St Giles Churchyard Garden in Spring

2 May '04 11:37 pm

St. Giles Churchyard, Camberwell, London SE5
An Overcast but light day with a hint of spring in the air. A good day for garden photography.

The St Giles Churchyard is behind St giles Church away from Camberwell church street and is close to where Bx and I live. It is a typical urban english churchyard in many respects - including the two resident chaps drinking cans of something at 11am and mistaking the mooseys country garden paparazzi for mere tourists!

The churchyard is about the same size as a rugby pitch, with an asphalt path ringing a grass lawn. Midges and small insects are starting to buzz around and annoy garden photographers although sadly I couldn't find any insects to photograph.

The churchyard is green - grass, branches, headstones, leaves, walls and gates are all slick with moisture. The churchyards walls create seclusion and sanctuary - the traffic is audible but in the distance. Moosey would be impressed by the number and location of the benches and the views and sun offered here.

About 20-30 squirrels make the churchyard garden and its many trees home. They are the grey introduced variety. As a New Zealander I am fascinated by squrrels, badgers and the like - we don't have many small animals running around.

Other animals in the churchyard were mapgies pigeons and an obligatory crow who refused all photo opportunities.

The plantings in the churchyard were fairly sparse but bordered the path well. Patches of bluebells and snowdrops were dotted here and there. A small circular rose garden with a low bricked wall shows lots of promise with 20-25 small healthy roses. A few light yellow buds are showing. I'll pop back to the churchyard in a week or two and check up on them.

We were perhaps a week too late to catch the Cherry Blossoms at their best but they still looked nice - a little droopy with a lot of volume but still throwing a lot of colour around.

On with the photos... (Click on the image for best results)