For three seasons of the year we have a stream running through the garden. It is dry in summer so it is really a bourne. The water authority have upgraded it to the status of ‘river’. This gives them control over what we do with it in case we want to dam it, change its course or make a culvert. [Read more…] about A Bridge in the Garden
Gardening
Growing up in Chandler’s Ford: 1950s – 1960s: Breaking Free from North End School (Part 8)
The Big Freeze in 1963 was followed by the ‘Chandler’s Ford Floods’!
As the snow melted, the resulting melt water had to go somewhere – and the river systems were unsuited for the rush!
Monks Brook and its tributaries were much narrower then and the bridges formed obstructions to the passing waters which rushed through. [Read more…] about Growing up in Chandler’s Ford: 1950s – 1960s: Breaking Free from North End School (Part 8)
Please May We Have Our Footpath Back?
Judging by recent comments on Streetlife about hedges overhanging pavements, I believe many will support my request to have our footpaths returned to us.
If you go for a walk in the evening with a friend, dog or children, you will come across obstacles. Plants escaping from peoples’ front gardens will make your trip hazardous. [Read more…] about Please May We Have Our Footpath Back?
The Splendour of Chelsea Flower Show 2015
I am lucky enough to have a friend who works for the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), who got two free tickets to the show on Friday. So off to London I went, meeting up with my friend at Waterloo.
After a quick Tube journey to Sloane Square we emerged onto the busy London street and facing the station was a ticket tout offering Flower show tickets! [Read more…] about The Splendour of Chelsea Flower Show 2015
Life as a Small Publisher: Allison Symes Talks to Felicity Fair Thompson
I met Felicity Fair Thompson of Wight Diamond Press at the Isle of Wight Weekend Writers’ Conference, which she ran from 2000 to 2005. The conferences were held in Sandown.
I also met Gill James, later of Bridge House Publishing, at one of these conferences and she became the publisher for my first accepted short story, A Helping Hand in the anthology, Alternative Renditions. Wheels within wheels so to speak… [Read more…] about Life as a Small Publisher: Allison Symes Talks to Felicity Fair Thompson
A Hero of Trees – Richard St. Barbe Baker
One hundred years ago, on the battlefields of Flanders, lay a young officer of the Royal Horse Artillery. He was wounded, presumed dead.
Twice more during WWI he was wounded and recovered. He was awarded the Military Cross.
After the war he was able to pursue his dream and study forestry at Cambridge. [Read more…] about A Hero of Trees – Richard St. Barbe Baker
A Dinosaurs’ Garden
It was a crazy idea from the start. A mixture of the imagery of Vita Sackville West’s White Garden at Sissinghurst and watching Jurassic Park just once too often. Could I have a pre-historic garden like the ones where dinosaurs must have browsed?
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Professor Challenger found a lost world, I would create my own lost world.
[Read more…] about A Dinosaurs’ Garden
Butterflies in February
Butterflies in February? Poor things will be caught in the next frost. But not if they are in a hothouse.
For the next week or so there is a magnificent display of butterflies in the Glasshouse at the Royal Horticultural Society’s gardens at Wisley.
[Read more…] about Butterflies in February
Log Fires
You must have lit fires when you were young and out in the country.
It’s frowned upon by adults but you have to do these things to learn.
The first lesson is that wet things do not burn. The second is that there is nothing as satisfying as something cooked on your own log fire. [Read more…] about Log Fires
The Foxglove
Now is the time of the foxglove. It grows naturally and is therefore regarded by some gardeners as a weed but it is a noble flower. Upright and stately in a royal purple colour it rises above others as a bright symbol in shady places.
Why Foxglove? This strange name for the flower has been around since the 14th century and was sometimes called ‘folksglove’. [Read more…] about The Foxglove
Lost and Found
I have just gone through a period of losing things. At least I hope I have gone through it and will not lose any more essential and valuable objects. Some years ago odd socks would appear and no matter where I looked the partner for it never turned up. After hanging around in my sock drawer for a while I would throw the sock away.
The next day the other one would turn up. [Read more…] about Lost and Found
“Oh, To Be In Chandler’s Ford / Now That April’s There”
“Oh, to be in Chandler’s Ford / Now that April’s there.”
(Sorry about that misquote, Mr Browning.)
Recently someone told me that Chandler’s Ford had no soul. He went by the name of Mephistophilis on the chat site. I asked him to define soul but he declined.
The soul must be in the gardens. [Read more…] about “Oh, To Be In Chandler’s Ford / Now That April’s There”
The Unexpected Gift
A budgie flying past one day,
Over a garden in Kent,
Did the thing that birds must do,
A little gift he sent. [Read more…] about The Unexpected Gift