plants – Page 9 – don't confuse the narrator

textured thoughts

It’s September and the summer is drifting away. At times, the year seems content to grow old gracefully.

Sometimes it seems to put up more of a fight. Continue reading

clap your hands

Do the children of today believe in fairies? Do they know they should be caught in flight and the wish will only come true if the “fairy” – the seed – is still at the heart of the thistledown?

Last week, I found a veritable fairy factory along by the river, although most of them hadn’t yet left the plant – pun very much intended – so they weren’t quite ready to grant any wishes:

Now I’m off to find a copy of Peter Pan to re-read. And although I’m afraid I gave away my copy of Charlotte’s Web years ago, maybe I can track down the ballooning spiderlings scene online.

poetry, plants and poison

Other than the gourd patch down in the orchard, one of the few bright spots in the garden at the moment is the uncontrollable oleander outside my study window.

I say “uncontrollable” as it has been ruthlessly cut back a couple of times and tied back with twine, rope and clothes line and still manages to break free enough to block the driveway. At least this year it isn’t covered in black fly and other bugs.
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melon yellow

I commented last week that there are very few flowers in the garden at the moment, but it would be wrong to say there were none at all.

Each morning, I dutifully water the patch of ornamental gourds I planted in an attempt to cover some of the chain link fence between us and the neighbours. And each day I am amazed at the size and colour of the flowers.

Since the flowers first appeared a couple of weeks ago, a line of poetry has been running through my head. I’m not sure whether it’s triggered by the suspicion that gourds and melons must be related, by the brightness of the flowers or by the similarity of the sounds of gourd and gaudy…
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summer wilderness

It’s July, the temperatures are in the forties (or the hundreds, if you prefer), school’s out, and the village population has doubled in the last week as families return to their rural properties for the summer months.
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