Two roads diverged in a yellow wood

You can imagine it, can’t you.  Two friends on a walk, arriving at a fork in the road and debating which way to go, left or right.  Apparently that’s the story behind Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken . Frost’s friend and walking partner, Edward Thomas, would get to the end of the walk [...]

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Cough and Splutter

A heavy cold – and swollen glands that have given me a neck like Mike Tyson’s – in almost unseasonably hot weather today. Having to stay in bed on such a lovely day is heartbreaking. Colds are designed for winter. End of story.

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Spiky Blue Things

Can anyone tell me what these spiky blue things are? I took this photo in the Brockwell Park Community Garden recently and,  coming from the other side of the world where plants are altogether different, I cannot make them out.  Not alliums, not eryngiums, not teasels, although they have the spikiness of teasels.  They’re not [...]

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Gertrude Seduces the Boilerman

‘I’ve turned yer boiler down to 52 degress, yeah. Should save you a bit of money,’ said Omar, helpful representitive of British Gas, one morning this week.  There’d been no hot water for several days – parts, a fan, a flue (presumably not from Mexico), the storm, he said.
He pointed at dials and buttons, outlined [...]

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Matchbox Garden

Apologies for the silence recently.  I expect Rebekahn is buried beneath a duvet  in Johannesburg at the moment; on the other side of the world I’ve been trying to make to most of England’s rather shortlived summer.
While wandering through Dalston, Stoke Newington and Islington the other day I was pleased to find this matchbox of [...]

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Summer Scents

In case you hadn’t heard, London is officially in the middle of a heatwave.  If there were any doubts about this, the tabloids dished out on public transport have certainly laid them to rest.  This evening at least two of them ran with a story on the inflated prices of bottled water, which we are [...]

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Omissions, Amendments

Oh bother.  She’s beaten me to it – and gone and put up that nasty pic of me in the St James’ allotment revealing expanses of pale, wintery flesh to all and sundry, including HRH’s guards watching us on CCTV.  (We’re done for by the way – I’m certain they have footage of us pinching [...]

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The Ultimate Seed Collection

If you’ve visited www.ted.com before , you’ll know it’s a fascinating repository of talks by some of the world’s leading thinkers.  Britain has got talent, but you’ll find it at TED, not in the reality slot on the box.  Sorry, Susan Boyle.
Today I discovered a talk by Jonathan Drori about the Millenium Seed Bank.  When [...]

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The Light Fantastic

Just  when I was beginning to feel cheated of my annual sun quota, the old man put in a guest appearance this weekend. This afternoon was muggy to boot – it’s raining now – and earlier, if I closed my eyes and used my imagination, ok, rather a lot of imagination, I could have been [...]

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We’d Like To Thank All The Worms

It’s a telling sign of the times: Vivh is all-consumed by Chelsea, and rubbing shoulders with all the famous gardening types. I have retreated into a winter fug, taking  only the most occasional trip into the garden and scuttling back in after about 5 minutes.
And as a result, we both seem to have missed the [...]

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