Greetings once more!

Good evening one and all! I'm so very sorry that I've been away from my journal for so long, but I have alas been rather unwell. I'm feeling much better now however, partly due to a restorative stay at my cousin's well appointed seaside abode in Lyme Regis. The sea air and some gentle strolls along the promenade did wonders for me, and I even got round to doing a spot of fossil hunting once I was feeling well enough. Being by the sea also stirred up many memories of my younger days when I was a lighthouse keeper - I will certainly get round to sharing some tales of those days with you soon now I am back in reasonable health.

But Radford, I hear you ask, what of the garden? Has it, in your absence, gone to rack and ruin? Well, dear reader, it has not - I am fortunate in my friendship with my neighbours, a couple of whom have kindly helped to keep the garden in good order during my convalescence. I hope that I can repay their kindness in the future, and in the meantime have given them some of the wonderful peas and broad beans that have grown well this year.

I shall write more very soon - I have many pictures of the garden to transfer from the digital camera and share with you all.

Bye bye for now.

Radford.

Hello again

Hello again to you all, and please excuse the short hiatus I took from keeping this journal. I managed, alas, to aggravate an old shoulder injury that I once picked up whilst attempting to disembark from a boat onto a rocky island in choppy seas, and so on the orders of the doctor I have been resting my arm - thus leaving me unable to type. Thankfully it seems to have improved a little now, so I thought I'd post a little message to my journal just to keep things moving along.

As promised I will continue to show you all around the garden very soon, but for now I will just mention a couple of things of interest that have been going on recently at home and further afield.

My wildlife pond continues to act as a temporary home for a number of tadpoles, who all seem to be doing well. The vegetation is starting to take over a bit - it always surprises me, one moment it's early spring with the buds just opening and a few wildflowers in attendance, and the next it's getting on for early summer and seemingly everything is coming into leaf and flower - so it is getting more difficult to observe the tadpoles and the frogs. The water mint in particular is beginning to get a little big for its boots - or at least a little big for my compact and bijou wildlife pond - so I will have to trim it down somewhat in the near future. I shall take some more photographs of the pond and the rest of the garden for you all very soon.

This afternoon I went for a stroll along the canal. Though it was quite windy, the sun was out and was pleasantly warm without being excessively so. I hadn't taken a stroll along there for a little while, and so I had an enjoyable time just ambling along and looking at the different plants that were now emerging or flowering. I don't suppose I spent more than an hour down there, but being lost in my own happy little world it seemed more than double that time, and I felt most refreshed afterwards once I'd returned to the 'real' world from my reverie. Along the canal much of the hawthorn was already decked out in froths of white bridal finery, and the white theme was continued amongst the plants along the towpath and banks, where cow parsley, garlic mustard, white dead-nettle, common chickweed and large bitter-cress were all in flower. Amidst the green and white a few splashes of alternative colour were found in other flowers, such as the yellows of dandelions and buttercups, the deep pinks of campion and the pink-purples of bush vetch. Most of the trees appeared to be coming into leaf, with the notable exception being the ash - generally one of the last trees to do so. In the midst of this bright green carnival of spring the ash trees were marked by their skeletal, wintry appearance. They were not a sombre presence however, rather they had an air of quiet patience - having already flowered earlier in the year they were perhaps content to wait a little while before pushing out their leaves and welcoming in the summer.

Well, that is all I shall write for the moment - I don't want to risk aggravating any more ancient injuries! I will write more soon, and hopefully have some more photographs to show you.

The Music Played in B&Q

This morning, after an agreeable breakfast of poached eggs on toast, I sallied forth to my local branch of B&Q, the well known 'DIY' and garden store. I often pop in to see what plants they have in stock, and thought I would do as such before commencing my writing for the day. Now, whilst I enjoy perusing the small shrubs, cottage garden perennials, alpines and herbs, this otherwise pleasant experience is usually tarnished a little by the piped music that is played throughout the store and indeed outside in the gardening department - partly because said music is played a little too loud, but mainly because I find the choice of music played quite disagreeable.

