(no subject)

[endlessrarities]

A curious thing happened in Costa Coffee in Glasgow today.  As I sat with J having a panini and a coffee, I thought I saw someone I recognised sitting at the next table in the company of what I can only assume was her family.  She's a scholar of the Neolithic, who did her first degree at Glasgow, then went on to join the Cambridge clique whom I used to hang out with at conferences in the early 1990s, during my carefree postgrad days.

I last met her two and a bit years ago, at a Bronze Age conference in Sheffield, where we were both giving papers.  As we chatted over coffees in an intermission, we both wound up sighing into our polysterene cups and lamenting that we both envied each other's circumstances: she thought me lucky because I'd managed to blag a full-time permanent job in commercial archaeology, while I considered her lucky because she'd had the tenacity to keep striving for an academic post (she was on a temporary contract at Leicester, I think it was).

It had been the best part of ten years since we'd last spoken together, and I would have loved to catch up with her again today.  If indeed it was her.  It looked like her, it sounded like her, and if she'd mentioned the words 'Neolithic'. 'archaeology' or 'university' I'd have been over like a shot.  But, alas, the shred of doubt was sufficient to make me chicken out of approaching her.

It's a classic case of decontextualisation.  If I'd met her in the company of archaeologists, I'd have had no doubts about her identity.  And next time we meet up, at a conference years from now - as I'm sure we undoubtedly will - we'll probably have a good laugh about it.  But in the meantime, all I can do is lament a lost opportunity.

Let's turn now to the subject of gardens.  Because I've just been to a garden centre, and because I was paid on Thursday, of course I had to indulge.  I replaced my lovely shattered pot (which reminded me of a collared urn) with another that's more reminiscent of Grooved Ware (a Neolithic pottery type, which I've blogged about previously...), which seems appropriate, as I can see its purchase as a reminder of the missed opportunity in the coffee shop.

And of course, I couldn't leave without some plants.  I bought a lovely red pasque flower, and yet another ranunculus.  Where has the ranunculus been all my life?  It's an utterly gorgeous plant at this time of year, and it comes in such a variety of colours.  If you don't believe me, here's the red one, opening out at last.  And check out those leaves!  The buttercup heritage can't be denied:-

 

And now a general view of the front garden.  For those of you who've been following this blog through the last year or so, let me apologise for the feeling of deja vu you'll be experiencing right now.  A whole new year, with the same old daffodils.  Only this time, half of them are flat:-

The ornamental quince will be out very soon, and the celandines and opposite-leaved golden saxifrage are flowering in the wild flower garden.  The wood anemones under the weeping silver pear (aka 'Cousin It') have flowered for the first time this year, and I THINK the tree paeony has a bud on it.  How exciting it that!! 

A view of the back bed now, an awkward shady damp spot which is difficult to plant.  I've at last managed to get it filled with a combination of pulmonaria and hellebore, and there's a white dicentra coming into bud now, too:-

 

Though the fatsia to the left is still having a major strop after the recent hard frosts...

And lastly, another pulmonaria.  I believe this one's a 'Mrs Moon' - it's got lovely lanceolate leaves (what a lovely word!  It's up there with the word 'lentoid', which I found in a recent Early Bronze Age metalwork report and managed to apply in a munitions factory site record!!) and it's putting out a lot of blooms this year, too.  If you don't have a pulmonaria of your own, GET ONE!!  Though unfortunately despite the hairy leaves, they are not slug/snail proof:-

 

To those of you who are still trapped in the throes of winter, may the weather gods soon take pity on you and grant you some warmth!

Comments

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

As a bit of prosopagnosiac I sympathise about your encounter with your friend, while also being amused at the archaeological way you set about identifying her from context!

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, she was labelled 'Provenance Unknown' in that particular location...

[roaming.livejournal.com]

Yeh, we had a 2 inch slush storm on May 31 as an April Fool's Joke. Seems to be happening too many years in a row.

[rowangolightly.livejournal.com]

Oh, I get the chickening out of seeing if that's your friend. A year ago, I would've gone ahead; this year, probably would've chickened out.

And never apologize for daffodils, those harbingers of sunlight!

It may be Spring here but I have no flowers of my own to cherish. Driving around and seeing them is lovely, but they're not in my yard where I can look at them anytime I want, or watch them come up and grow the way you're chronicling. It's lovely, thank you for sharing.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I think I'd go nuts without some kind of a garden, even if it was just a couple of geraniums on the window sill...

[rowangolightly.livejournal.com]

I've got some herbs that I've put out, put the second basil plant out this morning. I'm planning some flower boxes for the edge of the patio wall, if I can afford to do it. I've got the woods to look out the windows at but sunlight *in* my patio is a problem.

Yeah, a little nuts but I'm working on it so I won't be....or at least, not as much.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

You should aim to try and get some bulbs planted up for next spring. If you weren't living halfway across the world, I could give you crocuses, daffodils and grape hyacinth:-(

[rowangolightly.livejournal.com]

I have an 8" edge around a concrete slab in which to plant anything, then since the apartment complex has a firm who does all the lawn maintenance, they come in my patio to rake and stuff. So I think everything I do will have to be in containers and boxes hooked to the patio wall. Inside the patio wall, there isn't enough sunlight enough hours of the day for flowers or veggies, I'm afraid.

Is a problem, but i'll figure out something. Then too, I don't know how many years I"m going to be here. IF I can get a job or things drastically, magically improve, I want to get into a house. We'll see.

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

I've had experiences in both directions - recognizing somebody years later, only to find that, although it was her, she had no recollection of me - excruciating, especially as she's rather in the public eye, and clearly thought that I was faking. The result was. like you, deciding since not to risk it again with another person. although reasonably sure that I was right

[writeonq.livejournal.com]

The flowers are beautiful! I'm sure that is a vey happy thing after this past snowy winter. AHHhhhhhhh, garden!

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

It's as if the natural world has breathed a huge sigh of relief!

[clairehawthorn.livejournal.com]

Your front garden is looking absolutely lovely.
I've grown pulmonaria in the past and loved them, but unfortunately they all disppeared one winter never to reappear.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

That's odd. I've lost a couple in the past - I think slugs/snails may have a lot to do with it, particularly before the plants get established. Our back flower bed (the shady damp problem corner) has three growing there, but for a good few years they had to be nursemaided through the early growing season with slug pubs a plenty put down to combat the slime-covered munchers...