It’s the weekend when the clocks go forward. The first tulips are out. In the nearly-three-years of this project, sketching plants has taught me a lot about time. But today, it shows me a parallel universe. This project started in the surreal stillness of lockdown, in an unseasonably-warm Spring. I … Read More
Loo rolls. Not the most glamorous things to write about in this week of hearts and flowers. But I save them for sowing sweet peas. Their delicate roots don’t like being moved so these, I can plant whole. Cardboard and compost aren’t the most glamorous things to draw either – I … Read More
I love a sweet pea. So as soon as the light lets me, in go my seeds, the improvised loo roll planters looking like firework boxes. Which, in a way, they are. Up shoot the seedlings, with promise of bright, fragrant flowers. There are unexpected visitors, too, my home-made compost … Read More
“So how do holly trees have babies?” I had been telling a group of friends about a new generation that I was off to draw. Presents from the birds, we used to call them in my family – plants that arrive, neither sown, nor planted by us. It’s the wood pigeons … Read More
Cucamelons. No, I have no idea why I sowed these either, though goodness knows, come seed catalogue time I was ready for some frivolity. And glamorous they are, mini vines, already throwing out their first fronds. The black hollyhocks will, if they do well, be ink. Growing in wavy formation, they’re … Read More