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Showing posts from August, 2015

Thinning

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Dear Monty, For the first time I too have had my grapes harvested by wasps - Is it related to the lack of warmth and late build up of the nests - therefore a dearth of food ? This has been a challenging year both for the garden and for humanity. The garden is still a place of sanctuary and in that I increasingly see my wealth - it is painfully pointed out to me in the 'news'. I have a home which I am paying for - I have food and clean water, I have time to think about other things, yet you can still catch me grumbling about my salary and what will be a pension taxed at 20% - I am aware of my selfishness. Have I become immune to compassion ? It does feel as though my conscience has been seared as with a hot iron. I see the horror of those fleeing from war dying trying to reach 'freedom' our freedom - my freedom. Do I want them to have a slice of it ? Is our 'way of life' something to be fenced off from others ? - I'm beginning to feel uncomforta

Enjoying the fall

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Dear Monty, Here in the coal-tip garden leaves are falling. Premature falling that may be caused by disease. I wanted to halt them - a bit like Canute holding back the tide. The rain could make my spirit droop like the leaves, but I find myself enjoying the rain the drooping and falling. Perhaps I have come to terms with my ego - perhaps a garden is more than a collection of plants. There are lessons to be learnt in falling.

Where does peace reside ?

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Dear Monty, Why do so many of us find peace within our gardens ? Does peace reside there or in our heads ? Is there something within us human beings which responds to the natural biological world outside of knowledge? A kind of chord - a note - a harmonic, like a faint memory of something ancient and beyond words. Yesterday there was a kind of dance going on, a ballet of movement and light. A red admiral swirled in and out of the hydrangea flowers. Hover flies of different sizes and colours performed a zig zag tango tussle over the large umbels of the purple stemmed giant hogweed. I was sitting on the red terrace looking across the garden toward the poplar tree growing in the valley below us. The poplar has a unique dance of its own - the leaves shimmer almost in slow motion - quite unlike any of the surrounding native trees. The red terrace I am content - even in this strange garden with all of its poor horticulture and disease problems. Peace despite noise -

Pity the cabbage white

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Dear Monty, Having seen you protect your newly planted cabbages from cabbage white butterflies - it made me realise that I haven't seen many this year. Despite warmth yesterday - a brief interlude with blue sky and a light wind there was a dearth of butterflies in the coal tip garden. There were honey bees, bumble bees, wasps, hover flies, a gangly legged wasp, one hedge brown, one speckled wood and a common blue - that is all. Oh and a frog sheltering in the shady hosta and a silent peregrine falcon swooping overhead. What has happened to all the insects ? What has happened to all the aphids this year ? Is it just me that is missing them ? I have seen no ladybirds or ladybird larvae - because there have been so few aphids - was it the birds that have snaffled them ? I worry about the lack of insect numbers. We walked through a wild meadow full of meadow cranesbill and meadowsweet with the purple haze of knapweed in the grasses and yet there were one or two meadow br

Owl returns

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Dear Monty, An ode to Owl O owl o gwdy hw You have returned You have brightened a dull day You have flown back to me. How did I not see you abandoned there in the long grass ? Your flight was but a hundred yards From arms you slipped Or were dropped. Perhaps the queen of the night disturbed you Gwdy hw Now I am uplifted As are you Perched I perch too. Paul