But all (ok not ‘all’ but most) of my precious, precious photographs have gone & there is no book without them. I am the Queen of idiots for not backing up my back up. It’s completely devastating.
Have you read Mary Keen's book - NO PHOTOGRAPHS. Just really good writing. Which you have nailed. So don't be put off by the lack of hard drive pics. (I would have liked a garden plan in MK's book is my only comment).
Also thank you for the Attar of Roses tip - is it really pale pink? It seems to come up in different colours when I google. I have a scented geranium which I'm really beginning to appreciate - the leaves smell amazing. No flowers.
I, too, never liked pels until I had to work in a garden that majored in them. Then I 'got' them. I sneaked the odd cutting here and there and suddenly I have a dozen or so. It's a slippery slope I tell you...
I agree with you re scented pelargonium s, i used to assign them as being old fashioned and of little interst in the garden. It was a combination of seeing and smelling then in real life at Chelsea flower show, and a Nigel Slater article in Garden's Illustrated and or instagram post that tempted me to buy my first few. Now, every time i get a mailing from Fibrex, I'm tempted to get a few more and have swelled thei number by propogating, so easily done it feels like magic. And to have pots and pots of them lining the patio, so every time i brush past I'm enveloped in their scent is joyous. Good old scented pelargoniums!
In our former home ( 1670- restored from a ruinous state), my late wife created a screen of scented Pelargoniums for the kitchen window. They obscured the village Road effectively. Cuttings rooted freely.
Oops that’s the last of my pocket money for March. Although, I already do a lot of nothing. But I definitely need more pelargoniums, and they mostly live happily here outside anyway.
Before they Pass Away. Jimmy Nelson. A book to help you sit and mull over. Enjoy. It’s bloody expensive.
Ok, having read the rest of your post, I have now downloaded The Brain At Rest. And I have a story for you, triggered by "geranium sugar". When my brother and I were small, my Nana visited, from where she lived in the US with her daughter's family. Mum had to work late one night, and asked Nana to prepare the fishcakes for dinner, leaving detailed instructions. But Nana couldn't find any parsley growing in a pot on the steps to the house. Neither could I, but at that age I wasn't sure what parsley looked like. I did know what geraniums looked like, and that is what Nana picked.
Well. They were the best fishcakes I had ever eaten! And it went down in family history.
I started listening to the book on a half marathon distance trail run in Epping Forest. I thought that was a strange thing to do while listening to a book about rest. But I just got to the bit where he goes forest bathing in Epping Forest.
You have blasted through my in-box today and now I am dreaming of rest and perlagoniums. I feel that they are like lemon verbena, you scrunch them and a whole new world appears. Of elegance and grace not like my back yard - thank you!
I'm listening to "The Well-Gardened Mind" for the second time as an aid to getting through winter on this side of the pond and may interrupt it for "Our Brain at Rest". Many thanks for the recommendation!
First off - leave my monstera out of this!
Also, you need to write that book - nailed on it’ll find a publisher. And ta for the book reccos, relevant to my interests as you know.
(Much easier to encourage others than finish mine)
But all (ok not ‘all’ but most) of my precious, precious photographs have gone & there is no book without them. I am the Queen of idiots for not backing up my back up. It’s completely devastating.
What a pisser. I’ll say this tho - don’t need photos for a first rate memoir 🤓
Have you read Mary Keen's book - NO PHOTOGRAPHS. Just really good writing. Which you have nailed. So don't be put off by the lack of hard drive pics. (I would have liked a garden plan in MK's book is my only comment).
Also thank you for the Attar of Roses tip - is it really pale pink? It seems to come up in different colours when I google. I have a scented geranium which I'm really beginning to appreciate - the leaves smell amazing. No flowers.
I, too, never liked pels until I had to work in a garden that majored in them. Then I 'got' them. I sneaked the odd cutting here and there and suddenly I have a dozen or so. It's a slippery slope I tell you...
So, SO slippery!
I love scented perlagoniums. 'Nervous Mabel' is my desert island plant. What genius named it? Who was Mabel? Why was she nervous?
I will buy it! Xx
I agree with you re scented pelargonium s, i used to assign them as being old fashioned and of little interst in the garden. It was a combination of seeing and smelling then in real life at Chelsea flower show, and a Nigel Slater article in Garden's Illustrated and or instagram post that tempted me to buy my first few. Now, every time i get a mailing from Fibrex, I'm tempted to get a few more and have swelled thei number by propogating, so easily done it feels like magic. And to have pots and pots of them lining the patio, so every time i brush past I'm enveloped in their scent is joyous. Good old scented pelargoniums!
In our former home ( 1670- restored from a ruinous state), my late wife created a screen of scented Pelargoniums for the kitchen window. They obscured the village Road effectively. Cuttings rooted freely.
Oops that’s the last of my pocket money for March. Although, I already do a lot of nothing. But I definitely need more pelargoniums, and they mostly live happily here outside anyway.
Before they Pass Away. Jimmy Nelson. A book to help you sit and mull over. Enjoy. It’s bloody expensive.
God ok I’ll read the book
I have pelargoniums in my neglected window box...
Ok, having read the rest of your post, I have now downloaded The Brain At Rest. And I have a story for you, triggered by "geranium sugar". When my brother and I were small, my Nana visited, from where she lived in the US with her daughter's family. Mum had to work late one night, and asked Nana to prepare the fishcakes for dinner, leaving detailed instructions. But Nana couldn't find any parsley growing in a pot on the steps to the house. Neither could I, but at that age I wasn't sure what parsley looked like. I did know what geraniums looked like, and that is what Nana picked.
Well. They were the best fishcakes I had ever eaten! And it went down in family history.
I started listening to the book on a half marathon distance trail run in Epping Forest. I thought that was a strange thing to do while listening to a book about rest. But I just got to the bit where he goes forest bathing in Epping Forest.
Okay, okay, I’ll read the book!!!
My house is honestly where plants and self-help books go to die, but I WILL buy a pelargo-whatever-it-is and I will read the book. Thank you. :)
You have blasted through my in-box today and now I am dreaming of rest and perlagoniums. I feel that they are like lemon verbena, you scrunch them and a whole new world appears. Of elegance and grace not like my back yard - thank you!
💚
I'm listening to "The Well-Gardened Mind" for the second time as an aid to getting through winter on this side of the pond and may interrupt it for "Our Brain at Rest". Many thanks for the recommendation!