Richmond Trees

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emination from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.

(Robert Louis Stevenson)

Nature is my springboard. From her I get my initial impetus. I have tried to relate the visible drama of mountains, trees, and bleached fields with the fantasy of wind blowing and changing colours and forms.

(Milton Avery)

Richmond Park Willows

The mole had been working very hard all morning, spring cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.

(The Wind in the willows. Kenneth Grahame)

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.

(Greek proverb)

Kew Gardens

In the oval flower bed the snail, whose shell had been stained red, blue, and yellow for the space of two minutes or so, now appeared to be moving very slightly in its shell, and next began to labour over the crumbs of loose earth which broke away and rolled down as it passed over them.

(Virginia Woolf. Kew Gardens)

Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes.

(Unknown)