Spring

Camilia is now tied up.  It looks much better.

Daffodils in bloom.

Spring

Dr Anne went to the garden yesterday.  The temperature was around 9c but calm.  Dr Anne managed to feed two beds of roses and paint one side of the big trellis.  She felt good.

Much to doubt Spring is here.

The crocuses and miniature daffodils are in bloom.

Girls' Night Out

Every so often Dr Anne has a night out with her girlfriends.  Last night they went to the Banff Springs.  The food was good and the 'claek' brilliant.  Here's to the next one.

End of February

Today the sun was shining but it was seriously cold.

Spring is just around the corner.  Dr Anne is looking forward to warmth, light nights, sunshine.

The Physic Garden

Czerkawska, C. (2014). The Physic Garden. Scotland: Saraband.

Greygranite gave Dr Anne The Physic Garden as a birthday present.  What a wonderful read.  

Dr Anne Is not into historical novels.  Queen Elizabeth, Henry V111 and Cromwell are nowhere on her reading list.  Nineteenth and twentieth century history is within the lives of people she knows about.  She can visualise her relatives coming east at the clearances or heading down to Glasgow.  She knows their history, their way of life, their aspirations, their legacy.

This book about William Lang, the college gardener strikes a chord with the places that she goes to in her head on 'blue' days.

Dr Anne is of the view:

'What is before you definitely doesn't go past you.'

'One also needs to be out and about, breathing the fresh air. One mustn't live life second hand.'

She awards 9/10.

Spring is just around the corner

Dr Anne went for a walk in the garden garden today.  The snowdrops are in full flower now.  The first crocuses are coming into flower.  There is one camellia in flower.   

How Dr Anne looks forward to Spring.

Some of the snowdrop display.

The first crocus.

The camellia is peeping round the 'rusty' tie back.

On the other side: Letters to my children from Germany 1940 - 1946

Wolff- Mönckeberg, M. (2011). On the other side: Letters to my children from Germany 1940-1946. London: Persephone Books Ltd.

This seemed the appropriate book to read this week following the programmes about the 70th anniversary of Auschwitz.  

This diary was written by a mother whose children lived abroad during the war in Britain, America, Sweden and South America while she was in and around Hamburg.  It was her way of telling them about the daily grind of the people during the war years.  The diary was found after she died.

This was an enthralling read and compares to the scenarios of the Auschwitz programme.  In the end it comes to survival.  Maslow's Basic Needs... Food, water, shelter, clothing... Security... Love... Some folk just can't cope.  What does one need to survive?

Dr Anne awards a 9/10 for this read.