Tag Archives: spring

Reasons To Be Cheerful

I posted this blog ten minutes ago, at which point everything except the title disappeared (possibly not unconnected with the content). So I’m having another go … Among the (very first-world) disadvantages of Covid are: having to cancel a trip … Continue reading

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Buds

March is all about anticipation: admittedly, whitethorn and Prunus cerasifera are doing their thing, and Mahonia is almost over, but, in the Botanic Garden, I don’t imagine I am the only person checking up on the great Prunus x yedoensis (the Yoshino cherry) … Continue reading

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Quinquennium

Well, the plan was to be writing from lovely Lucca to mark the fifth anniversary of La Vita Nuova, but fate has decreed otherwise. Instead, I sit contemplating the garden, and will shortly be going with Him Indoors on a … Continue reading

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The Vernal Equinox

‘The vernal equinox has come too soon’ is, Him Indoors assures me, the opening line of a welcome ode written to celebrate the visit of Her Majesty The Queen to his school at some point in the 1960s. I have … Continue reading

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Memos to Self …

A blissful afternoon in the garden today. Sun! Warmth! Ladybirds! Tulips! Robins! But after five hours of stern effort, I feel the need to set down a few reminders to myself, some of which may possibly be of more general … Continue reading

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Plant of the Month: January 2018

The first problem I have in considering the hazel (apart from the minor detail that, in the last few days when I have been confined to bed/the house, it has been bright and sunny – ideal photographic weather – and … Continue reading

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Plant of the Month: April

As a poet (rather than as an academic), A.E. Housman had the occasional lapse (who does not wince at the immortal lines, ‘The goal stands up, the keeper/Stands up to keep the goal’, in a stanza that Vaughan Williams refused … Continue reading

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La Vita Nuova

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. This is a actually a silly statement, for two reasons: (1) every day is the first day of the rest of one’s life; (2) the first day of the … Continue reading

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