First of all, a big thank you to all of you who have suggested books I might enjoy. I have made a list of them and will be choosing my next read from the list, which will be as soon as I've finished The Citadel by A.J.Cronin (published 1937) which I fell into after hearing a dramatisation on Radio 4/Radio4e (I'm not sure which).
I am gripped by it, and if you have never heard of it, it's a cracking read, and is credited with laying the foundation of the NHS a decade later. The latest edition has an introduction by Adam Kay, author of This is going to hurt.
He says: "Read The Citadel and tell everyone you know: this is the world waiting for us if we don't look after the NHS. No pressure."
And now, my garden.
It happens every summer. It's usually when the hardy geraniums have stopped flowering, and the crocosmia lucifer is out.
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| Can you spot the weeds in this one? |
and I despair. I despair because I have less and less physical energy with every passing year and what little I have I want to spend on cycling or walking, not weeding.
And then I start wondering which border I can get rid of and put down to grass?
But I like flowers!
This year, however, it feels as though there is a little leeway: we were urged not to mow our lawns in no-mow May, and this week a weed garden won the RHS gold prize at Tatton Park flower show, and we are all being urged to have wild spots in our gardens to cater for the bees and other insects.
A month ago I persuaded Dave - who mows the lawns and cuts the hedges and chops things down but does no other gardening - to leave the lawns, because they looked so pretty. This was our back lawn:
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| Photo by friend Michelle |
I may never be in the village Open Gardens event, but no matter how uneasy I feel about my ill-kempt borders, I can tell myself the garden is helping to save the planet.
So gold star to me.
4 comments:
What a stunning scarlet that is ! I have over the years returned to A J Cronin many times ! I was thinking about your reading quest but especially at the moment I am reading ( I think ) in an eccentric
direction so I held off. I can recall you were reading Now stands the winged sentry by margaret kennedy a while back and I read some of her novels after reading that, and so enjoyed Lucy which is so odd and even as I was happily reading I wondered why it was such fun. Some time ago it felt like everyone in the blogosphere were reading O the brave music by dorothy evelyn smith . First I had ever heard of it but I jumped on board and what a lovely book. I am a re reader and that one will so stand up to a re visit evevry so often.
Sue I wanted to recommend a blog to you that you might find useful for book recommendations.
It is Cornflower Books from Scotland. She often recommends books that I think you might like and in her latest post she talks about her first book being accepted for publication - kindred spirit??
Regards,
Kristine
Thank you, Kristine, I’ve added it to my favourites.
Thank you Marmee for your suggestions. I only read Margaret Kennedy’s memoir. I didn’t think of trying her novels.
I will also look at the Dorothy Smith title yo7 mention.
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