Time to cut the Yew hedges at the music school. Jif went round trimming the sides earlier in the week and I got the ladder out today to give them a flat top. 

 The method is to get the bulk of the straggly growth off with the first cut (as seen above) then fine tune with a second cut to take out any undulations and get a nice square edge. Yew (Taxus bachata) is very amenable to this kind of topiary. One down, five or six more to go...

 NB appropriate that the border in the foreground is planted with Lavender. The middle building in the background is 'The Lavender Tower'', part of the original house built in 1859 by William Ransom and used to dry Lavender (and possibly other herbs?). 

 He was a Quaker and botanist who opened a pharmacy in Hitchin in 1845 then established William Ransom & Son to manufacture drugs and other herbal preparations. Raw materials were cultivated or gathered from the wild locally as well as being sourced from all over the world. The company exists to this day, still based in Hitchin.