Thoughts from the Bus Stop: Derek Jarman's cottage and the Dungeness Drifter

Have been meaning to write this post for months. In August I went to stay with my best friend from school. She now lives in the Medway area of Kent, and drove me out to Dungeness, to visit the cottage where the late artist and filmaker Derek Jarman spent his last years, and created an unusual garden full of found objects. I'd wanted to go for years - since getting hold of the book, Derek Jarman's Garden.

Dungeness is a strange and beautiful place. We visited on a sunny day and the light was just amazing - have a look at this 360 degree panorama of Prospect Cottage and Dungeness by Bruce Hemming. Prospect Cottage's garden has been maintained by its current owner, and is totally in keeping with the atmosphere of Dungeness - small pockets of life nestling in a seemingly barren place. (Apparently, Dungeness is officially the UK's only desert).

There was a wonderful surprise waiting for me a couple of doors down from Prospect Cottage - another garden full of found object assemblages, which I became really engrossed in and ending up loving even more than the garden I'd come to see (no disrespect, Mr J). I took loads of photos of both gardens and after I'd got them loaded onto Flickr I was contacted by another user, who told me that the garden was his father's - an artist called Brian Yale - and pointed me in the direction of more of his dad's artwork - I love it when stuff like that happens!

If you fancy a nose round these gardens, my photos are in my Derek Jarman's Garden and Dungeness: Brian Yale's garden Flickr sets.

By the way, avoid the "legendary" Pilot pub for lunch - I knew chips could be disappointing, but hadn't realised they could ever be revolting. Ours tasted of stale cooking oil and we could taste them for the rest of the day... yeeuk.