Rhonda, Lady Birley,
This is a piece I found recently on Design Sponge about a beatiful book, that is now on my wish list.
This photograph is of Rhonda, Lady Birley, who was a great Irish beauty. She and her husband were patrons of the arts. Here she is in the formal “garden room,” an idyllic garden that she created at Charleston Manor in Sussex.
Garden People is a look at the photographs of Valerie Finnis, a British horticulturist and photographer. Over the course of four decades, Valerie documented the world of gardening through beautiful natural photographs. Even more stunning than her flower photos are her photographs of the people who grew them. Valerie and her husband, David (they married in 1970 when Valerie was 46 and David was 83), traveled throughout the U.K. meeting and photographing famous gardeners at their homes — Vita Sackville-West at Sissinghurst, Lady Birley at Charleston Manor, Roald Dahl and family at Great Missenden — as well as lesser known gardeners. For me, this is like a cataloge of how I want to look when I’m older: a crazy hat with a trowel in hand. Something about this book and seeing people doing what they love and growing old doing it just makes me happy. — Amy Azzarito
