ABC Wednesday - I is for...

...Icons of Britain

I couldn't resist showing you two of our most iconic pieces of street furniture, the post and telephone box. These examples are lurking outside the recently refurbished Chippenham's train station. You'll see that the post box is a relatively recent example as it has Queen Elizabeth's monogram. Even though the majority of us now have mobile phones, there was a public outcry when British Telecom began to remove these phoneboxes from our streets. There's a really good website dedicated to these and other icons of the British way of life e.g. cricket, our weather, routemaster buses etc. etc.

See Mrs Nesbitt's Place for more ABC pictures.

Comments

  1. Aunt Debbi/kurts mom19 March 2008 at 07:50

    It blows my mind when I am up in the middle of the night and you are posting for my tomorrow. Cool y'all are hanging on to the old stuff. Can you translate Texan?

    ReplyDelete
  2. mrsnesbitt19 March 2008 at 08:51

    Memories eh?

    ReplyDelete
  3. FO - 219 March 2008 at 09:11

    Charming Icons! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. CanadianGardenJoy19 March 2008 at 11:43

    VP ... I'm waiting to see the "T" for Dr. Who and his "phone box" !!!
    LOL
    Joy

    ReplyDelete
  5. Paul and Melanie19 March 2008 at 13:57

    Hadn't seen a red phone box for ages till recently when we saw two within a mile of each other down near Petworth (I think... lol) when we were on a day out. They both had signs saying 'Does not accept coins' on them though so not quite sure what they used, perhaps they have credit card swipe things now...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lilli & Nevada19 March 2008 at 15:24

    Those are very nice and colorful Icons

    ReplyDelete
  7. Patty19 March 2008 at 15:49

    We no long have phone boxes (we call them phone booths). Even the ones they attached to a wall are hard to find now days with so many people using cell phone.
    As for the postal box, our mail boxes are shaped differnt and I have never seen a red one. I think it is so interesting to see what other countries us. Thanks for the great post.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Unknown19 March 2008 at 18:30

    Great photos. Our phone booths here don't last that long.

    ReplyDelete
  9. dot19 March 2008 at 18:33

    I'm glad they were able to save them. It's nice to see a phone booth again and I don't think I've ever seen a red one.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Petunia19 March 2008 at 20:01

    This is a great choice of this wweks letter:D

    ReplyDelete
  11. Unknown19 March 2008 at 20:03

    Great photo.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous19 March 2008 at 20:08

    That phone box is bigger than my shed...perhaps I should have got one of those instead!
    Routemasters were proper buses, and much missed!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Andrea19 March 2008 at 20:08

    Interesting Icons.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Alan19 March 2008 at 20:14

    I've seen a religious icon today, and now a national icon. Good choice. Where's the double decker bus? :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Janet19 March 2008 at 20:27

    Good choice for I. The red is so striking.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Katney19 March 2008 at 21:08

    This is a great use of the word icon foor the letter I. Ther is another post with Icon as it's image--but totally different as you can imagine. And then ther eare all of us with ice, and no two alike. I has been a great ABC.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Silly Goose19 March 2008 at 22:43

    So cool, VP! I feel like any minute Dr. Who is going to step right out of my computer screen. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  18. DeeMom19 March 2008 at 22:52

    Great idea...

    ReplyDelete
  19. gma20 March 2008 at 00:44

    How cute!!! I love running into icons like this!!!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Dragonstar20 March 2008 at 16:00

    I'm glad these old things are still around. We had one from Victoria's time in our town (long ago when I was young ...)

    ReplyDelete
  21. this is my patch20 March 2008 at 16:30

    Ooh, you've found this website too, it is good isn't it. x

    ReplyDelete
  22. VP20 March 2008 at 20:13

    Aunt Debbi - yes it's weird isn't it? I sure can!

    Mrs Nesbitt - where would we be without them?

    Joy & Dirty Knees - I can't believe how global Dr Who is, or is it just a Canadian thang!

    Paul & Melanie - I think they might of escaped and set up home in the wilds of Gloucestershire ;)

    Flighty and Alan - there was a Routemaster in Castle Combe (nearby village, nowhere near London, its natural habitat) a couple of weeks ago. Gary Lineker was making the latest Walker's Crisps advert!

    Autumn - we take these everyday things for granted don't we? In Spain these are bright yellow...

    Louise - it's a great website, though I was surprised that the postbox is just at the nomination stage at the moment.

    Everyone else - glad you like my Icons and thanks for leaving a comment. Have a great Easter everyone!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Suburbia20 March 2008 at 20:30

    Icons, what a brilliant idea for I!
    Ilike the Daffs too.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Barbara20 March 2008 at 20:36

    Good choice for 'I'!

