When I first began traveling by train to work, earlier this year, I tweeted sweeping comments on how sad it was that people are so deep in their books, laptops or texting they fail to notice the beautiful Sussex countryside. I have been doing the same journey now for 6 months and have to retract those comments. It has become tedious and although I do occasionally just sit and gaze out of the window, most of the journey time I use up by reading.
Many of the carriages with those horrid ‘skinny’ seats have all their seats facing one way, which is unfortunate, if you board a carriage with them all facing backwards. Sitting this way round is guaranteed to make me feel nauseous at the best of times and it does mean that I don’t even try to read as that would have me heading for the loo – not a pleasant thought at all.
This evening, stuck on a rear facing skinny seat, watching the countryside whizz pass on what felt like an interminably long journey home, and trying to use mind over matter that I was not feeling queasy, my thoughts turned to writing and my blog. It was then I realised that withdrawal symptoms were kicking in and with that the need to write was being activated. It has only been two weeks since my last post, but for someone who usually writes 2 to 3 posts a week, it feels like a long break. So here I am back with my love. The short break served its purpose and has helped me realize I don’t have to write regularly, just when I feel like it.
The Garden
The weather has been excellent this week, a true start to September, with lovely sharp and slightly chilly mornings and deliciously warm by lunchtime. The days are drawing in though and at 6:15 a.m. there is a need to put the bedroom light on when I get up and gone are the long light evenings and when I get home the light is not good enough to take decent photos of the garden. The weathermen have promised us a good weekend ahead so I intend to be out there clicking away. The garden is looking rather weather beaten and autumn jobs are calling.
Meat Loaf sang “Two out of Three Ain’t Bad” – well in my case ‘one out of three ain’t bad’. I am talking Dahlias here. Earlier this year I bought dalihia bulbs, putting some in the garden:-
This one has been eaten to pieces and has no flowers, it just been a feast for slugs and snails to dine on. I have usually had success in this particular part of the garden in previous years but this year, as we all know, is just plain odd.
I put one in a large flower pot by the front door, warm sheltered and lots of sunshine (when it appears) from mid-day onwards.
This second dahlia has had lots of growth, only been nibbled a little by the slugs and snails, but still produced no flowers.
The third one I put one in a pot on the side patio, in its own little microclimate. This part of the garden is sheltered, and with sun from sunrise it can get very hot here before it becomes shady by mid-afternoon.
Hey presto! Flowers!! This was not an experiment but may be next year because I am not sure if I was unlucky and had dud bulbs or whether the conditions on the patio were more conducive to their happiness. It certainly made me happy.
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