plants

ian
Do you have any plants important to your family?

jenny
Funnily enough, I was just talking to my mum about the "mother in laws tongue" her dad had and how offshoots of it have taken, and it has finally got a flower on it now that she and my Dad have moved to sunny Brighton...er, what else?

The other thing which springs to mind is not a plant but some hard landscaping: a pergola my mum got my Dad to build when we lived in our heavenly Runcorn Newtown....this word always strikes me as ironic when I think of one sited there, in such a philistinesque place...don't get me wrong my mums garden was great and the structure was sound its just that the word strikes a note out of place there. Also, I remember strongly feeling dislike for the municipal planting they did there. I can't remember if I disliked it then or just disliked the memory of it because it reminded me of there and the "artificial " feeling of the whole place. Now, in later years, being now into gardening, I realise that the cornus alba with its lovely red stems...

"red stems"
That's like a sign for my heritage in shorthand!
Red (me-out of place in Runcorn) + stems (memories or like stammen (Deutsch - to come from).

Ian
Breadfruit is important in mine.

jenny
Do tell some more...and send pics, I will send photo of the measly cornus in my garden which was doing nicely until I overzealously hacked it back thinking it would make the stems redder! hey... RUN-CORN-US that's like how in dos programmes it starts by saying "run", like a computer command.. (I know nowt about programming by the way...and you?)

Ian
Do you have any images of Tasmanian plants you could email me?

jenny
I will soon.

Ian
Spider plants were much loved by my mother. The work I'm taking to Tasmania includes a crown fern. What plants are important to you?

jenny
See above. Also I like ivy leafed toadflax, buddleia(butterfly bush) (these remind me of my childhood playing on wasteground...they are devalued plants I think because they are common....*) [the top right photo above is of a plant very similar to buddleia, taken on the island's Bishop and Clerk peak] but as a child, I remember thinking the structure of the Buddleia flowers were amazing; bright and strong. * (I think a link between class and plants for me is emerging clearly here!).

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Aside from the avenue of trees and the doorway shot, all of the above photos were taken walking up to Bishop and Clerk on Maria Island. The lower left side image is of the Clerk.

The doorway shot looks from inside the slaughterhouse underneath the messhall, out to grasslands. The slaughterhouse was strangely small, with a small access point for customers only about 45cm (18") square. There was insufficient space for cows or sheep. It seems clear the slaughterhouse was for the geese and other birds that came to the island.

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plants
: : geology : : heritage : : fish animals : : nonlinear discussion : : start

 

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