The garden is looking distinctly Decemberish – dead ferns and very green mirrors thanks to all the rain. But the heron is glad to shed his green mantle for a few months – and Darby and Joan are still striding out. Although the grass is now all shorn, the large white hydrangea now a rather …
Environmental Issues
100,000 trees and a threaded forest
Sara Vrugt is a Dutch artist who works mainly with embroidery and in the context of nature. Frustrated by our powerlessness to prevent the destruction of forests worldwide she came up with the idea of a huge embroidered forest, a threaded forest. A 4 metre high immensely long (think Bayeux tapestry) embroidery of trees from …
Jackson’s Lane Christmas Day gifts appeal
Readers who live in or around Highgate will no doubt have heard of Jackson’a Lane Community and Arts Centre – and about their Christmas lunch. For the last 45 years, from its earliest days as a church, Jackson’s Lane has hosted over 100 older people who would otherwise be alone for Christmas lunch – and …
Apple trees, dog poo – and disposable vapes….
The path that runs down from Hampstead Lane onto the meadows to the east of Kenwood House runs through an area of coppiced hazel. These are young hazel trees that are cut virtually to the ground every five or six years so that each stump regenerates by pushing out another eight or ten branches. These …
The Repair Shop lives in Camden!
I know this is not strictly to do with Hampstead Heath but it is such a great idea and is only five minutes from the heath that I thought I could squeeze it in. The happy coincidence of the very admirable drive to roll back our single use, throw away culture with the runaway success …
The shire horses come to the heath
On a packed weekend at the end of February the England National Cross Country Championships returned to Hampstead Heath after two years of COVID – nearly 8,000 runners sploshing squidgely through the deep mud generated by recent heavy rainfall. This was not only extremely hard going for the runners but turned large swathes of the …