So very Starch Green

I love this shelf in the Black Country Museum.

The word is spreading

Grab your July/August issue of Selvedge magazine and turn to page 8o - we're offering three lucky readers the opportunity to win one of our Jam Labelling Kits. For the chance to win email assistant@selvedge.org or call +44 (0)208 341 9721 quoting 'a delicious spread'.

If you don't win you can always buy one from us for £15 plus p&p.

West Dean

What a lovely place. On Saturday we went down to West Dean College in Sussex to see the end of year show of our friend Pilar O'Prey. Her course was in Tapestry and Textiles and her work is inspired by her native Spain. Lovely white walls, saffron, pomegranates and blue. Along with the text of a poem drawn into the wall.

There were some other lovely pieces in the show, too. The hanging driftwood is by Cathy Lockwood.

West Dean is set in the most lovely gardens, where the emphasis seems to be controlling and nurturing plants. The fruit trees and bushes are all very disciplined, and beautifully labelled.

There is a hugely abundant and rather Jekyllian cross of herbaceous borders that are a joy of colour-schemed flowers and seed-heads.

The traditional flint walls were a a work of art in themselves.