in other growing news

This incredible flower was grown in my own garden, with very little input by me except that I planted the rose bush some years ago, in among some much older ones. It produces less than a handful of blooms each year, but it didn't half make an effort with this one. It's almost a hand-span across, and just keeps stretching out its petals, puffing out its chest. It's called a Double Delight, which is somewhat misleading since it clearly is much more delightful than that. I guess it was so named because it has two colours, but it might also be that it looks and smells totally intoxicating. And in my case, it might also be because I'm both surprised and delighted when it rewards my lack of gardening know-how with such a stunning bloom every now and again, when I least expect it. Delightful.

bloom and grow

The camellia trees in my garden are older than me. They have solid, no-nonsense trunks that were nurtured in their early, twig-like days by a solid, no-nonsense woman named Josephine who owned this house long before I was born, and whom I never met but whose blood circulates in three of the people I love most in this world.

When I was pregnant with Elsa, I watched the camellia buds appear and grow larger as I did, and when I brought our tiny baby girl home their beautiful pink blooms covered the branches and the lawn beneath them. It was like nature saying "It's a girl!''.

Now that tiny baby has turned six, and if you were to ask her I'm sure she'd tell you there is no greater age to be. The camellias are blooming and falling, as they do, and although it is winter there is still tremendous warmth to be had if you know where to look for it. And on the branches of our peach tree, hope of an abundant spring.