Original artwork by Vanna Bartlett and photographs by Jeremy Bartlett
Links
Below are some links that we think are both interesting and useful, especially if you want to find out more about organic gardening, Norfolk wildlife or conservation work - all things that have helped to inspire Vanna's paintings.
Allotments
Vanna and Jeremy’s allotments are on the Bluebell allotments site, on the west side of Norwich. The Bluebell Allotments Society's website is at http://www.bluebellallotments.co.uk/.
The allotment in spring
The allotment in summer
'Boltardy' beetroot.
Delicious in Beetroot and Feta soup!
Heritage Vegetables
One of the pleasures of growing your own vegetables is the chance to try varieties that aren't for sale in the shops. Vanna and Jeremy grow several types of heritage vegetables every year. Some vegetables, such as the Brassicas, cross-pollinate very easily, which makes saving pure seed more difficult. But French beans, lettuces and tomatoes tend not to cross-pollinate and so it's easy to save seed to grow the next year. Purple beefsteak tomatoes or "Cherokee Trail of Tears" beans anyone?
Garden Organic (formerly HDRA) is the UK's leading organic growing charity and has been at the forefront of the organic horticulture movement for 50 years. It is dedicated to researching and promoting organic gardening, farming and food. Garden Organic runs a Heritage Seed Library, which aims to conserve and make available vegetable varieties that are not widely available. Its members can grow varieties of vegetables not on the National Seed List, such as the Crimson Flowered Broad Bean, Kale "Uncle Bert’s Purple" and "Broad Ripple Yellow Currant" tomatoes. Enjoy growing and eating something a bit different and preserve the diversity of our vegetables at the same time! Find out more on the Heritage Seed Library website.
Kale 'Uncle Bert's Purple'.
Delicious, tender and succulent.
Crimson Flowered Broad Beans have beautiful flowers, irresistable to bees.
Tomato 'Broad Ripple Yellow Currant'.
Voluntary conservation work
The British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV) is a charity set up in 1959 and has a successful history of environmental conservation volunteering throughout the UK and around the world. There are lots of BTCV local groups in East Anglia.
Sunset at Hickling Broad.
Step building at Alderford Common, to improve public access.
Treefelling at Wheatfen Reserve, home of the Ted Ellis Trust.
Norfolk Wildlife Trust
Vanna did much of her conservation work on Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserves. This was a great way of seeing wildlife at close quarters.
Norfolk Wildlife Trust was established in 1926 and is the oldest of a national network of 47 wildlife trusts around the country working to protect and enhance our wildlife and wild places. The Trust has over 40 nature reserves and other protected sites around the county including ten kilometres of coastline, nine Norfolk broads, nine National Nature Reserves and five ancient woodlands. They have a positive influence over a great deal of the Norfolk countryside through their planning and advisory functions. See the Norfolk Wildlife Trust website for more information.
Reserves such as Hickling Broad (above) and Cley are deservedly well known, but we recommend some of the lesser known reserves such as Honeypot Wood, Foxley Wood, Hoe Rough, Upton Fen and Thompson Common.
The RSPB
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is well known for its work on bird conservation. It looks after some lovely bits of Norfolk, such as Strumpshaw Fen near Brundall and Titchwell Marsh on the north Norfolk coast, as well as its flagship reserve at Minsmere in Suffolk.
See the RSPB website for more information.
Below: Juvenile Blackbird, Coot, Dipper.
The Green Grocers
Vanna’s fruit and vegetable cards are on sale at The Green Grocers, Earlham House Shops, Earlham Road, Norwich, NR2 3PO. Tel no: 01603 250000. This was the first shop to stock Vanna's cards, in October 2006. Vanna has held several exhibitions in the Green Grocers' cafe, including three of Jeremy's photographs. The Green Grocers also run the monthly Golden Triangle Farmers' Market, where Vanna has a stall from time to time.
The Green Grocers first opened in 2004. The shop sells a full supermarket range of organic, local and ethical produce including fruit and vegetables, bread, meats, wine and beers, beauty products, nappies as well as vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free food options. And Vanna's cards of course! Winners EDP Food Awards 2007 - Best Farmers Market; Finalist EDP Food Awards - 2007 Best of Norfolk.
Find out more on The Green Grocers' website.
The Greenhouse
The Greenhouse, with its shop and cafe Green City Central, can be found at 42-46 Bethel Street, Norwich, NR2 1NR. Tel no: 01603 631007. The building is Norwich's own environmental centre and is run by the environmental education charity The Greenhouse Trust (Charity No: 1037992). See The Greenhouse Trust website for more information.
Green City Central sells a wide range of Vanna's cards (and sometimes coasters, placemats and prints too), as well as The Greenhouse Cookery Book No. 5, which includes vegan seasonal, organic and fairtrade recipes and some of Vanna's pen and ink drawings. The book costs £4.
Visit Norfolk
Come and see the county that inspires us. Norfolk may not have any hills or mountains but it certainly isn't flat, contrary to what Noel Coward thought - just try cycling up Gas Hill in Norwich! The Visit Norfolk website is a good starting point to find out about our very special part of the world.
You could always buy one of Vanna's pictures or cards as a souvenir to take home with you...
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. Web design © 2008 -
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Vanna Art is solely owned and run as a sole trader by Vanna Bartlett.
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