During my visit this morning the music seemed even more irritating and unwelcome than usual - so much so in fact that I became unable to concentrate on choosing which plants I might wish to purchase. After losing interest in weighing up the pros and cons of buying either a honeysuckle or a rambling rose to grow up a particular spot on the garden fence, I decided to leave the store. However, at that moment a young man who looked like he might be a junior manager of some kind walked into the gardening department, and so instead of leaving I resolved to have words with this chap about my displeasure with B&Q's musical policy.

"Ah! I say there! Young man! Are you a manager?"

"Yes sir" he replied, "I'm the deputy manager of this store".

To me he seemed a little young to be employed in such an elevated position, being quite baby-faced in appearance, and sporting the kind of spiky, off-kilter hairstyle so beloved by today's youth (yet which gives them the appearance of storm damaged sea urchins). The badge pinned to his shirt confirmed, however, that he was indeed the deputy manager, and so I proceeded to state my case.

"Right. Well, without wishing to sound too critical of your otherwise sound establishment, I wish to register a complaint with you regarding the music that is played in this store. Not only is it a little too loud and intrusive, the choice of songs and artistes is in my opinion poor. It seems to mostly consist of either bland, vapid, irritating pop numbers, or else even blander male singer-songwriter fellows and their depressing, pointless whining".

"Oh" he replied, looking a little crestfallen, "well I'm sorry that the music is not to your taste. I will pass on your complaint to the rest of the management team, and if there are any more complaints about the volume we will certainly look into turning it down slightly. I'm not sure we can do much about the choice of music though I'm afraid - we choose it specifically to appeal to as wide a cross section of our customers as possible. We can't please everyone all the time though unfortunately!".

He made this last point in a light-hearted, conciliatory tone of voice, though did not seem to fully take on board my issues with the choice of music played. I pressed on with my complaint.

"Hmmm. Well young man, far be it from me to question the musical tastes of the wider public, but I refuse to believe that many people can have a pleasant time browsing through the potted plants whilst being forced to listen to such depressing and irritating music. Who, for example, is this being played at the moment?".

"That's James Morrison" he said, rather defensively, "he's a very popular singer-songwriter. I've got the CD case on me here".

I inspected the CD sleeve, which contained a picture of an amiable enough looking young man with a shaggy mop of hair. The song currently playing by the aforementioned Mr Morrison seemed though to offend both my mind and my body, and somehow began to make me feel a little off colour.

"Well, I'm sure he's a decent and nice enough young chap. His music however is giving me indigestion. I came to your store this morning with a view to perhaps purchase some plants, not to compromise my constitution - yet this is the effect the piped music in this store is having. Now may I suggest to you that if you really must play music throughout the store, it be of a considerably higher quality than what is currently offered, and it also be somewhat more appropriate if it is to soundtrack the relaxed perusal of plants".

The young deputy manager appeared to be getting a little uncomfortable with being criticised in this manner, and asked me what music I would consider more fitting for them to play in the store (perhaps as a way of bringing our conversation to a quick conclusion).

"Well young man, Britain is an island of gardeners and fine gardens, and Britain has also produced many great composers who have through their music expressed their love of landscape and nature. To me the two go rather well together, so I would suggest you play some Vaughan Williams, some Elgar, and perhaps some Frank Bridge or Arnold Bax. Such music would not only complement the act of buying horticultural goods but perhaps even elevate it to the level of a purer artistic contemplation of beauty and the natural world".

He looked at me a little perplexed, and seemed unsure how to respond. I continued.

"Alternatively, if you really wanted to play some pop music, then you can't do much better than The Kinks. Now they were excellent songwriters, and in my opinion one of the best bands from the 1960s".

"Oh right" - he seemed a little surer about this suggestion - "Well we don't have anything by The Kinks, but we do have a Best of The Beatles CD which we occasionally play".

"Yes" I replied, "that would be an improvement. The Beatles are ok - I met them once, as it happens - though for me The Kinks were always the superior band.......".

I momentarily drifted away, remembering events in my life in the 1960s. The deputy manager took the opportunity to end our conversation.

"Right - well thank you for bringing your complaint to our attention - I'll go and try and find the Beatles CD and see if we can get it played for you. Ok, thank you sir, bye bye".

