I am having a bit of a happy Snow Goose problem.
I don't seem to be able to stop myself buying any plant that happens to be called Snow Goose, and Endsleigh Nurseries, barely five minutes from home, is becoming a dangerous place to go.
First a rose...
A rambler that I am going to have to invent somewhere to plant because we have things climbing everywhere already..
And then I saw this...
...an Oriental poppy and too late, it was in my trolley along with some more new roses, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Olivia Rose Austin and Evelyn. This on the basis that last year's have survived in their tubs and are looking great after my ruthless prune so I am allowed some more. You were right, I haven't killed them.
If I see anything else called Snow Goose you can be sure I'll have to have it.
The Snow Geese by William Fiennes has been one of my definitive and most precious reads of the last few months. I will always associate the book with this time in my life, and in a nice way not a sad way. It was an extraordinarily comforting read...I wrote this in my reading journal back in January...
What do I need books to do for me right now?
Is it page-turners...in one eye out the other, minimal concentration, minimal challenge or do I need the words to mean something, do I need to take a mood away with me from the page...store it up and feed on it until I can open the book again.
Have pictures in my imagination?
Something else to think about...
It was the latter of course, and The Snow Geese became my first miracle book (Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez became the second) I would regularly escape into William Fiennes's journey and think about the people he had met, and the way he saw snow-geese-like characteristics all around...the woman with the white fluffy feather-like hair comes to mind, and I found myself looking for snow-goose-like people too. You see all sorts sitting in hospital waiting rooms when you are done with reading that copy of Caravan Club Monthly.
So I doubt this Snow Goose thing is going to end any time soon. Maybe don't tell me of any other plants called Snow Goose somethingorother though I already have word of a delphinium.
And how lovely does that poppy sound?
Semi-double frilled pink with off-white flowers in May and June...not that long to wait until my very own snow geese arrive and with any luck perennially thereafter...
There is a moment in The Snow Geese...William Fiennes writes of his father's reaction to the return of the swifts year on year...
'...The return of the swifts was cordial and fortifying, a sign that the centre was holding, that orbits were regular and true. The arrival of migrants, like an eclipse, was a revelation of planetary motion. The earth had travelled once more round the sun. Seasons were respecting their sequence. Time could be relied upon.'
Well, our swallows are back and circling so yes, our centre is holding, but I think I might feel the same about my Papaver Orientale 'Snow Goose' now, each year that I see it flowering, in fact maybe I'd better go back and buy a few more just to be sure...
I'm sure this must happen to some of you....
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