Mr Bent

It's been a productive weekend.

We were meant to be going away Saturday, but the weather put paid to that. 

Raining heavily this morning, and very grey when it wasn't, so we decided late morning to head to our local garden centre, Bents.

Bents is now only part Garden Centre. It's huge, and more department store in some ways. Looking at all the plants we were tempted, but decided we really did need to sort out what we should do in our garden before we buy anything.  No point in getting snowdrops till the autumn, for example. Like so many things, we wish we knew more.

We noticed that the Weeping Ash Garden adjoining the site was open, and went in for a look. In the decades we have been coming here, we have never been. We travelled different paths, and meeting up with J again she was in conversation with an elderly gent in a flat cap. He was a fount of knowledge on plants. Picking a snowdrop flower he pointed out it's structure - like a lot of winter flowers it has a scent to attract the few insects around. And he told us they are best planted now as green plants. 

It became apparent we were talking to John Bent, who with his father founded the original garden centre. The original nursery was on the site of what is now the Weeping Ash Garden, and was largely a rose nursery. The big expansion had come when his nephew Matthew returned from Australia, with a lot of retail knowledge. He asked how many coffee beans the place now uses every year - 5 tons it seems. 

A fascinating conversation, and a chap who is clearly still a very keen horticulturalist. We returned to buy some food provisions (the only place in these parts where J could find fresh beetroot), and - on the advice of John Bent -  some snowdrops.

I've caught up on my photography homework this weekend. This one is about the rule of thirds.