Guest post: Hopeless romance (by Catriona - @Foxglovelane)

To the Hapless Gardener from the Hoplessly Romantic Gardener

Dear Tom,

You may well be the hapless gardener (and I can vouch for that fact as you nearly fed hogweed to your family!) but I would like to declare myself to be the utterly hopeless gardener....It's not that I feel hopeless it's more that I am hopeless, lacking in elbow grease, skill, knowledge and lazy as sin to boot......

Now that might lead you to wonder what emotion that evokes....devestation, failure, inadequacy? No not at all because you see I am also the mistress of that beast called “denial” .......once I have a garden full of bees, insects, frogs, bunnies, birds and flowers of course.....the star performers...then I am the hopeless romantic and I wander around with a camera, a very rose tinted pair of specs and a willingness to make friends with the world....

Take for example these photos of my garden, you see I don't care about the unkempt nature of these beds, no , I just love that there are some colourful things turning up and attracting bees and being very pretty to look at from my window....

Or this photo of a ladybird, what a joy I think, even if the plant she prefers is a so called “weed.” (isn't that just a bit weedist and people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, now should they?)

Or this picture of one of the bunny family who had been demolishing my early greens...got a message in response on twitter telling me shooting them was the only answer......what? No am afraid not,  shooting photographs is the only shooting that I will be doing......

I am happy to potter, photograph and drink lemonade in my garden so to that extent I do tend it. I also work from home so I need to look out on something that constantly raises my spirits and reminds me of the beauty, fragility, impossibly mysterious nature of life.....and my little garden, and the wilderness beyond does all that.....

By the way in my hopeless romantic state I fall in love with wildflowers, meadows, trees, grasses, watering holes and all the rest way beyond my garden boundary. I love other people's gardens too, and architecture and beautiful art....and the people who bother, the people who care and who nurture nature are my heros.

So don't be hard on yourself or your fellow gardeners, be gentle and kind and in that spirit, give up trying to tame the world to fit in with us and let the world be itself and try hanging out with it in a more cool and groovy kind of way......

From the purple haze of Foxglove Lane, Catriona

PS If I am honest I don't tolerate docks and nettles very well or dare I mention them (ssshh spiders and rats) but hopeless romantic that I am (and again mistress of denial) I do try to show an interest and accommodate them somewhere in a fairytale way, where in the end they turn into bouquets for the princess or footmen for a pumpkin carraige.

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Catriona's observations of the natural beauty in life on Foxglove Lane along with her truly captivating photographs can be found on her website www.foxglovelane.blogspot.com. I highly recommend a visit.

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The guest bed is getting cosier by the week and I'd really like to thank my guests so far, it's been even better than I hoped for and I'm loving the variety, humour and quality of the photographs too. Thank you to those I know who are scribbling away - I've got some real gems lined up. The boys are taking longer with their efforts mind, so a kick up the behind might be order!

To see the full bed in all its glory click here. If you know of someone you think would make an excellent guest, or you'd like to join in this green fingered orgy then email me Thehaplessgardener@gmail.com.