Mousetraps!

I wish I had kept a tally of the mice my trap has caught..I found myself thinking that yet again this morning as I removed yet another dead mouse..fat with a stomach full of the tips of Antirrhinums that were just beginningg to bush out...

My father gave me the trap nearly 20 years ago, having bought it whilst on a trip to see my brother and a new grandchild, then all living in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Not many people I suspect, return from across the Atlantic with a wooden mousetrap. But my father had a passion for ironmongers, and found in Greenwich a hardware store that was close to his heart. He was also a Presbyterian by nature and upbringing, so the idea of buying more than one would simply not have occurred to him, so one wooden, but triple, mousetrap made it back to England and as I was the daughter with the next birthday, to me..

The simplicity of the design was carefully explained, the question of bait exhaustively discussed and the trap set...

 I was at the time, and still am, plagued with mice in my greenhouse, particularly at this time of year. Mice round us seem to smell the moment Sweet Pea seeds arrive in the post and make a beeline towards them. I have tried everything, really everything, including soaking the seeds in paraffin...nothing works...It is extremely disheartening to keep finding successive sowings of flowers and vegetables destroyed..but now thanks to my father I feel that  I am wining the battle.

There was even one morning when there were 3 in the trap side by side!

My favourite flower..

I have decided..

Actually, I have always known..
Primroses are my favourite flowers.
I love their colour, full of the promise of soft sunshine after the dull drabness of a northern winter, and the applegreen freshness  of their leaves..
I love too that they are often mud splattered, bravely flowering in adverse conditions, and to really enjoy them you have to get down to their level..
I remember picking them as a child, making tight little posies framed by their leaves and lining them up in old potted meat jars ( yes we used to eat potted meat back then ) on window sills or, at Easter, in the village church at the ends of pews..
I am talking about real primroses, Primula vulgaris, that grow and self seed wild on mossy banks along hedgerows and in open woodland.
I enjoy the Candelabra forms, especially P. florindae, and P. bulleyana and of course Auriculas have enormous charm, though many may say they are excessively demanding in their requirements but I find that, on the whole, I do not care for the Polyanthus forms, I feel their flowers are too large, too showy, indeed in fact, too vulgar.
Instead I love the straightforward simplicity of the common primrose.
They are my favourite flower.

I went to the RHS show in London yesterday, and walking through the turnstiles found myself stepping  back in time into a scene that has been repeated annually, with the exception of two World Wars, for more than 100 years. Excitment mounts as you climb the stairs up to the large Victorian Exhibition Halls and at the top the smells and the colours of Spring hit you forcibly along with the sheer exuberance of all the different stalls, each one vying for attention, each one crammed with plants; some brought on for the show, others still in bud waiting to be bought.
It is intoxicating...it becomes an hour out of time, when everyday concerns are put to one side and pure simple enjoyment of the feast of plants beautifully displayed in front of one takes over and you feel like a child in a candy shop..dazzled by choice...I defy anyone to leave empty handed...quite glorious...but also, as you have to carry your purchases away with you, there is a limit to indulgence, which is a good thing...you can of course place orders and arranged for plants to be delivered..but that's a different story..
So what did I buy? 3 peach cream coloured Hyacinths. We used to have a grouping of them on the corner of the house, where the old brick showed them off to great advantage.I have missed them this year, so these are their replacements..

And Lilies, 6 huge fat bulbs of Lilium Regale, of which, 4 I have planted in 2 pots, partly because the bulbs were so large 3 wouldn't have fitted,but also because although perceived wisdom states that bulbs should be planted in 3s or 5s or 7s, on a terrace, where these will be in the summer, they will have their backs against a wall so the 3rd bulb is rather wasted...instead I have planted the 2 remaining bulbs separately in individual pots. A cold weekend is predicted so I have put them all underneath our enourmous yew hedge for protection for a week or two.

The other part of the Show, is a competion, open to all. Anyone can enter and I love the thought, that all around the country there are people selecting their prize blooms and working out how to get them to London to the Show in pristine condition. It is somehow immensely reassuring in these uncertain times to be a part of a thread of continuity...some things really do not and have not changed