Tiny

One of the things that has always drawn me to alpine plants is their small size.   When I started growing them I only had window boxes, so small plants in pots suited.   I soon acquired an allotment where as well as veg I grew more alpines and bulbs in pots, rotating them into the window boxes when in flower.   Thus, I managed to have something nice to look at from the comfort of my home all year round.   

Today's offering is Rhododendron racemosum, one of the plants I bought at Aberconwy yesterday.   The flowers are about 1cm across, tiny for a rhododendron.   This form came into cultivation via an Alpine Garden Society seed collecting expedition to China around a quarter of a century ago.   It's listed as 'tall form' .... a mature plant at the nursery was perhaps 60 cm tall.   The advice is to clip off the longer growths to encourage it to bush out and stay tidy.    It will be planted out in the garden in due course.

A busy first day home.   Laundry and work before a trip to Aberystwyth for an eye test, my dad had glaucoma so I have an annual test for that.   I broke my varifocals a while ago so it was nice to get them repaired too.   As well as some food shopping it was very good to get to a shoe shop and find a decent pair of shoes.   I bought a supermarket pair in desperation last autumn but they wore through and leaked before Christmas.   It's true what they say, that the rich man has all the advantages.   For example, he can afford well made shoes that last, the poor man can only afford cheap shoes but will end up spending more over time than the rich man ..... a kind of poverty trap.

Better even than the shoes was meeting Tilda for an ice-cream in the sunshine on the sea front.    We sent Jamie a joint selfie, he was out with Katie back in Tywyn.  Katie's scooter needs a repair so she had a try out with Jamie's power trike/wheelchair ..... and loved it!    As she towed Jamie along at times they both had a blast.  "Happy Times" as Jamie put it.    We'll all settle for that :-)