Last week I bought...
A rambler rose and a leather jacket.
I’ve just ordered a rambler rose. Don’t ask me what it’s for…it’s a secret, but I’ve been agonising between Banksiae, Kiftsgate and Belvedere for about three months, until Anne’s post, which is part of a series about how she and her husband made their extraordinary garden in Wales…and this photograph here…
…which I am taking as a sign from the heavens. Instant ordering is very good for me; it stops me from spending hours ‘researching’ (which is really just me in option paralysis). I have also ordered The Generous Gardener….absolutely zero idea where it’s going to go…bit silly of me.
I got to chat with Jo Thompson for her wonderful publication The Gardening Mind, where I talk about the way I like to garden, and generally how lazy I am. Thank you SO much for having me Jo!
Jo has created the kind of all-in-one-place, helpful, inspiring, practical gardening Substack that I would like to have made (had I an ounce of her expertise) and I am continually blown away by every piece - highly recommend if you are thinking of giving yourself a subscription treat.
Speaking of treats…
I bought a jacket last week. It is leather and it has long fringing and it looks slightly weathered and I am gloating over it because it is a new thing and it’s quite rare for me to buy myself ‘fun’ clothing.
Fringing is ‘fun’ - like feathers or pompoms…anything that moves of its own accord is incredibly attractive to me…I always want the fun thing but I very rarely buy it. I think this trimming-free life started when I had my first baby, because babies grab things and pull them off, or they cover your lovely things in sticky yuck. I took off my watch when I had my first baby because it was hard and scratchy and I still can’t find it almost sixteen years later. But also, there is a voice inside my head telling me it’s just folly, and it’ll look stupid, and that I’ll fall out of love with it.
The voice is so boringly practical…she bangs on and on about how the fun thing will just become annoying, and get caught in things. She implores me to experience the feeling of a small piece of leather tassel making its way into the clicky bit of a seatbelt attachment as I try to buckle up in the car. I try to push the offending tassel away but lo! it is attached to the very arm that’s trying to guide the damn thing into its place.
This friends, is the type of fever dream I have to contend with in my own head when I’m just trying to have some fun. I am getting more adept at ignoring it. Since fifty really. I decided that Ease and Practicality needed to budge up a bit and make space for Joy and Fun. They can all sit together, like children in the back seat of a car. They can fight sometimes but they can also play nicely.
Do you walk this line too? How do you do it? I don’t want to blink and it’ll be my sixtieth and still be sans feather and tassels and pompoms. That’s just tragic no? Or does it simply not matter?
So I got the jacket. I love it. So do the cats of course, who have decided I am their new favourite toy. And yes, the tassels have already blocked the seatbelt thing, and I can’t possibly do the washing up can I... But none of this is a problem because my teenager likes this jacket. I am so unspeakably thrilled that she likes it - she thinks everything I own is ghastly. She looked at it askance and said “That’s quite cool” under her breath.
My heart. ACTUAL fluttering.
Enough.
I will be back soon with something about specific words my husband sometimes uses and why they simply cannot exist and need to be banned. Banned I tell you.
If you liked this post please hit the heart and leave me a message in the comments - I love chatting with you all.
x Laetitia
I bought banksia lutea about 5 years ago having seen it growing up the wall at Le Manoir. I didn’t realise it was a rose when I first saw it as it flowers so early, doesn’t have any thorns and the flowers are so tiny. Having planted it, it flowered beautifully the first year but I pruned it wrong, not realising that ramblers need to be done differently so very few flowers the second year. It is now absolutely beautiful but very difficult to control as it puts out huge long shoots. Hope you enjoy yours.
On the subject of the leather jacket, good for you. We spend too many years worrying about what people will think. I am 64 and stopped caring quite a while ago. If I like it, I wear it. My latest purchase has been dinosaur tights from Snag.
Love your jacket. We are both far more adventurous with our clothes as we've got older. I used to hide away in black or navy. Now it's colour, lots of colour which gives me joy!! My husband loved a pair of really on trend trainers but was reluctant to buy them. He's put me and our kids first always. They are adults now with kids of their own. I told him to buy them and enjoy them. Which he did. Then a young nurse said she loved his trainers. He said thanks. She then said, "You do realise they're very trendy right now?" As if he was a dinosaur 😆 He's 64!!
Love the roses. Our new garden is probably bit small for a rambler. We had rambling rector at our old house. Much admired by the local vicar. I bought him one when he retired. Known for his long, long sermons he saw the joke!!
Thanks again for writing your newsletter. Have a good week.
Lynn