Tough & Tender

The idea was to hide the view of the oil tank from the house. Nearly there! The shrub grows out as vigorously as it grows up, so there is some risk of hiding the oil tank from the delivery driver. I've just done a bit of reading and apparently it reacts well to hard pruning, so its day will come

It is Choisya, of course; common in gardens, beloved of metropolitan authorities and housing developers - because it is easy to establish, grows in most soils and is fairly indestructible. Its origin is Mexico and the south-west US (common name Mexican Orange Blossom), which must be a very different world from north Oxfordshire. It's remarkable really that it is so adaptable and tolerant. 

There are several cultivated varieties with names like 'Aztec [something]', reflecting its Mexico homeland. The Aztecs get a pretty good press in modern popular culture. I read that, in reality, they were a hierarchical, extractive empire that impoverished the people they dominated. One reason the conquistadors were so successful is that they enlisted the support of some of the communities that the Aztecs had conquered, or were in conflict with, to wage war upon them

Running up the post in the middle of all that is a straggly stem with leaves just emerging - our grape vine. By mid-summer last year, its branches had grown from the same point to cover the roof of the wood store; even with the late spring, I expect it will get there again. Examples from the opposite end of the spectrum of plant adaptation to winter cold: either shut down for winter and put all your resources into rapid growth of efficient, but delicate, stems and leaves in the short summer months, or invest energy into robust, slow-growing, well-protected leaves that may be less efficient in summer but can keep working all year round and support early flowering

On a grey day with flat light (a bit of a come-down from yesterday), the flowers provided some welcome radiance in the gloom

Thanks to the blippers who recommended Tish - the documentary about an extraordinary photographer from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and her record of how Britain was lacerated by social and economic vandalism of the 1980s. Spellbinding. It's on BBC iPlayer. If you can't access that, it's also available for £5 from Amazon and Curzon, or £4.50 from the BFI - I hope at least one of those works outside UK. Her pictures are on permanent display at Tate Britain, and I'll be going to see them at the first opportunity