Life sentence

Earlier in the week, I arrived in town a little early for a dental appointment. To pass the time, I popped into the Orkney Library to scour the 'Gardening' shelves for a book on polytunnels.

This endeavour proved unsuccessful, but another book did catch my eye...

'Weeds' by Richard Mabey

The sub-title is 'How vagabond plants gatecrashed civilisation and changed the way we think about nature'.

This isn't going to be a book review, especially as I've only just started reading it, but mainly because plenty of better folk than I have already written excellent articles about the book. Here's a selection:

The Guardian

New York Times

The Independent

So, not long later, there I was sat in the dentist's waiting room, leafing through its lush pages.

One of the first sentences that I read stated ominously:

"Dock seeds still germinate freely after sixty years."

So it rather looks like the Rumex obtusifolius in our garden will easily outlast me.