking. Their impact comes from when they're grouped together, and I think there's a useful lesson in there for all of us, even in much smaller spaces. 

Having a great backdrop also helps though!

And then in the blink of an eye, it was July. I know, this year is flying past.

And with it, a milestone. July will be the twelfth month in my first year of walking to work through Greenwich Park - can you believe it, I've been in my new job for almost a year now, which I guess really should make it less new and just my job!

The park has become such a big part of my working day that it would feel odd to stop this series, so unless something drastically changes (and I'm hoping it doesn't!) I'll be carrying on with monthly posts on life in the park, as there's still so much more to observe and share.

The battle of the foxes, and my onions

It's been a while since I've posted about our allotment, and I've been trying to show some patience there - but failing miserably. Especially where my onions are concerned. The photo below is from the start of June and there's quite a few onions in our first raised bed area.

We'd repurposed an old shelving unit to create a raised area in a change of plan for how we'd use our allotment, when it became clear that just digging and weeding would be a full-time job for many years to come. Taking a leaf out of Geoff Hamilton's 1970s book we're trying a raised bed approach and building the soil up instead. And as we thought a bed this size will take a lot of soil, more than we have or are prepared to buy in at the moment, hence the Heath Robinson approach. 

Compare the onions above to the photo below.

Yes, by the middle of the month there were decidedly less onions and clear evidence of digging.

Hmmnn.

And then this weekend it was worse still. I know you're not supposed to let onions dry out, but that's almost impossible with our site. I also suspect you're not supposed to dig gloves into the bed too. And yes foxes, I'm looking at you...

And so, evasive action was needed. Cue operation stick and operation wire fence. 

Working on the premise that prevention is better than cure, I'm trying to make it less welcome for my wildlife guests. I'm under no illusion that they have the upper hand, but with some more onions in the greenhouse, I'm trying to make my presence felt. I'm sure the onions I have left to plant out won't come to much but if I can beat the foxes and let them grow undisturbed, it will be a moral victory for me, and we may even get some baby onions in the process.

I'm also embarrassed to say that we had a letter from the council as our weed growing skills hadn't gone unnoticed. They were less happy with this natural skill of ours and so some speed-weeding was needed to demonstrate our commitment. 

THE RESULTS OF OUR SPEED WEEDING SESSION

The broad beans were growing, my path had a layer of black plastic laid beneath it, which I'm not sure the ants appreciated. And in the background, just in front of the wilderness that is our raspberry patch there's some borlotti beans.  I picked some broad beans on our last visit, so they've managed to thrive amongst the weeds.

The small apple tree is also doing much better than last year's single apple - you can see how much better in the photo below. 

We've done well with strawberries this year bringing bag fulls home on each trip. The strawberries have also done well in the garden and now they're easing off the raspberries grown in the wilderness have taken over. Last weekend I picked four takeaway trays (yes, I am that classy) of raspberries, most of which are already in the freezer.

The crab apples are doing well, and the artichokes are growing straight through the tree aiming for the sky.

Quite literally.

I cut a few of the larger artichokes as I thought they'd go well with our broad beans. But there was a lot of choke in them, and not much of the edible stuff so I think they're best use is ornamental.

I've also decided that I'm going to cover the top edge of our plot, where we have some lavender, rosemary and other flowers, with membrane in an attempt to stop weeding this every few weeks. Eventually the plants will cover the space, but in the meantime I think they need some help.

Ah yes, the raspberries and bindweed. Who knew together they'd produce so many fruits, certainly not me.

Our next task on the plot is to finally start digging the area that's covered by black plastic. As one of our fellow plot owners said encouragingly, when that's dug we're over half-way. Technically yes, but it doesn't seem that way most of the time!  He also told us the BBC will be at our site filming this Friday, the mere thought of it filled me with dread and I hope they're not filming anywhere near our plot! Apparently our allotments is one of the best is Greenwich, I really don't think they mean ours, and to our fellow plot-holders we can only apologise!

Hopefully we'll get there, and most importantly feel like we're getting there at some point in the not too distant future!

Let's talk spiral staircases...

It's been a while since we completed what I call Phase 1 of our redecoration project, which included some work on our spiral staircase. We'd ummed and ahhed about getting the work done because it's a big job and well, because stairs are pretty essential in any house aren't they? But it's one piece of work we've never regretted, breathing new life and beauty into this feature in our house was worth it.

