It was around that time Home and garden Came to film a house and garden in Dorset. At the time, we still had no idea we were moving, but now I’m very grateful that the editor stayed on – and we managed to find a spare day, on a beautiful summer day, to visit a small team of filmmakers. It is a poignant record of a magical time.
When we knew we might be leaving, Charlie and I began recording the house and garden in thousands of photographs. It was partly a little memorial, and partly just a way of keeping records. And because we were just ‘there’, that meant we took photos of that fleeting glimpse of sunlight, of mist in a valley, or a certain light in a garden, or the exact moment a copper beech tree’s leaves burst, or the first snowdrops fall into flower; or the table laid for Sunday supper, or dining room Setting the table for our final farewell party. Not a single photo was staged or recreated. We took snaps as we left. It’s a very different way of looking at a place compared to if we commissioned a photographer, for example, to record four seasons or visit every month.
