THE MODERN MINT BLOG
It is time for the Edinburgh Festival 2018 – hurray for August!
We will be in Edinburgh for 2 days towards the end of month, meaning we miss out on a few days work pruning topiary and cutting the stone fruits in the orchards.
However, it will be great to rest my back a bit and take in some great shows. Many clients are also going to Edinburgh and have been asking for recommendations, so here goes below…. to point you in the right direction:
Jordan Gray: People Change
Mel Byron: Old Movies Saved My Life
Will Seaward: Spooky Midnight Ghost Stories
Eleanor Morton: Great Title, Glamorous Photo – brilliant comic who will be performing here at ‘The Daft & The Dispossessed’ in October. Go buy a ticket!
Tony Law: A Lost Show
Paul Foot: Image Conscious
Pauline Eyre & Rebecca How: Better
Succubus – a lovely, early in the day show. Get the magazine too!
We would also recommend Daniel Rubinstein, Mawaan Rizwan, Sheep, John-Luke Roberts, Leslie Mcjagger, ACMS, Kieran Hodgson, Natalie Palamides, Jordan Brookes, Flo and Joan, Daniel Kitson (if you can get tickets) and Alun Cochrane. I may have forgotten a few. But that will hopefully be enough to get you started!
Hope you enjoy them all!
The Modern Mint Team.
Clipsham Yew Tree Avenue
With Chris Poole of the European Boxwood and Topiary Society we visited Clipsham Yew Tree Avenue in Rutland. Do you know it? Amazing place! Chris and I were teaching a topiary workshop in order to give local people the skills and technique, and tenacity! to help with the pruning of the avenue and elevate it to something even more special than it already is. Read more about the workshops here. We hope to run a further workshop in September 2026, as well as teach an advanced course too. Check the teaching page through the year as it will be updated …
Aesthetic Pruners Association – New Talk In December
An organisation I love and have been learning lots from in the last two years is the Aesthetic Pruners Association based in the USA. Sharing knowledge with them about clipping and the overlap – and differences! – in style is something worth exploring, so I recommend a visit to their website and to join onto their events and talks, which are all on Zoom meaning you can access them from anywhere in the world. No excuse not to learn! The next event will be led by Jocelyn Cohen and be about ancient trees in the British Landscape. This is such …
The Amelia Project – Episode 88: Didius Julianus
Friends of mine write a sitcom podcast called The Amelia Project (I wrote about this years ago, when they started it….!) December 2024 I had some fun playing the tiny part of Fornio in episode 88 – Didius Julianus. I have not listened to the episode yet, as I am clearly not an actor… and the thought of listening to my dulcet tones for the few minutes I’m in it just… makes me feel ill. But the recording and being in the studio was great fun, the real actors were hilarious and the script is brilliant – not just funny, …