Just last week I shared a beautiful papercut which featured our stairs and so it's timely that today we can talk about spiral staircases. We've been in our house so long now - fifteen years - that I forget that spiral stairs aren't usual!

But there's definitely advantages and drawbacks to them:

They're space savers

Definitely a benefit in our house, and often it's the case that they take up much less space than a traditional straight staircase. It uses a lot of floor space, which allows gives you more space in the rooms upstairs, and if you enclose your staircase can give you some amazing shaped bedrooms. Or you could even use a spiral staircase for access to the loft, or a single bedroom.

And can be traditional or contemporary

So you can match the style of your stair case to the decor and fittings in your home. Although our house dates from around the 1890s it has no traditional features (sadly) but that means contemporary styles fit well in our house, which is a good thing, and much of our storage and pipework is hidden (yay!).

In Medieval castles and Georgian homes, spiral stairs were considered a standard aspect of the design. The winders (the proper name for the treads) were usually made of traditional oak for a natural look. In modern homes, spiral staircases can be made up of glass or metal, to look more contemporary. 

Photo by Lynne MacMath on Unsplash

But are they suitable for everyone?

It's a concern, it's true. The people who lived here previously had children and they said the children coped well with them, but for younger children I can see this would be a worry. It's similar for ageing parents too, they take much longer to ascend and descend our stairs, and do it much more carefully. As we've no downstairs loo, it does mean they have to go up there when they visit.

At our party recently a six year old guest was wowed by our stairs and his mum realised he'd probably not seen a spiral staircase before. He was so wowed that we said he could try them out, so up he went, with mum calling after him to stay on the wide part of the steps. On the way up he met my MIL who was on her way down, much more slowly. 

He reached the top floor and called down asking what he should do now, to which of course we said "come on down" with mum adding "carefully" and MIL smiled knowingly and remembered the days fondly when you just went upstairs for fun!

People expect moving furniture to be tricky, and it can be. Although we've had a fridge-freezer on the top floor and that went up, and came down again relatively easily with two people. A new carpet in our bedroom caused a few more problems, but that too went up, carefully - I was thankful for that as everywhere had been decorated and I wasn't keen for any scuff marks.

Most things have gone up easier than we thought they would. The trickiest thing was a piece of moulding for our old wardrobes that stretched over five wardrobe doors, and it was the length that was tricky. With some careful maneuvering through the ironwork and into the bathroom and then the bedroom in a triangular movement, that got up there too.  It's something we consider when buying furniture though!

About spiral staircases

As you know they consist of wedge shaped treads usually known as winders. But what's even better is that you can use a mixture of winders and straight treads to get a customised layout that works for your space. If you're doing this then it's best to buy from a stair parts manufacturer who will advise you on the correct parts for your ideal spiral staircase.

Installing a spiral staircase

If you’re transforming your staircase from straight steps to a spiral staircase, you will need to consult a professional. You can do the fitting yourself, but you should always get advice to avoid making the opening too big, or another mistake which will make your staircase faulty. Be sure to do your research, and choose materials that are long-lasting, stairs get a lot more use than you think.  That's something we discovered when our renovation work was underway and we were temporarily left with alternate treads while the work took place.  There was no dashing down the stairs quickly, and it seemed, everything was upstairs when we were downstairs or vice versa.

If you're going to the trouble of changing your staircase then I'd always opt for a custom layout over a pre-assembled one. It's likely that a pre-assembled staircase will need adjusting during the installation process, which can be more costly than buying a custom staircase in the first place. 

Transforming an existing spiral staircase

If, like us, you already have a spiral staircase and want to make it your own, there are several ways you can achieve this. Perhaps it's a simple as staining the wood with a stain - for us, we had our winders sanded to reveal the natural beauty of the wood, or maybe paint the treads or replace a wooden balustrade for a modern chrome alternative. 

Although spiral staircases may be impractical in busy family homes, there’s no denying they look stunning and can be a real feature. There’s a reason that medieval kings opted for them in their castles – they represent opulence and elegance.

Would you consider a spiral staircase in your home?

This is a collaborative post, but all views and opinions are my own.