Things from a London Summer

I have just deleted a long thing about how sad I feel about the lack of rain because I don’t actually want to go there. Here instead are things that have interested me, and made me laugh, and brought me joy recently, during this London summer holiday.

These helianthus. I got them in a box from Hortus Poeticus and I think they are a variety called Pro Cut Plum. I’ve ordered a packet of seed. I need them next year.

Kafka’s Burrow. The folly of obsessing about orchestrating complete safety against an imagined malign outside force.

Jason Arday. The giant distraction of piling onto the brass-necked human who rightly identified a good wave and started riding it, whilst ignoring the institution that put him up there in the first place. What a farce.

Persicaria Fat Domino. My favourite persicaria, bought because of the name, and doing incredibly well in this dry hot spell, along with the nepeta, which is also enjoying itself immensely. I got my plants here, as bare root perennials.

Absolutely stellar list of ground cover plants for different sites in this article by Annie Guilfoyle. Sign up here for a diet version of The Garden Collective so you can try it out before committing to full fat:

Magnificently comfortable loafers. These are not particularly elegant but I also firmly believe that going about in comfortable shoes MAKES you more elegant, and your face more beautiful etc. I loved the slippers from Vibae so much that I bought these ‘Tribeca’ loafers and haven’t taken them off…softest leather and the same generous toe box that makes your feet feel free and happy (and your body and face look elegant etc). I wear these in the heat with no socks. LOVE. Great for men too and I have just ordered a black pair for my father in the hope that he will swap his horrible trainers for them. Mine are in a colour called ‘cocoa’.

Watering other people’s gardens. A very simple joy. There is something so uplifting about it…tending to someone else’s pots, the glug of the water in the quiet of the evening. I had taken over this job from my teen who has been at a music festival. She missed a small saucer of thyme and it has fried in the heat. The rest are good though. I love leaving the pots knowing they’re watered and shutting the door, knowing all is well in the garden.

The end of the green shoes. I bought them in the noughties perhaps. I remember a moment thinking that they just really had to be mine. Very uncomfortable, heavy things but I wore them anyway, with those very skinny Earl jeans that stopped four inches below your tummy button. I was cleaning out the shoes and realised the buckle is broken, so even if I wanted to wear them (which I do not) I couldn’t. Letting go of these is hard for some silly reason. Memories of other things I had to let go of. Bye bye shoes.

My mother had her 86th birthday. I love her. She is excellent. She got beautiful flowers, a punnet of raspberries, a lavender bag and a Quooker tap.

Thank you for reading! Do please share and leave a ‘like’ or a comment as it helps other people to find me, and it encourages me enormously. Also please would everyone kindly pray for rain. Thank you.