The Rose Widow

I've been writing poems and short stories inspired by old postcards.  Here's one about an obsessive gardener.




Visit my Amazon page for more bijou fiction


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When Summer Leaves

Image
 I've never found the end of summer easy to cope with. I hate cold, darkness and the threat of being stuck in the snow on my way to and from work. Autumn has made me apprehensive throughout my adult life. It has brought me only a wish to hibernate until March.   Even Christmas is something only to be endured because it brings with it the shortest day - a real event in my yearly calendar when all my paganism emerges. On reflection I have spent half of my life (all the autumns and winters) waiting for the other half to kick in. Something of a waste  really is the immediate reaction to this.  Now it is October my garden looks a mess. I have a really huge tree overhanging my garden. It's not mine so I can't do anything with it. I think it might be a lime as it drops lots of fluff in June. Now it is shaking off thousands (no exaggeration,  you should see the size) of leaves onto my garden. They are all over the lawn, the plot and the patio. They float in my wild...
Read more

Fantastical Foxgloves

Beautiful yet deadly, ornamental but useful. The Foxglove has certainly got a lot going for it.     It has a mysterious and enigmatic aura – perhaps this is because of the associations with witchcraft and fairies, or perhaps it is because it is commonly known to be deadly. All parts of the plant are poisonous and can kill if ingested.   The Latin name for the plant is Digitalis Purpurea – which literally translated means purple fingers. In folklore, it has many other names including Fairy Fingers, Ladies Thimbles, Rabbit Flowers, Throatwort , Dead Mans Bells, Witches Gloves and Goblin Gloves. There are several stories behind the most common name of Foxglove. The most plausible explanation is that it derives from the old name Folks Glove (the folk part being a way of alluding to fairies) while other stories attribute it to the legend that the fairies gave the flowers to foxes to use as gloves to muffle the tracking of their prey.    The association with witches ...
Read more

Friendly, Fragrant, Mint

Image
  If you grow your own new potatoes, then you must grow your own mint to go with them! This is possibly the easiest herb to grow – too easy at times. The first thing any mint grower will say to you is “don’t plant it directly into the ground, because you’ll be plague d by it forever!” Once it is established it will spread as far as it can, and come back strong every year – even if you think you’ve pulled it all out! I ha ve some in a planter next to my back door, and one day last summer I noticed that it was growing out of a gap in the wood. It is an ama zingly tenacious plant. Officially it likes its roots in shade and its leaves in sun, but if you ask me you can grow it anywhere, it just doesn’t care.       I have ignored professional advice and put a bit directly into the ground. It was an awkward corner in double shade, where nothing would grow and it looked barren and boring all year round. I had an inkling that mint and wild strawberries might like to ...
Read more