    ReplyDelete
  25. VP20 March 2008 at 20:45

    Hi Suburbia - and welcome! Glad you like my icons and more importantly, the daffs!

    Starnitesky - you're very busy commenting (great thanks :)), I'm trying to keep up (collapses in a heap, panting...)

    ReplyDelete
  26. kml21 March 2008 at 21:17

    Love your post - so original!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anonymous24 March 2008 at 09:04

    Thanks for the link to the 'Icons' website VP. I have bookmarked it for browsing at a later date.

    ReplyDelete
  28. VP25 March 2008 at 17:43

    Hi KML - glad you liked it!

    Anna - it's a great website isn't it?

    Hope you all had a good Easter.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I love hearing from you and welcome thoughtful conversations :)

Comments aiming to link back and give credence to commercial websites will be composted!

Your essential reads

That blue flower: A spring spotter's guide

Image
Spring is a prime time for blue flowers and my daily walks currently have several from the same plant family* lining the local footpaths. As I walked past the Donkey Field the other day, I overheard some children ask their parents** what the pictured blue flower was. It reminded me it's often mistaken for those other familial blues and this time was no different, as they said it was forget-me-not, instead of the green alkanet it actually is. As well as similar flowers, most of these plants are hairy in their nature, flower around the same time, and favour damp, shady places. Many of them are great for pollinators too, especially bees and this week's warm weather has certainly drawn them to these flowers. This makes it even more likely for these plants to be mistaken for each other and it's a great opportunity for me to put together a spotter's guide in case you find the same flowers on your outings. Staying with green alkanet, the key features which set it
Read more

Jack Go To Bed At Noon

Image
Last year this rather exotic looking flower appeared on mine and several other allotments for the first time. Having been stumped (again) by Mr Allotment Warden as to its identity, I rushed home to find out what it was. It's salsify, aka the marvellous Jack Go To Bed At Noon - named as such because its flowers always close by midday. Here you can see both open and closed flowers - making it seem even more exotic and alien than in the first picture. I think this must be the cultivated version because the flower in my Francis Rose Wild Flower Key looks exactly the same in form, but is bright yellow in colour and called meadow salsify . Its other common name is Goatsbeard, which must be a nod to the fantastic dandelion-like clock which forms the seed head. With 'parachutes' like those shown above, who knows how far our plotted plants came from. I rather like the photographic dissection of the seedhead found in this link . Salsify is edible: its lateral shoots and fl
Read more

Salad Days: Mastering Lettuce

Image
I've decided one of my salad challenges for this year is to grow as many lettuce varieties as I can, ready for the publication of my planned Factsheet* later on. The idea is to grow as many of the Tried and Trusted lettuce varieties last year's Salad Challengers helped compile, then provide a visual guide and as many lettuce facts as I can muster. So far I've found around half of those listed**. Then naturally whilst I was out searching - because such is the way with seeds - a number of other varieties found their way home too ;) A couple of weeks ago I sowed 22 varieties***. Just the simple act of sowing them has me intrigued. Why are some lettuce seeds black and others white****? They split into about half white to half black in my sample and as far as I can tell it's nothing to do with whether they're a type of cos, iceberg, or whatever. I sowed them indoors and popped them into a propagator on the windowsill. The soil's too cold outside for sowing
Read more

Red Nose Day - Gardening Jokes Anyone?

Image
The nation goes ever so slightly bonkers on Red Nose Day - hurrah! Previously, it's been very easy to join in - usually via a dress down day at work plus lots of people up to mad things at the station and in the office. Everyone smiling for once - it's a real feel good day and all in a good cause. This year's different - every day's a dress down day for me now - my friend L suggested yesterday that perhaps I could have a dress up day instead and whilst that's a good idea, I confess that ballgowns and tiaras don't really feature in my wardrobe: scruffy student's always been my favourite look. So my Red Nose Day contribution for this year is to compile a list of gardening related jokes. For each one (clean ones only please) you leave in the comments below, I'll make a donation of 50p to the cause. Here's a few for starters just to get you warmed up: Q Why do potatoes make good detectives? A Because they keep their eyes peeled. Q What did the grape
Read more

VPs VIPs: Derry Watkins of Special Plants

Image
Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Derry Watkins at her home, garden and nursery - the acclaimed Special Plants - just a few miles along the road from me. I first met Derry at one of her open garden days last year and was keen to find out more about her wonderful garden and running an independent nursery. She specialises in tender perennials and regularly goes on plant hunting trips to find new treasures, particularly in South Africa. As well as running Special Plants and opening her garden under the NGS scheme , Derry holds day courses at her nursery, hosts Special Tuesdays from April until September, lectures and has written a couple of books. How did you find your way from Connecticut to the UK? I'd started a biodynamic vegetable garden in Connecticut and we used to have people come along at weekends to help out. A particular young man turned up: he returned many times and at the end of the summer I married him. So it was all down to love? Isn't that the
Read more

