Constructed during late 1920s and first opening in 1933 as the ‘West Side Elevated Line’ for transporting produce, the original railroad was gradually abandoned in favour of trucking and by the 1980s sections were being demolished.

The Norfolk chapter of our book  ‘Naturalistic Flowers: A Year of Plants, Places and People’ was shot across three locations - Wiveton Hall, sailing through the salt marshes with the Coastal Exploration Company and the Shell Museum, Glandford.

It’s Gala Night at Giffords Circus and we’re here to do the flowers. Tucked into the orchards of Chiswick House in west London is a collection of wagons and tents strung together with bunting and festoon lights.

Dyffryn Fernant was the location for the closing chapter of our first book ‘Naturalistic Flowers’. I’m glad we ended there because, in a way, it was the crowning experience of a year-long adventure.

“Variegation has been popularised by the flower arranging movement which has been a notable social and (perhaps we might claim with such modesty we can muster) artistic feature of post-war Britain. Variegated leaves have contributed importantly to the range of material available to the flower arranger, who saw more to them than had been apparent to the gardener, but who has induced the gardener to take another look at them and their role in the garden. Cross-fertilisation between the arts has always been productive.” Christopher Lloyd, Foliage Plants

There is an almost child-like, Alice-in-Wonderland sense of enchantment about both house and garden - bohemian, artistic, romantic and deeply atmospheric. Once inside the property encloses and wraps you in a suspended wonder-state that feels very nostalgic