Alex Gutteridge's Blog, page 2

Wordless Wednesday - The Colour of Joy

Keukenhof 2016

There was a report in the paper recently which stated that our gardens are where we feel happiest at home. I love getting out in the garden, especially now the days are getting warmer and longer. But I also love visiting other gardens and Keukenhof in Holland is somewhere my husband and I have wanted to visit for ages. Last week we finally made it.

I honestly didn't know quite what to expect. I knew that I was going to see a fantastic display of bulbs. I knew that it was in a parkland setting...

Evolving Resolutions

I'm not a great one for making New Year's Resolutions on 1st January. I prefer to let them evolve over the first few weeks of the year. But one resolution I have already made is to read more classics this year. Having visited both New England and California over the past 3 years I planned to read some John Steinbeck but my local library had other ideas. They were out of Steinbeck so I ended up with Edith Wharton instead and what a treat.



Ethan Frome is meant to be her bleakest book but it is b...

The Right Book at the Right Time

There are definitely books for different times in your life. I discovered this some years ago when I tried to re-read The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. I just couldn't do it. I tried and tried but in the end I gave up. I first read this book when I was in my teens but twenty years on I had outgrown it.


Recently two books have come into my life at just the time I need them. The first is Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert.




I saw it mentioned in a newspaper and in some way it spoke to me. I ord...

Stoneywell

'There is the most extraordinary visual, structural and functional logic to Stoneywell. Of course, there is the other structural and functional logic that says: Build a house of brick on level ground - but that is the difference between building and architecture.' Nicholas Cooper, architectural historian.
Not far from where I live there is a tall, red brick house with an intriguing variety of windows. A path flanked by standard bay trees leads directly to the reassuringly solid front door which is...

Something Had to Give!

Oh dear! It's four months since I wrote the blog and I didn't intend to take a break.
It just happened. Life got incredibly busy and something had to give. Sometimes you can carry on and find that you aren't doing anything particularly well. It was one of those times!

I'm at that age when I just want life to become a bit simpler and I'm always thinking that if I just organised myself a little bit better then things would be easier and I would have more time - but it never quite works that way....

Companion Planting

Gardening is like writing - there's always something new to learn. I have to admit that in the past the things which have worked well in this garden have been more a result of a happy accident rather than a lot of forethought. When we moved here the garden was very formally laid out and consisted mainly of fuchsias and Michaelmas daisies planted in rows although the person who originally designed the garden obviously knew exactly what they were doing when it came to placing these magnifi...

Paradise on Earth

It's been a busy few weeks and sometimes I've felt like a hamster on a wheel. But the week before last we got away for a few days to Seville and Granada. It was blissful. Seville is beautiful, friendly and full of life. I would go back in a heartbeat.

The trip to Granada was to visit The Alhambra, a long-held dream. It was constructed by The Nasrid kings to represent their idea of paradise on earth and just to the North of it is the Generalife, a country estate of the Nasrid where they could b...

Falling in Love

Love is a funny thing. It can strike when you are least expecting it. You can have seen something loads of times before, you can even own something similar, but have never really appreciated its beauty. Maybe it was the sunshine that did it, or the bright blue sky or the fact that it was our first trip out this year to visit some gardens. Maybe it was the planting plan, the way the garden sloped upwards from the pretty, low, redbrick cottage nestling in a Northamptonshire village. This g...

Every Word Counts

I've always loved words, ever since I was tiny. I learned to talk early and I was taught the value of words from an early age, that words are important, that they have weight and power. We can all recount words which have hurt us. They linger long in our memories. Kind words too can make all the difference to our day.


When writing for children, often with the imposition of a limited word count, every word really does count. In picture books especially, every single word must earn its place. Pe...