68:44

A couple of bloomers.

Two of the very few flowers that were familiar to me when I was a child. Both white, so fitting into my mono week quite nicely. I am, by the way, thoroughly enjoying shooting in b&w.

I grew up in an inner city slum and there wasn'tmuch in the way of actual gardens in our neighbourhood. There were bomb sites all around us and they formed our playgrounds. Convolvulus grew all over the heaps of debris. I can remember saying to my mother how beautiful they were and recall her snorting and saying "just weeds". Well, I still don't care, these flowers have a beautiful simplicity to them.

Privet is another matter entirely. Houses in the slightly posher streets around us had tiny walled forecourt areas. Some were paved, a few had patches of soil and the odd scraggy rose Bush struggling for life. They had previously been railed but the rails were all cut down for the war effort and privacy was retained by deploying fast-growing privet hedges.

I hate the smell of privet blossom and it gives me hay fever so I have good reason to dislike this nasty plant. Nasty? Well, yes. Not only does it lack merit in a garden but the berries are poisonous. It's good practice to trim privet prior to flowering to ensure a lack of appealing berries with which to poison the neighbours' children. Alas, many gardeners fail to do this and I must sneeze my way through the season with a thumping headache.

This privet is growing in the garden of the empty house next door and there is nobody to cut it back. I may trespass.

In Other Village News, hilarity is ensuing from our new neighbours installation of hens in her garden. She is said to be housing them in an unglazed greenhouse frame... The obvious result was predicted by several neighbours and, sure enough, four hens arrived on Tuesday. Yesterday morning there were three. Today there are two remaining. City folks appear not to understand the need to fence well against the predations of Monsieur Reynard. Will there be a lone hen tomorrow?

Bagpuss did a runner yesterday when I took him some food over to M's shed. Well, he slunk, he's not really up to running. I brought the food back in later on as it had dried up. I left it outside the back door for binning but forgot about it until just now. Most of the food has gone overnight. It wasn't Dusty because I gave Bagpuss the Sheba that Dusty refuses to eat. Could have been Son of Bagpuss but I hope that it was the old man and that he got enough to build up some strength. I have looked for him this morning but seen no sign of him. Apparently Son Of was occupying the shed and shelter of I's motorhome last night so Bagpuss must be keeping a low profile.