Pokers and pills

We had a pre-lunch walk down to the town today as Mrs M wanted to catch (no pun intended!) the pier fishmonger before he shut at 1pm and I wanted to get to the practice chemist before they also shut at 1pm.  She was more successful than I was – they denied all knowledge of my repeat prescription order!

One of the benefits of walking up and down every day is to spy on people’s gardens, not, as is commonly thought, for me to criticise the way that garden owners prune their shrubs, but in the hope of spotting something interesting or different. Many plants, such as Pieris ‘Forest Flame’, are seen in every other garden, but I was pleasantly surprised to see Crinodendron hookerianum again, having spotted one yesterday. The difference between the two was that yesterday’s plant had plenty of room to grow, whereas today’s was growing right at the edge of a bed, adjacent to the side alley. Before long, somebody will be taking the shears to it! It was good to see a nice clump of red hot poker too, probably Kniphofia uvaria.

Quote of the Day:

Sylvia Townsend Warner - "How dreadful it is that because of our wills we can never love anything without messing it around! We couldn’t even love a tree, a stone even; for sooner or later we should be pruning the tree or chipping a bit off the stone."