First glimpse ...

At last. My meconopsis has been causing me such stress since I first noticed the flower buds clustered at its head. For a start, it's grown rather tall for the weather we've been having. I tied it to a stake (sounds cruel, but bear with me) which it now towers above. The buds drooped on new little stems, and the rain came down in torrents. I despaired of ever seeing the blue flowers my heart desires ... until this morning. Look: one crack of impossible blue is showing. I'll be back ...

And as an extra, another snippet of horticultural semi-success. Many years ago, a neighbour gave me a wisteria in a pot. It was about 8 inches tall. I hadn't a clue what it was. "Look after it," he said. It grew long trailing bits, like a triffid. I snipped them off. It grew bigger, and my neighbour sometimes watered it when looking after my house while I was on holiday. Then I found out what it was and what, theoretically, it was capable of. I took it out of the pot, put it beside a wall, had a man put a trellis-type fence at the top of the wall, and trained one of the triffid-trails up the wall.

This process, you understand, has taken many years. The planting-out was at least five years ago. And this year, O Best Beloved, it has flowered. But because of the north-facing aspect of the wall, it has mostly done so on the wrong side. So our neighbours, whose garden is, quite frankly, a dog-shit-ridden wilderness, now benefit from my wisteria. Wasting its sweetness on the desert air, I'd say ...

(I trespassed, carefully watching my feet, to take the photo)