The garden and the O' level flower

-
It's sweet rocket time in the garden. This is a plant I've had about me for years. When my parents sold the house we grew up in, we took bits of quite a few plants, and this was one of them. It hasn't entirely approved of every garden I've had since then, but I've managed to keep it going, and it loves this one, seeding itself with abandon in the more shady bits. There are flowers I associate with things and times, and sweet rocket is one. It always seems to be out during May Half Term, which was when I did my intensive last minute panic revision (if I'm honest, usually the only revision I did, as getting on with things in a timely fashion wasn't one of my teenage skills). As a break in between high speed panicking, I used to wander out into the garden and smell the rocket, which is one of those flowers which smells best in the evening. Whenever I smell it, I always remember my teenage self, attempting to put right the neglect of months in a single week.

My son has A levels in a couple of weeks, and yesterday he was sitting out in the garden next to the rocket, revising. I wonder if it will have the same memory for him.



The roses are starting to come out. This dog rose sprung out of a rather nasty vivid peach HT, and I have let it go, as it seems to have completely overwhelmed the thing grafted on.

Gloire de Dijon:


Chapeau de Napoleon rose (not a brilliant photo). I bought what I thought was one of these but found out when it flowered it wasn't. This one is the real deal, and here are its amazing mossy little buds, doing their best to look like a hat.


I seem to have acquired an awful lot of geraniums over the years, and these two are particular favourites. The white one is Kashmir white; the blue one I can't remember.


Aquilegia, which is another plant that reminds me of our childhood home, as they set themselves everywhere.


Alba Maxima rose, which has only just come out.


Comments

Rachael (Tales From The Village) said…
Oh, beautiful. Your roses are much further on than mine. We have one out, and lots of buds in waiting. Funny how evocative plants can be, isn't it? I recently bought some lemon balm, which took me back to the early days of my first pregnancy, eleven years ago.
6 June 2010 at 07:55
Jane Badger said…
Rachael, those were just single ones, though the Gloire de Dijon had a big spurt yesterday in the heat!

I wonder if it's the scented plants that have the biggest effect on your memory? A friend is always taken back to her childhood appendicitis when she smells lily of the valley, as her mother brought her a bunch when she visited her in hospital (in the days when you could bring flowers into hospital!)
6 June 2010 at 12:15
Unknown said…
Your garden is looking lovely, Jane. I really must do a little work in the tiny patch in front of this house.
My honeysuckle is in full leaf now and I'm looking forward to the flowers, which are also one of those that smell lovely in the evening. The only thing in flower at the moment really is the lily of the valley, which flourishes here.
7 June 2010 at 01:25
Jane Badger said…
Thanks Gillian - as ever I've not shown the 'orrible weedy bits! I love honeysuckle too.
7 June 2010 at 12:56
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rollkur and the blue tongue

-
I've been meaning to write about this all week, but reading the exclusive in Horse and Hound about the controversy tipped me over the edge. For my non-horsy readers, rollkur is a training/warming up technique used by some dressage riders. It basically involves riding the horse with its jaw pulled in virtually to its chest, in order to increase suppleness. Patrik Kittel , a Swedish competitor in Odense was videoed riding his horse in this way. If you watch the video , you'll see the horse's tongue hanging out - blue. It takes a while before the rider notices this. When he does, he stops, puts the horse's tongue back in, and carries on. There are two things which bother me about this. Firstly, I am fully aware large sections of the dressage world, and some of its brighest stars, consider rollkur perfectly ok, but the FEI guidelines state this practice should only be for short periods, allowing the horse to rest. Patrick Kittel apparently rode the horse for two hou...
Read more

Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes

-
Image
My friend Louise sent me this picture today. It's from a children's book with the rather wince-making title For The Wee Ones. I thought, when I read that (because I read the message before I looked at the picture) that the picture was going to be a typical winsome production from the school of artists who think (or who are paid to think) that the child is a thing sent from God and a blissful thing. They had obviously never met a child, and certainly not mine. I should have known Louise better. The artist responsible for Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes slipped this one past the editors. Just look at the poor, broken Mother Rabbit. She knows she has not the faintest chance of being listened to, and poor thing, she is stooped in the way of a mother to whom this is just the lastest in a long line of horror; with nothing good to come. And Archibald is obviously the spawn of the Devil. Just look at those eyes. He'll have the bed after he's finished the bedclothes...
Read more

Dick Sparrow - 40 Horse Hitch, and Neil Dimmock's 46 Percherons

-
Image
Here's a clip of Dick Sparrow driving 40 horses. It's an amazing sight, particularly when the shot changes to show the team from the rear and you get the great incongruity of modern American corporate architecture as a background to the wagon and horses. I love the anticipation in the video: the sense of something amazing being just round the corner is palpable. Thanks to Christina Wilsdon for telling me about this world record 46 Percheron hitch (alas just stills) but you get the idea.
Read more