Fitting in the palm of your hand

A rather gloomy day, a chunk of which I've spent in front of the screen, trying to find a local speaker who can talk to our Scottish Wildlife Trust  group about birds. I have a few ideas – but why don’t people reply to emails!
 
It was looking better after lunch so I decided to go for a walk, and thought if I was going for a walk I might as well take a litter picker and bag with me. In other words I went litter picking. I got just as far as McCaig’s Tower and picked up some rubbish, but it was obvious that the council had been in and done some tidying, cleaning up the mud left by the ‘projecting pictures on the wall’ crew. I got talking to a man who talked even more than I do and I had a job to get away. As I came out I noticed a hi-viz guy snipping away at tiny bits of brambles outside the Tower. It turned out that he was the council’s only ‘gardener’. I put the word in quotes as he told me that he was really a painter but got this job not long ago! Surely the council could find somebody that had some interest in gardening!
 
I told him of my plans to totally revamp the Tower garden and he seemed quite excited. He told me that he’s told to go here, to go there, to do this or that, yet nobody pays much attention to what he does and he’s a bit fed up. By the time I’d finished explaining what should be done he was quite enthusiastic – I think he’s on my side!
 
Blip time – EB time. I rushed back out in the increasing gloom to find something and chanced on this potted palm. It’s Chamaerops humilis 'Vulcano', a dwarf European fan palm from the island of Vulcano, north of Sicily. The word ‘volcano’ derives from the name of this island, which comes from the Roman belief that the tiny island was the chimney of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. It’s a compact little palm, growing to around a meter by a metre and is pretty hardy. If you’ve only got space for one hardy palm, then this is the one for you!