The Resilient Garden

Image
  Part of Tom Massey's Resilient Garden at RHS Hampton Court I've been pondering VP Gardens a lot lately. Last year's drought conditions set me off initially, then our harsher than usual winter combined with this summer's flip and flop weather means the thinking continues. It's a huge topic which I freely admit I'm struggling to get my head around. Tom Massey's Resilient Garden  at Hampton Court recently  tackled this topic brilliantly and was a timely interlude which gave me much food for thought. There he encapsulated the detailed research he'd found which informed both his show garden and book of the same name. I think it's one of the most important show gardens I've ever seen. It's clear the way I garden needs to change so that I have my own resilient garden. I haven't worked out the exact details yet, but Tom's book plus a couple of others (see below), alongside the rainwater management handout from the show garden's  sponso
Read more

#mygardenrightnow: heading into summer with the Chelsea Fringe

Image
Ahhhhhh, that's better! I love walking through dewy grass in bare feet, not that there's much in the way of grass on my back lawn this weekend. My wild and woolly lawn has morphed into meadow of sorts this month, which even NAH admits looks attractive*. It's also proved a great source for my Flowers for mum project so far, yielding self-sown perennial cornflowers, lamb's ears, and lemon balm in addition to the blooms you can see. These originated from elsewhere in the garden, the ox-eye daisies must have blown in from the A350 nearby. * = he got very stroppy about the weeds aka self-sown foxgloves in the lawn one year, so he's come along a bit since then. Skimble's demanding to say hello to you too. He does enjoy the patio when it warms up. If the embedded video doesn't work try this link instead. The Nectaroscordum are a revelation. I planted the bulbs around 2 years ago, but it's only this year they've bloomed properly. The bee
Read more

Testing Times: Tomatoes

Image
  I've run a couple of tomato trials this year. The first is a revisit of the biochar trial with Oxford University I attempted some years ago (with a different organisation this time), and the second is a trial of a water gadget called Plantsurge which I was given to try at Malvern Spring Show earlier this year. Most of you have probably heard of biochar already and the claim that this inert, carbon-rich material can help soil fertility and plant health. The RHS information in the above link says results can be mixed, with reduced effects found in alkaline soils. This may help to explain the lack of difference I found in my previous trial as VP Gardens is on a lime-rich soil. Plantsurge is a different beast altogether. It's a strong magnet which is attached to a hosepipe as shown in the photo above. It's claimed that it softens water, with the result more like watering with rainwater. The higher nitrogen found in rainwater is thought to be beneficial to plants. Gardener
Read more

Chelsea Fringe 2014: Shows of Hands - Episode I

Image
The gloves NAH used to build the raised bed . The effects are L to R, top to bottom:  Original photo, Warhol, HDR, Green tint, B&W, Posterize, Boost, Cross process and Sepia Welcome to Shows of Hands - my Chelsea Fringe project for 2014! As you can see I've been having a bit of a play around in Pic Monkey for my first contribution. You're welcome to join in between now and 8th June 2014. The idea behind this year's project is to highlight the tool most precious to a gardener: their hands. How do I take part? It's simple. All you need to do is take a photo of hand(s) in a gardening context and then share it via your blog or other social media (such as Twitter or Facebook), then make sure I know you've done so. I've set up Mr Linky below for your blog contributions. The Chelsea Fringe photo on the right sidebar links to this post, so you can easily find it again when you're ready to add your contribution. If you share your photo on Twitter,
Read more

Make Use of Mildew

Image
On my garden patrol this morning I spotted some powdery mildew on a couple of my new Verbena bonariensis plants. I suppose it was almost inevitable as I prefer to grow my plants hard - this means no water for them unless they look absolutely desperate. This approach means plants root themselves more deeply and have a better chance of survival during spells of dry weather like we've had lately. However, it also means I run the risk of problems like today's, especially with any garden newbies planted late in the season. We've had a good drop of rain overnight, so this should help my plants survive. I'll mulch them later today to help lock in the moisture as it's water stress which encourages the mildew to take hold. I've also removed the infected leaves and sprayed the rest with a milky drink.* I'm also pleased to find there's a use for my infected leaves. Oliver Ellingham at Reading University has started a PhD - sponsored by the RHS - researchi
Read more