Rosie Boycott’s Sticky Buds And Other Environmental Disasters
YOU have to admire Rosie Boycott’s garden.
The Lily of the Valley, the hawthorn blossom, an “exuberant” clematis called montana Elizabeth, the huge marijuana bush.
Only joking. The days when as editor of the Independent Boycott campaigned to legalise cannabis, earning herself the nickname ‘Rizla Rosie’, are long gone.
Of course, if she did want to grow cannabis plants in her garden the balmy weather and dry conditions could make her cottage in the Somerset countryside the hub of a cottage industry.
In “Spring…the new summer”, Boycott, the Mail’s new gardening expert, shows us round her splendid garden.
She notes the delicate green of the horse chestnut leaves as they unfurl from “sticky buds”. No, not those kinds of buds. Rosie has moved on.
“The first flush of leaf” has “spread cautiously over the oaks,” writes Rosie. “I’d normally expect to see all this growth around the time of my birthday, in mid-May.”
But this is April and the birthday cake has not yet been iced.
Rosie is walking amongst the flowerbeds making note of all things blooming. Hello, trees, hello sky, hello magnolias, tree peonies, osmanthus, aubrietia, pear blossom, primulas, white leucojum and crocus. Rosie Fotherington Thomas is taking it all in.
“How many kinds of sweet flowers grow in an English country garden?” goes the popular refrain. “Lots in my garden,” says Rosie.
“For days, we woke to misty mornings, which quickly gave way to long, sun-filled days. We wore T-shirts, ate picnics, thought of going swimming.”
Rosie’s garden is in full bloom. It looks just dandy. Indeed, such is the housing issue that the picture of the Boycott retreat framed by foliage and flower may well solicit an offer.
But all is no so green on Rosie’s side of the fence. Rosie knows that “droughts in Africa will mean starvation for millions”. And: “Hedgehogs are waking up from hibernation at the wrong time and starving to death because they can’t find food,” says she.
Rosie talks of nature taking “millions of years to work out her intricate patterns” – an evolution that is now “changing before our eyes”.
Are we humans to blame for this unravelling of nature? The implication is that we are. But later in the Mail, the paper’s Science Editor, Michael Hanlon, tells us that some of the claims of global warming have been “sexed up”.
Tales of environmental apocalypse capture the attention but can exaggerate the problem.
Says Boycott: “We’ve been blessed with one of the most magical Easters on record, we mustn’t be lulled into thinking that all this ‘warming business’ will mean only a better time ahead.
But in the meantime, why not stop and smell the flowers? And if you are worried about it all, pick a few buds…
Posted: 19th, April 2007 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
