I didn't feel so kindly disposed towards the deer this morning (see yesterday's post) when I found that they had chomped the lower leaves from all ten newly planted birch trees!
And had a munch at a few hardy geraniums as they passed.
Simply live....and let live..?
I took some photographs to show you the damage but decided you'd probably much rather look at this:
don't ask what the world needs
ask what makes you come alive
and go do it
because what the world needs most is people
who have come alive
Howard Thurman
So here is a nice question: what makes you come alive? For me it is visiting new places, learning something new, and hearing a deer rustle its way through the ferns in the forest when I went out at twilight last night to pick some scented flowers - lilac to put in the bathroom before I had my bath, and azalea lutea to put on the bedside table. Listening to great music makes me come alive. I've just been offered a piano! Something new to learn....
So, what makes you come alive?
And can you go do it?
The wisteria also has a lovely perfume..
I began this post yesterday, but when I came across the photo of the Olympic meadow I just wanted to sit staring at it (if you've not looked I'll pause here while you go to yesterday's post and take a peek, OK?)
Now wasn't that the most mindblowingly beautiful annual flwering meadow you have ever seen?
A gold medal please for Professor Nigel Dunnett!
It's not only the athletes who are concerned with their times. An area the size of ten football pitches has just been sown with annuals. The gardeners and designers who are creating the Olympic meadows have been trialling the flowers used for two years to be sure of getting them to come into flower at exactly the right time. As much of a challenge as the mens' 100 metres I'm sure. Sleepless nights if the weather isn't right! Stress!
The Chelsea Chop is the name given to the practice of cutting plants back (around the time of the Chelsea Flower Show, hence the name) to get later flowers, to get more flowers, and/or to get a plant that is shorter and sturdier and less vulnerable to weather damage.
I've read that it began when wealthy people were in the habit of going to their contry estates for the month of August and the gardeners tried to get everything in the pleasure gardens to flower during that month.
There was also a fashion in the 19C and early 20C for banking flowers like Michaelmas daisies with taller ones to the back andshorter ones to the front - it seems that if the front ones were cut back early enough they could all be in flower at the same time, creating spectacular effects. head gardeners must have kept careful notes as to what worked and when.
Timing was everything - as it is today for the Chelsea Show and the Olympics, and to a much lesser degree for those who open their gardens for charity. I'm chopping a few things and watering a few things whichseem slow (the seeded patches on the lawn) but I won't be losing sleep over them!
This little bunch of linaria is the result of a mini 'Chelsea Chop'.
Bedding plants are sometimes in full flower when you buy them now. The advantage is that you know exactly what the flowers look like, you don't have to depend on the picture on the label. The disadvantage is that the flowers will soon be over. I compromised here by cutting back every second stem or so on the linaria to encourage side shoots and many more flowers - when these current flowers fade I shall cut those stems hard back. This way I won't get as many flowers all at once, but I will get flowers over a much longer period which is what I want here.
I've put on plant of linaria with three of erigeron karvinskianus (Mexican daisy) in each of the five pots on the steps (this is them after their chop!)
I also bought a few small plants of heliotrope Cherry Pie - even this tiny plant (the jug in this picture is about three inches high) scents the warm air all around.
I have some in the greenhouse.
It's delicious in there today.
Tomorrow - more about the Chelsea Chop, timing, and the Olympics....
I know all this is very serious (see yesterday's post) and I think it is reflected in the packaging - all very high minded, earnest and worthy, but wouldn't it be possible to make them look a bit more glamorous and fun? Trivial minded I know, but we humans like novelty and change and I'm as much a sucker for a bit of pretty and sparkle as the next person....
I think more people might buy them (we are influenced by attractive packaging - look at the advertising world for evidence of that), and they would certainly be more attractive to give as gifts which I'd like to do, but found myself hesitating to do, and think this is why. They don't need to look glitzy, but they don't need to look so prosaic either surely?
What do you think?
Could we have substance and style?
Whyever not?
I'm being more careful about what I put in my body, as well as food, aware as I now am that everything I put on my skin is absorbed into my bloodstream!
I'm gradually changing the things I use to avoid parabens, pthalates and aluminium.
In Wholefoods Markets (see last post) when I said I was looking for shampoo and deodorants without these, the young woman waved her arm towards all the shelves and said 'You won't find them in any of our products'. Choosing then became a pleasure, instead of a minefield!
So far I've changed my toothpaste, bodywash, moisturiser, deodorant and shampoo.
When you start reading up on these things it would be easy to get panicked - pthalates are also known as 'gender benders', parabens are of concern in connection with early puberty in girls and breast cancers - and they are in everything (including the fat of polar bears in the Arctic I'm told!) so what chance have we got? Well, I remind myself that on average in the western world we are living longer and healthier than ever before in our history, and I avoid these things where I know I can....that is I don't deliberately put them into my body.
I use as my guide Dr David Servan Schreiber's book Anti Cancer - A New Way of Life. The latest edition comes with a pocket guide which is a useful summary.
Sorry I missed posting yesterday - there was a glitch with weebly, but they've fixed it....
I never thought I'd say this but I love a supermarket!! (See my thoughts on supermarket stress at 1st April 2010 - archives column on right)
Wholefoods Market have opened a store in Glasgow:
Instead of my usual in and grab what I want and get out again as quickly as possible, I actually wanted to stay longer, chatting to the friendly, cheerful and knowledgeable staff, tasting the samples, admiring the displays, having another coffee, reading the brochures about sustainable fishing, farm animal welfare, 'Ask the butcher', 'Meet the producers', supporting local and third world charities....
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/giffnockBrilliant! Can't wait to go again!
This little photograph reminds me that simplest is often best.
The white flower is geranium robertianum Celtic White - a variety of our native herb robert which I always have in my gardens in memory of a friend Robert. I grew it from seed -
www.plant-world-seeds.com - and planted it out in the garden and it has spread, daintily and prettily, to all gravelly and stony corners. Here and there they have crossed with the native dark pink one to produce a delightful pale pink, as here. The flowers are so pure and simple.
They are totally hardy, grow in sun or shade, seed themselves around but are not difficult to remove from places where you do not want them. I remove most of the red ones which are easily identifiable by their red stems. They withstand a certain amount of being tread upon round our table and chairs, and flower from May till November. What more could one ask? They require no attention whatsoever - perfect plants.
I can't help but compare with the showy and demanding delphiniums....(see yesterday's post)
There's a lesson here:
Keep it simple.
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