I have resolutely avoided blogging about New Year resolutions. I am a great believer in doing rather than saying and it is easy to say I will do this or that but actually carrying it out is another thing. I am also one of those people who easily feels a strong sense of failure if…
Category: Discussion
A look back at 2016 & hopes for 2017
2016 has been one of those weird years full of changes and challenges – both personal and more broadly. I pondered last night whether I should write this post in the bubble of my blog world or whether I should comment on the sense of unease which seems to be pervading the world at large. …
West Coast of Japan – A threatened beauty
My trip to Japan wasn’t all about the gardens, it was more about experiencing Japan and trying to get a little insight into its fascinating culture. As I have said we travelled in a sort of zig-zag south from Kyoto. A couple of days were spent on the west coast based in a town call…
A timely reminder
I read last night and into the early hours and wept. It’s rare for a book to hold me in this way. Despite its title, Mister Owita’s Guide to Gardening is not a gardening book although the education of a gardener is the premise for the story. Nor is it about the author’s battle…
School dinners – a blast from the past
In search of inspiration for this ridiculous blogging daily challenge I have inflicted on myself I came across some prompts and one of them was to write about your school lunches. Strange I know but apparently it leads you to tap into your childhood, explore emotions etc and is meant to be a real cure…
JOMO or FOMO – Which are You?
Day 12 of NaBloMoPo finds me delving into my saves on Facebook for inspiration and coming up with this Youtube interview with the wonderful Claudia Winkleman. I love Claudia, she just makes me smile and I relate to a lot of her attitudes apart from the black eye liner and tippex mouth. Anyway the thing…
If we were having tea right now…..
If we were having a cup of tea right now I would be telling you about my fab weekend at the Alpine Garden Society annual conference. I learnt all sorts of things, many of them not to do with plants. For example I learnt that New Zealand’s only native mammals are bats (is that right…
Suburban is not Urban
I have a bit of a bug-bear on the way suburban gardens are represented in garden media. If you pick up any selection of gardening magazines you will find the usual selection of large country gardens and small chic city gardens, often courtyards, or community gardens, or people growing vegetables in small spaces – which…
To write or to garden, that is the question
Anyone who reads this blog regularly will know that I am a passionate gardener, so my response to today’s Writing 101 prompt about what I do when not writing is easy. The majority of my time is spent at a PC in my office at the University where I am an administrator so in fact…
An Open Letter to the Worldwide Web
Dear Worldwide Web Or if I maybe familiar www, I am writing to express my amazement and appreciation of the contribution you have made since you emerged in our world nearly 25 years ago. My sons are oblivious of the world before it had a worldwide web but as a child of the 60s I…
Why do I write?
Why do I write? Because I can’t help myself. I need to let out the thoughts and whitterings that run around my mind. As Sylvia Plath said: “I write only because There is a voice within me That will not be still” I am a restless soul with a mind like a mad chirping bird…
