After nearly a month away, it was wonderful this week to be back volunteering in the garden at Charleston – the former country retreat of artist Vanessa Bell, sister of Virginia Woolf and her painting partner Duncan Grant. Boy has the garden bloomed since I was last there.

This week, head gardener Fi gave me the rather lovely job of deadheading roses to provide petals for a group of visiting artists who were planning to create dyes with them.

I am not sure of the varieties – I think the white climber below is ‘Iceberg’ and the purple rose is ‘Charles de Mills’ and I am pretty sure the rose outside the studio (above, bottom right) is ‘Ballerina’. I must look the others up, but they smelled divine. And the artists got their trug of rose petals.