Write Away and #Springnaturediary: What a difference a year makes

Next door's Magnolia tree

Last year I took part in the first #springnaturediary, an Arts and Humanities Research Council project which is also taking contributions this year. I'm chuffed last year's diary made the final cut and can be read as part of an illustrated booklet.

Now the world has changed for us all and it's useful to mark these strange times with another entry for this year's diary. Read on and you'll see everything has changed for me in another significant way. NAH had a heart attack on our wedding anniversary in early March and against the background of the looming Coronavirus pandemic - declared as such the day after on my birthday - I wanted to record a moment in our increasingly shrinking world.

Thankfully NAH's home now and started on the slow road to recovery. It was obvious the hospital was beginning to make preparations for the pandemic whilst he was there. All that can't be squeezed into a 150 word entry which focuses on the vernal equinox, but there is a snippet which forms a clear memory of that time and day. Sadly I don't have a photo of the huge picture window which was by NAH's bedside. It filled the entire view and was an amazing window on the outside world, and we learned later it was also one where everyone could see in! Instead I've chosen some views from our garden taken on the same day before I brought NAH home.



Daffodil 'St Patrick's Day'

#springnaturediary 2020...

What a difference a year makes.

Today I'm viewing spring through a huge goldfish bowl of a window, waiting for my husband's discharge from Bristol's Heart Institute. He's been here ten days and even nature-adverse he appreciates the sight of a thin ribbon of greenery along the public footpath, instead of the dull concrete view throughout most of the hospital.

Today the daffodils are dancing in the hazy sunshine slanting through the trees. They're a welcome sight after what seems like six months of unrelenting rain. Glancing up the cobbled hill we notice there's a faint fuzz of green. It's stronger where it lines the road, with a fainter central path tracing between the shiny tramlines worn by passing cars.

Today it serves as a reminder in these uncertain times that nature is stronger than we are. It lies curled in readiness to pounce and recapture what we've conquered and paved, given half a chance.

Magnolia with plane contrail

Have you noticed how much clearer the air is since nearly all the planes stopped and most of of the country came home to work?

The birdsong seems louder and sweeter too.

Comments

  1. Layanee30 March 2020 at 13:16

    Oh Michelle I am so sorry to hear of your husband's health issues. I am happy to hear he is home as the hospital is no place to be these days. Sending you hugs and good wishes and hope that the spring sunshine heals all things!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP6 April 2020 at 10:04

      Thanks Layanee - I guess your trip to the UK is on hold now. Hope all is well with you and yours xxx

      Delete
  2. Sue Garrett30 March 2020 at 13:59

    I hope your husband makes a full recovery. Nature is resilient but maybe iy’s also fighting us too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP6 April 2020 at 10:07

      I've been pondering that quite a bit lately Sue. Nature is certainly benefitting from the reduced air pollution currently and I'm loving the reduced traffic noise and clearer birdsong. I've gone back to James Lovelock's Gaia theory which thinks about the earth as a whole system and how it maintains itself in order to survive. Perhaps this is one of those moments?

      Delete
  3. Flighty30 March 2020 at 17:09

    My sympathies re NAH, and hope he gets well soon. Lovely pictures.
    Take care. xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP6 April 2020 at 10:09

      Thanks Flighty, it's been quite a shock as you can imagine. In some ways we haven't quite processed it properly because of the current situation. It means NAH won't quite have the same cardiac rehab as normal and I hope that doesn't store up problems for the future. I'm sure many others e.g. cancer sufferers have similar concerns, but we're still here and that's the main thing :)

      Delete
  4. JAG30 March 2020 at 19:29

    Ooof, that's a lot of things throwing life for a loop at the same time. My husband had a heart attack a few years ago, but is doing well now. I well remember the anxiety and worry around it and recovery. I hope you can manage the recovery process easily with the various pandemic issues. But I'm sure they also handle recovery differently in the US compared to the UK. My thoughts are with you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP6 April 2020 at 10:11

      Hi JAG, thanks for the good wishes. NAH's recovering well and fingers crossed the pandemic doesn't interfere too much with that. It's good to hear your husband has come out on the other side and is doing well - I need to hold onto that.

      Delete
  5. Diana Studer30 March 2020 at 23:24

    My husband also had a 'silent' heart attack. Now running laps around the garden as we are in lockdown.
    Wishing yours a quick recovery, with the support you need.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP6 April 2020 at 10:12

      Fingers crossed we can continue to go out for walks - laps round our garden would be extremely short! Glad to hear of another heart attack survivor :)

      Delete
  6. Anna31 March 2020 at 21:03

    I hope that NAH heals well and is soon on the road to recovery. I smiled at your description of him as "nature-adverse". I'm sure that he is not really 😄 A nasty shock for you too so take care and make sure that you stroke those cats at regular intervals ((((())))

    P.S. We have certainly noticed how much quieter the busy main road outside our house is. It also most eerie not to see or hear the planes flying above us either arriving at or leaving Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP6 April 2020 at 10:13

      Perhaps walk-averse would be a better description Anna! The cats have been a real boon for these strange times. We still get an occasional plane overhead and it's something to remark on these days when it happens.

      Delete

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

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

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

Things in unusual places #26: Rubber Ducks

Image
  Rubber ducks lined up outside my local Lidl*, why? I don't mind because they gave me a giggle on the way home from the physiotherapist the other day. My guess is they're something to do with the virtual duck race Springboard School are running, but I could be wrong. There's news on our local Facebook group this morning that chocolate's appeared on the same route home and also in John Coles Park . Perhaps someone's on a mission to cheer up Chippenham? The mystery continues... * = NAH and I call it our corner shop seeing it's such a short walk away 😂
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

Merry Christmas!

Image
From my door to your home, I hope this time is as merry and bright as it can be under the current circumstances. This year's wreath is foraged greenery on a straw base with ornaments saved from previous ones. It's bearing up remarkably well after nearly 3 weeks despite no moss or oasis base to keep the foliage moist. New-to-me greenery used in this way are the Clematis 'Winter Beauty' I pulled from the pergola, plus lots of fragrant rosemary from a friend's garden. I spent a lovely morning at my neighbours recently where we all managed to create something beautiful for our front doors in aid of Dorothy House , a cause dear to her heart as they looked after her late husband so well. Enjoy the turning of the year towards the lighter days again and I'll see you in 2022!
Read more

Introducing the #mygardenrightnow project

Image
Me in my summer garden with a trug full of allotment produce A few days ago I was contacted by a TV company to see if I'd like to be filmed advising a 'lovely retired couple' on how to grow vegetables. Yes, of course I would. However as our chat went on, it became clear the enthusiastic researcher - and fan of my trug - thought we could show something similar to the above image... in early March. On Facebook a little later, I joked that perhaps I should recreate the above photo and reveal the reality of my garden right now. Sara was quite taken with the idea, and so after some thought the #mygardenrightnow project was born. NB I chose the rather apt courgette font for  #mygardenrightnow   Join me on the weekend of 4th/5th March and take a picture of yourself in the garden (or on your allotment, or wherever you usually garden) which shows how it looks at some point over those 2 days. Don't worry if you don't have a nice summery picture to recreate lik
Read more

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