I wasn’t entirely happy with May.
Continue readingApril 2020: In the garden
I’m sorry, Paul, but I think the four words that most frequently enter my head are probably, “I love my garden”.
Continue readingMarch 2020: In the garden
March 2020. Where to begin? I’ve been wondering that for a couple of weeks now, hence my tardiness in writing.
Continue readingFebruary 2020: In the garden
February is a funny old month. In the northern hemisphere, you so often hear people say, “ugh, February’s awful”. Often our coldest month and meteorologically the third and final of winter, I suppose people have had enough by then and just want spring to jolly well hurry up.
Continue readingJanuary 2020: In the garden
I can’t quite decide if the distinct turning point I sense on the first of January each year is actually a real thing or all in my head. It’s as if there is a 180 degree shift in nature: before the new year everything is in decline, but from the first of January, those very same plants are suddenly on the ascent.
Continue readingDecember: Peace and goodwill
It’s been a quiet month in the garden.
Continue readingNovember: Light in the dark
I have always thought there is little redeeming about November in the UK. Grey, soggy, dark, mucky, damp and dreary. Ugh. Everything is mushy, everything has a film of dirt over it and by about three o’clock you’re needing to reach for the lights.
Continue readingOctober: Slow garden making
I’ve always loved problem solving. In my first job, making McVities’ biscuits, my colleagues and I spent hour after hour, day after day, looking for ways to eke out a few more perfect biscuits every hour, motivated by the drive to please our wonderful biscuit-eating customers; oh and to avoid the particularly unpleasant experience of having to admit to 10% waste at the ops meeting the following day.
Continue readingSeptember: Autumn draws in
In this new world of all things Instagram, I’ve become a little jaded with photography. I feel we’ve had photography overload: everyone taking the same style of photo of the same types of things, all designed to make something look better than it really is: more beautiful, more fun, more adventurous than reality. It’s all a bit fake, a bit stylised and really somewhat clichéd.
Continue readingAugust: Dew on rose hips
August is a funny old month. I’ve always thought of it as being the absolute peak of summer: the UK’s warmest temperatures, a full month of school summer holidays and gardens at their most fully grown, exuberant selves.
Continue reading