Today I have had three lessons on the importance of observing my environment more closely.
Walking in the garden, in the intervals between showers, I spotted a possible explanation for the fact that my potato plants are growing at quite different rates. A hornbeam tree stands next to the plot in which they are growing, and this shelters some of the plants to a significant extent, reducing their access to rain.
I have also planted beans in a large earthenware container, and I have been puzzled by the fact that one group of them is growing much more slowly than the others. In today’s sunshine I spotted a possible explanation. A few of the plants are partially shaded by the rim of the tub, and although they will be in the sun for part of the day the time they spend in direct light is less than that available to plants on the other side of the same container.
Our roses are coming into their own at the moment, and I cut a small bunch to bring into the house, where they stand in a vase on the kitchen table. As I drank my morning coffee I made some small changes to their arrangement. Turning the leaves I encountered five different varieties of very small insects, including minute beetles the existence of which I had never suspected. Each rose bush, it seems, shelters quite a village.
I have become used to criticising myself for not doing enough. It seems that I ought to spend more time just looking …. very closely.