Silver bells and cockle shells and pretty maids trash status quo

Echium – Pride of Madeira

This Harvey Weinstein story has really kicked me in the guts.  It’s good that this story has broken and that it is being taken seriously and that the women who have come forward are actually being believed but I’ve gone and read too much about it in the cause of not looking away, confronting truths about society and the implicit power of men (as if I didn’t already know them) and I need a break from the relentless and inevitable stories of abuse.  It feels a bit like looking away but, self-care, and all that.  Also, it’s making me furious in an all consuming but impotent and undirected way, so a bit of distance might help with some, I don’t know, focus?  Or the ability to care for my child and not seem angry all the time even though I’m not angry at her (she doesn’t know that)?  Or even just to give my stomach a break from the seething pit of acid it’s become over the last couple of weeks?

So as a break from all that shit, and a break from the usual format here, I’m giving you some photos of what’s growing in my garden – nicely feminine (there’s a lot to unpack about gardens and femininity and history but I’m not doing it now). The tag line at the top there is food. gardening. booze. but you rarely get anything other than food.

Stay safe, I hope this soothes the savaged souls, fuck the savage ones. Xx

Bird of Paradise about to burst open
Ornamental grape vine on our front fence, just budding up
sweet smelling Jasmine, hits you hard in the memory places

Poppies are my favourite flower
Nasturtiums, not fashionable, kind of a weed, love them anyway

Lime tree, can’t wait for summer everything with lime
Dwarf orange, I hope to get more than one fruit this year
Geraniums, not flowering yet but spilling out in a pleasing way. The blossoms are white with pink in the centre
Abutilon, red lantern. I threaten to remove this every year but the flowers are so wonderful and year round and the native birds love them
Echium brings in the bees

Climber on our beautiful wall (courtesy of Animaux Circus). I think this climber is ficus pumila, but I’m not sure about that… I need to move it so it doesn’t actually cover the lovely wall
Dichondra in the front there, don’t know what the grass is
Dichondra (silvery ground cover), Salvia (purple flowers), Nepeta (will have lovely little bluey-purple flowers in the summer), prostrate rosemary – will be a ground cover too
Alyssum, classic cottage garden flower
Garlic, looking a little bit sad here
Bird of Paradise, Cannas just starting to come up in the background 
My lovely possum watering

2 thoughts on “Silver bells and cockle shells and pretty maids trash status quo”

    1. Me too! And mingling together, wafting around the backyard – oh! – instant nostalgia. Those olfactory senses catching you unawares.

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