And off he went, not looking back. I waited in the gardening section of my local branch of B&Q to see if anything would happen. I did not hear any songs by The Beatles. Nor did I see the deputy manager again. After about half an hour it began to rain a little, though I continued to wait for a while longer whilst pretending to inspect the honeysuckles and the roses that I'd long since lost interest in, and wished that I'd remembered to bring an umbrella.

After forty-five minutes I decided to leave, feeling fed up and a little defeated. As I walked through the store towards the exit a song came on that grabbed my attention, and I was a little surprised that it had as it seemed to be a loud modern pop number. It did have however a very catchy beat, and I found myself walking in a slightly rhythmic, almost dancing fashion as I neared the checkouts. In no more than a minute this song had cheered me considerably, so I was intrigued to find out who it was by. I asked a lady at the checkout if she knew who the artiste was.

"It's Janet Jackson" she replied, "The song's called 'What Have You Done For Me Lately', though you can probably work that out from the lyrics! It's a few years old this song, I remember being at school in the 80s when it came out".

I thanked her, and walked to the exit, though before leaving I waited for the song to end, tapping my feet, and tried hard not to appear like I was enjoying it too much! I then walked home whistling the tune and with a spring in my step. I didn't purchase any plants today, though I have perhaps expanded my musical horizons a little - and the strange thing is I have B&Q to thank for that.

The Garden

Ah! Here for the tour of the garden are you? Good, good. I thought it would be useful for you all to have an idea of what it looks like, seeing as how I'll be letting you know what's been happening, what I've been planting, and so on. Now come on through the house first of all - mind the cats, and excuse the mess - and here we go out of the back door.

Well here we are looking down the garden from near the house. By the summer the rather drab fence on the left will hopefully be jollied up by sweet pea flowers (if the little fellows ever get a move on and grow!). The collection of pots will no doubt proliferate and take over this area as I move things on from their seed trays. Let's venture a little further along....

This patio area used to be half taken up by the shed, but I decided to move that nearer to the house so I could use this area for attractive potted herbs and the like, and for sitting out on when the weather is suitably clement. As you may have noticed, one of the regular visitors to my garden is currently sitting here herself. This is Lilly, one of the neighbour's cats, and a very friendly, dear little thing she is too. She often comes to say hello when I'm gardening or just sitting out here thinking about things.

Here you can see some of the borders a little better, and here again is Lilly, posing for the camera. If there are pictures being taken then she is often most insistent that she should appear in them. In the rather jaunty looking pot to the left of her the strawberries are making a stirling comeback after their winter rest. Now if we go down the steps we can look closer at what is in the borders....

This is what I perhaps rather generously call my pond - and admittedly it may not look much to some. Don't be fooled by it's humble dimensions however, for it contains a wealth of interest for anyone with a modicum of curiosity and wonder. Yes, I do sound rather proud of it, and indeed I am. I created it to add a bit of extra interest to the garden, and to give some of the local wildlife, particularly the frogs, a little more habitat. So I was surprised and very pleased when I found frogspawn in it a little while ago. The strange green splodge you can see in the middle of the pond is the algae covered remains of the frogspawn - most of the tadpoles are now free swimming. Heaven knows what it's going to be like in the garden when all of the little frogs emerge - Lilly will probably spend all of her time chasing them around, with me having to rescue them from her. I can see that her and I are probably going to fall out.

Anyway, where are my manners? Are you thirsty? Yes? Let's get the kettle on - tea and biscuits all round. We'll continue the tour round the garden a little later.

Welcome

Greetings to you all, and welcome to Radford's Gardening Almanac. I hope this hi-tech journal of mine will both entertain and inform you, and perhaps even provoke some interesting debates from time to time. I envisage submitting posts on a variety of topics, such as what's been going on in my garden, things that interest me (and hopefully some of you as well) in the surrounding town and country, and my thoughts on various issues. I will also tell you some tales from my past - when I was a lighthouse keeper and adventurer - which will hopefully entertain you (and it will be good for me to write them all down before I forget them).

Thank you for visiting my 'blog', and I hope to see you here again soon.

Radford Sallow.