Here comes the Queen

Posted by Tiggy Salt on May 22nd, 2007

A quick update as I wait in the rain to meet the Queen and Prince Philip! Today the cold has returned and all the good weather of the last weekend of build up seems to have been forgotten. The forecast is good, which is a blessed relief as five days of bonechilling cold are yet another demand on one’s powers of exhibition performance!

The building and planting of the garden did go extremely well and according to plan, although part of that plan allowed for plants to fail, rain to pour and mental and physical exhaustion to push us all to the brink. I did actually cry on Sunday a little bit, when I had to drive to Tooting at 5pm to try and find a passionflower that was going to be in good enough condition to use, but don’t tell anyone!

The saving grace of the entire week has been Stewart Landscape Solutions, whose team of workaholics included Mark, John, Rob, Ju, little John and his Dad Tim, and Jane for whom no job was too much. They lived on a drip feed of pizza and raspberry sambuca and made the whole week a complete laugh.

On Sunday morning the judging panel came round to make an initial assessment of the garden. We still had several hours of planting and fiddling about to do so it was a bit alarming to see them stand about with that inimitable air of a group of hawk-eyed experts looking to find faullt where we believed there was none. There must be a collective noun for such a phenomenon - any suggestions? A sneer, a gloom, an execution of judges? Some of them wore smiles on their faces, to be fair, but others looked slightly puzzled, as if they didn’t really get the joke. My big concern is that some of them might not know the book and so the details might mean nothing to them.

Anyhow, regardless of the result that they give us, I know that we have all utterly bust a gut to produce the most accurate interpretation of this wonderful book, using the skills of so many fantastic artisans; Carola Bell’s beautiful mosaic, Epoh’s magical night sky, the styling of cult furniture maker, Tom Faulkner - the list goes on.

I am standing here with Sheila Hooper and Andrew Jones from sponsors CAF (Charities Aid Foundation), shivering in the bushes waiting for the Queen to come and say hello as I write this on my Blackberry. A stranger day I have yet to have - it is 5.30pm, and by 8am tomorrow we will have our result. Six months of diligent thought and hope, distilled into the opening of an envelope! Over and out…

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