Thursday 30 April 2015

The Secret Garden




By train to Cambridge.





And a chance to visit the Fellows' gardens at Trinity College.







Does anybody know what this is?
The branches are like thorny antlers.


I knew I'd seen it somewhere before.
And then it came to me.












Monday 27 April 2015

The Whistle



Imagine that you are strolling



through the Spring garden





at Great Dixter,



admiring the tulips




when you hear this plaintive sound (from 2.04)
distant in the valley below



and it is summoning you.

This is the sound that you heard from your attic window at night
when you were a child,
only then it was from the great steam trains 
running out of King's Cross on the Great Northern Railway up to Scotland.

So you insist that you must find the train
and take a ride from Northiam to Bodiam and back.


And luckily there is only ten minutes to wait for the next train.






It is just a long enough ride to recall a journey down to Cornwall
for a summer fortnight in Polperro.
You were six and packed your little brown suitcase,
with the brown gingham paper lining


and felt very smart in a two piece light green 'suit'
and had to be told not to lean out of the window
because of the smuts.
The big tin trunk had gone down ahead of the family
and you wore your school uniform until it was time to leave
because all the summer clothes had been packed.

That's how old I am.
And it only takes a whistle to telescope the years. 



Monday 20 April 2015

I am slightly indisposed



which is a nuisance


when the weather is so nice


and there is such a lot to do


in the garden


such as scrubbing the silver birch trunks


and planning 


to do better 


with the containers this year.




I have picked a vase of Flaming Spring Green tulips
to go with my Flaming Spring Sore throat.

Saturday 11 April 2015

Where was I?








Enjoying a fine Spring day at Sissinghurst.




Picking the first Spring flowers from the garden
sparingly.


Flying a kite.
I used to be a bit of a whizz with a Peter Powell stunt kite
on the Bristol Downs.
They were the Toy of the Year in 1976.
This one was harder to control but just as exhilarating.


Finding a silver fish on the beach.


Picking wild garlic for pesto and chicken.


Watching gambolling lambs
and worrying about the lost ones.


Being with all the family for Easter.


Getting another year older
and feeling just the same
even if the mirror begs to differ.