The Unwanted

The hydrangea I rescued from oblivion at the EURO last year. OK, it's not exactly a showstopper (yet) but I am happy that it's growing.

The little trees are doing very well. All the poplars (I gave one to Dad), the oak, the rowan and the lanky hose chestnut.

My friend Fionnuala gave me a little lemon and little tiny clementines that she grew from seeds. They love the conservatory.

I planted the seeds I bought in Amsterdam (coffee and something else) and some wild cherry stones. Something is happening in two of the four pots.

Yesterday, I bought a ticket for the Andy Goldsworthy sculpture thing in York. It's called Hanging Stones. The Artist's Statement is deep and inspiring. He has another sculpture in Yorkshire called Hanging Trees, which is also cool. My ticket is for the 4th of February... it was as soon as there were spaces!

I am still reading The Matter With Things and finding it inspiring. I wish I could explain it... I suppose that it's impossible with something so huge. You kind of have to read it. He quotes various people who said something like "in the case of the greatest truths, their opposite is also true." And he talks of degrees of truth. This makes sense to me. In fact, it's liberating!

Strangely, I feel that the book is somehow consoling... as though it offers not validation or self-acceptance exactly... but a release from feeling the need to analyse certain things that either don't merit or are destroyed by analysis.

On my long run I photographed the pretty weeds, and remembered being awe struck the first time I fully noticed them that they weren't some kind of expensive cultivar!