It was such an unseasonably warm and sunny patch that it felt surreal. We were in London at the same time last year, late February, and I remember trudging along the Thames in a snowstorm, public transport virtually at a standstill. That memory still fresh in my mind, London looked at once dazzling and dazzled…
Of blackbird song and February tasks
My very own harbinger of spring is here. Sitting perched on a high branch of the Japanese cherry tree, deep black after the storms, stark against brightening sky. A black bird on a black branch, a perfect kacho-ga in monochrome, singing in the rain. The bird is marking the territory. It must be a young…
Share this:
My winter of camellias
My fascination with camellias is not new, it dates back to my teenage years. We didn’t have camellias growing in gardens, of course, not with the climate like that. They were then completely exotic, faraway beauties and in those pre-historic (aka pre-google) times I didn’t even know what they looked like. But the allure of…
