Some of you may remember Tatum. Well, Tatum lives on! We kept her around for a while, but eventually her face was green and her ears were collapsing in on themselves, so we planted her, with only the barest gesture towards ceremony. We thought that would be the last of her - after all, she wasn’t looking very healthy by then. But about month later, we noticed a happy young potato plant had sprung up over her grave. When it died down, we carefully exhumed, hoping to find a few potatoes to have with our dinner. Imagine our surprise, then, when we found not just a handful of potatoes, but also Tatum’s emptied out skin, preserved in her original shape.
Tatum’s babies are very tasty by the way, and we plan to replant at least one of them so that she can live on forever. As for her slightly creepy looking skin, we will keep that too - after all, she is precious to us.
Now I’ve been told most sternly that instead of feeling miserable about how little we sometimes have to say about the world in the midst of infertility, we should blog more about the garden. So today I went out with our trusty camera and took some photos of a selection of my current prides and joys (to put every single little thing that delights me about our garden into one post would just be overwhelming for both me and you, dear reader).
First, the roses. Roses are so english, so fussy and pretentious, that I never thought I would bother growing them. But they are something of a family obsession, and I have found myself to be a closet rose fanatic after all. The first rose we bought was in honour of my mum. My aunt had planted some Blue Moon roses as a tribute to her, and because I know that my mother adored roses, I thought I would do the same. We bought a climber, and it grew fast but unruly, so last year we tied it up properly and pruned it hard, and this year it has rewarded us beautifully.
When we created a whole new garden where once was only concrete, my secret rose obsession got really out of control, and I suggested we plant a rose garden. We chose varieties that both our grandparents love, along with a yellow rose for bean and an apricot one given to us by special friends of ours. The first rose to come from this bed was a Papa Meilland - the photo shows you the immaculate form and the stunning deep red but sadly the internet cannot transmit its glorious scent.
It reminds me of my thesis days - it looks just like one of the roses out of Shoujo Kakumei Utena.
Other garden joys at the moment are poppies:
sweet peas (note the use of screen doors for climbing frames - has worked brilliantly!):
and vegetable seedlings with all their promise of a bounteous summer harvest:
Truly, I think the garden and great TV shows (Battlestar Galactica and Deadwood in particular) are among our most effective sanity preserving devices (each other, great counselling, and supportive friends and family make up the rest of the sanity preservation suite).
