Yesterday, I went to London to view the Islington Square development, where we are supplying intensive roof substrate to Scotscape for the fabulous roof gardens planned for this luxury development.

There was quite a lot of waiting involved in the day's events. I made it for 9am, as planned, but Drew got stuck in traffic and so, after hanging around outside the main gate for a while, I went to a nearby caff to warm up a bit. It was about +4 and this, combined with a really mean easterly straight from Siberia, made the streets of North London unusually grim. It was inevitable that, at the very moment I got my coffee, Drew should call and say he was nearly there.

So I went back to the gate and got some nice pictures of an articulated Steward's lorry arriving with lots of (old design) bulk bags. Had a nice chat with the driver while we were both waiting - the site management wouldn't let the lorry in until 11.30, although this wasn't what the driver had been told. Then Drew turned up and we needed to go round to the other gate, where we eventually were let in and met with Jozsef, our cheerful Russian friend from Scotscape. He took us up on the roofs of two of the development blocks and showed the plans. These will be super flats with views over the City in one direction and Hampstead in the other. The top-floor apartments will have individual gardens, each with endless swimming pools (i.e., fairly small ones with a turbine to keep a constant water flow for you to swim against) and with stunning views. Scotscape are making the gardens and, among other amazing statistics, these will include 600 linear metres of hedging.

It was cold on that roof, as you can perhaps see from the photo. Once the lorry was allowed in and the bags were being unloaded by crane from the yard up to one of the roofs, I shot a quick video and then we got out of the wind as fast as the semi-finished stairways would allow us. Drew and Jozsef went on to the now almost finished Vista development in Battersea, but I had my own driving and delivery job scheduled for the afternoon, so said cheers to Drew and до свидания to Jozsef.

The photo shows the Great Room at Grosvenor House shortly before the lunch started. it was all very elegantly laid out and, though there must have been something like 1200 people there, there was adequate space for everybody.

The awards were of course what everybody was there for, and we were very pleased that One Tower Bridge won the Grand Award - the "Best in Show" prize. It is an amazing project too, and we are proud to have supplied our products via Scotscape. As these things tend to do, the ceremony did rather drag on. The presenter was Stephanie McGovern, a well-known TV presenter (apparently - but then I don't watch TV!). She did have some trouble holding the attention of the crowd, as the procedure trundled on, but it would have been an impossible task for anybody, as the temperature rose and drink was being drunk. Everybody should get their time in the limelight, but if there were any way of speeding up the presentation of the awards, that would be the single improvement that would make a big difference to the event.

The food was nicely presented and well prepared, but not that inspiring, perhaps (difficult with 1200 guests though). There was a decent amount of drink available and we enjoyed that! The prices in the bar afterwards are, well, London prices... need I say more?

Overall, the organisation can't be faulted. Everything worked smoothly, the catering and security staff did their jobs unobtrusively and there was never any real crush. People were generally well-behaved and I think we all left with feelings of goodwill towards humankind in general and BALI in particular - a good thing at this time of the year!

The Grand Award at the BALI National Landscape Awards went to the One Tower Bridge project. Well done all involved - Maylim Limited received the award for this project, which had Berkeley Homes as the client. Maylim's suppliers included Scotscape, to whom we proudly provided materials.

There were of course lots of awards - see them all at the BALI Awards website - and we were involved one way or another in many of them:

• Total Protection got a Principal Award for the Hard Landscaping Construction (£300k - £1.5m) at Dollar Bay.
• Talbot Farm Landscapes won the Principal Regeneration Scheme over £500k for Hyde Park Parade and also received the Special Award for Best First Time Entrant.
• Bowles & Wyer won no less than 6 awards, of which two as Principal Awards for Soft Landscaping Under £300K at St Peter’s College and for the brilliant Green Roof Installation at Eland House
• Elite Landscapes received an award for the fantastic work carried out at Chelsea Creek
• Skidmores of Hertford were rewarded for the great work done at Kings Langley
• Blakedown Landscapes (SE) picked up another award for St Mary’s Churchyard, Elephant & Castle (In which we were also involved)
• idverde UK among other awards picked up the Principal Award for Grounds Maintenance - Free Public Access, for Manor Gardens in Bexhill
• Kingston Landscape Group won the Principal Award in the Soft Landscaping £300k - £1.5m category and for the Green Roof Installation, both for the Dickens Yard project.

There might be some more observations on the event in the next few days...