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The Arsonist and Gardening

Rosie helping in the garden

Earlier this week, at approximately 5am, we were awoken by our dogs barking. The room was full of flashing blue lights and a strong smell of heavy smoke, and we could hear voices outside in the road. We looked out of our bedroom window to see various neighbours in PJs, all looking and pointing in the same direction. Thick black smoke was billowing up the road and one neighbour's dogs were running around in panic, whereas they are usually either in their garden or with their owner. Other neighbours corralled them in one front garden, and a police officer captured a ball of fluffy white fur and carried it over to join its buddies.

The fire was quickly extinguished and then all the police suddenly sprinted for their cars and even commandeered an approaching van, or so it seemed, whose driver followed the police vehicles off the scene, all driving very fast. All this took place within a very short time.

It turns out that someone threw oil or similar onto our neighbour's hedge and set it on fire. Apparently nine other fires were set off in close proximity, some considerably more serious than others. 

Fortunately no-one was killed, though two people were taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation and two police officers suffered dog bites. One house seems to have been badly damaged by fire. A 31 year-old man has been arrested. I hope he receives the psychiatric help he clearly seems to need.

News coverage of this story (click on the link to read the article in The Birkenhead News).

Jim standing beside aquilegia 


Cistus 'Snow Fire'

Into our garden I've recently added two species of plants that I've had my eye on for ages. One is a rock rose, also called a Cistus, and this variety is 'Snow Fire'. This is a fairly young plant but with plenty of buds. I've re-potted it into some good soil fresh from our compost heap, so hopefully this will help to get it off to a strong start.

Also new are two Astrantia major. 'Venice' promises to have deep burgundy red flowers, and 'Superstar' should be white. There was a bit of an issue with the courier, resulting in the plants being left inside their packaging for nearly eight days, so they were looking sorry for themselves when I finally received them. I potted them up immediately, and while some leaves have since died the plants seem to be surviving, though they're on the puny side. Here's hoping they buck up.

I have bought two wooden planters which have a tall trellis back. Receiving these was quite a palaver, involving two days when they failed to materialise despite me having made clear delivery arrangements with the courier, whose customer service was noticeably underwhelming. 

Anyway, on the third pre-arranged day the planters finally arrived. All I had to do then was assemble the things. It would have been much easier if I had three arms (at least) and the strength of Hercules, plus some power tools. We have two boxes of tools. None of them were right for the job, which seems to be something of a DIY tradition.

Easter cactus in flower in June (as usual)

Despite Easter falling on April 9th this year, our Easter cactus waited until June to come into flower. It does this every year without fail, making the appropriateness of its name tenuous at best. It's a beautiful flower though, don't you think? It has large, star-like white flowers which last well. I re-potted this plant one year ago and it's finally forgiven me.

On our bathroom window sill sits a cutting from the cactus, which was grown when two or three segments of the parent plant broke off. It is a brittle plant and such breakages can easily happen. So I simply put it in a jam jar filled with clean water, using clear tape to gently hold it in place so that the snapped-off end was touching the water. Within a few short weeks a healthy root system grew, and so I potted it up and here it is in flower for the first time.

Baby Easter cactus

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