Tag Archives: Putting Down Roots

a celebration

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.

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

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

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?)

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?

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

“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.

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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waking up

it’s no use having a blog that you only write every two months is it because  who’s going to keep looking to see if there’s anything new? Oh well, soon I’ll retire, I might even abandon the bloody garden to … Continue reading

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On urinating

The first sign that something is afoot comes as I approach Blackfriars Bridge on friday afternoon on the way home from work and see a regiment of portaloos. When Gerry told me about the crowds for Chelsea’s triumphant parade he … Continue reading

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