Tag Archives: Putting Down Roots

Thoughts on coming eye to eye with a pigeon on its nest

Posted on August 5, 2023 by jonathan trustram

Feral, that’s what they are. That means they’re ours, and yet not ours. Their ancestors, the rock doves, are still around, mostly on sea cliffs but also inland. Unlike true wild species of birds their colours cover a dazzling range, … Continue reading →

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a celebration

Posted on November 26, 2020 by jonathan trustram

I remembered a trip to the shore of the Thames with a few of the Putting Down Roots volunteers. We went to get stuff for our new rock garden in St George’s churchyard in the Borough, near London Bridge. See … Continue reading →

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Garden Notes no 21, picking about the gravel. Verbascum, foxglove, Koelreuteria, etc.

Posted on May 31, 2020 by jonathan trustram

This koelreuteria – sorry, I know, one of the more tricky botanical names, after “Joseph Gottlieb Koelreuter, 1733-1806, professor of natural history at Karlsruhe, a pioneer experimental investigator of plant hybrididization”, aka Pride of India, although it comes from China, … Continue reading →

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Gardening notes number three, weeding

Posted on March 29, 2020 by jonathan trustram

The original version of these notes was written in the context of my work in  public open spaces with  Putting Down Roots,  St Mungo’s gardening project for homeless people. I tell Chris (still the faithful volunteer at St John’s)  that … Continue reading →

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Climbing into the Centre of the World (the Kastalian Spring)

Posted on September 30, 2018 by jonathan trustram

I’d read that the flowers in and around Delphi, the village and the ancient site, are marvellous, and that a good place to get away from the hordes of visitors is the Kastalian spring. (Some accounts don’t mention the crowds, … Continue reading →

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on Mint Street

Posted on October 5, 2016 by jonathan trustram

something I wrote last year, another beginning to the whole story of our work in Putting Down Roots, St Mungo’s gardening project.  here it is because I can’t wait for ever Something I wrote last year (2015) as I ploughed … Continue reading →

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january 22 (2012?)

Posted on January 22, 2013 by jonathan trustram

Tuesday. It snowed a lot on sunday, after friday’s snow had half melted and the streets and pavements were dark and dirty, and it’s still here, still white, though it mostly dripped off the branches in yesterday’s brief sun. Yesterday … Continue reading →

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are coincidences like art?

Posted on September 23, 2012 by jonathan trustram

wednesday july 21 2010. We picked cherries in Meanwhile Gardens. No one else does. They’re sour and sweet. Nassim told me that in Afghanistan they eat cherries with lemon and a little salt.  Then I heard on the radio that … Continue reading →

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S. speaks

Posted on August 19, 2012 by jonathan trustram

“This morning I woke up at 10.30 – gone downstairs, she’s doing the mail. –any mail? You’ll have to come back in an hour’s time. Walked round the block – go back – we’re doing change over, come back at … Continue reading →

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sparrows, with footnotes in Bern.

Posted on August 19, 2012 by jonathan trustram

I thought we had the situation under control.  I saw myself, without being aware of it, in a priestly role, a guardian of the holy places which provided sanctuary for God’s creatures, a dozen or so surviving sparrows which flitted … Continue reading →

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