My cleanest dirty book

Another horribly windy night and another top from the plastic boxes I'm temporarily using as cold frames was mashed to fragments. It seems to have calmed down now and I can stand my potted plants up again. Give me rain any day!

I haven't been out at all today as my eye is still giving me trouble, so it's a real EB this time. This decrepit volume is the 1952 edition of the Rhododendron Handbook, published annually by the Royal Horticultural Society. I have several of these in somewhat better condition than this one! I can't remember where this came from as it's obviously been sitting somewhere damp for a few years. It has an address sticker for a house not too far from here though the property is now owned by a boat charter company. The book is full of ticks, comments and crosses and suggests that the owners had a large rhododendron collection; the current owners told me "We do have Rhododendrons in the garden but I couldn't tell you how many different types there are" and have invited me down for a look, which I will try to do in the spring if I'm allowed to! None of the rhododednron societies know the name or the property, so it's a bit of a mystery! 

Quote of the Day:

Chemists of the University College London - “Old Books Smell Of: A combination of grassy notes with a tang of acids and a hint of vanilla over an underlying muskiness.”