Necessary journeys have taken on a whole new glamour. Any chance to be out and about!
This is me going to the hospital for a diagnostic scan. It was early in the day, but I still didn't fancy public transport, so I went pedestrian through the beautiful spring morning. My route took me past the lovely Southfield Hill gardens, where plants were just coming into their own:
There are some impressive colour combinations, like the silver and gold garden, and the red and silver hedge; clematis montanii is coming into its own right now; and this friendly ivy seemed to be reaching arms out into the street.
It's an area where the traffic calming is treed and underplanted; this erigeron, bronze fennel and silver birch combination was particularly pretty. Basic Campanula grows rampantly on many walls, but so does common crack weed Yellow Corydalis, here seen contrasting delightfully with the recycling bins in an unplanted but nevertheless quite stunning front garden. Some people's lockdowns have been quite active though; the palmed-up front garden is a new addition.
Two particular heroes among the houses on the hill stand out for me, the Tropical House and the Shy House:
The Tropical House gets a little more exciting every year, and the shy house a little more mysterious. They're both looking lovely this morning. Loving the cacti in the old Belfast sinks.
Up on the hill, a play area was closed but spilling fluffy veronica out into the street; and an unprepossessing alleyway contained abundant snowballs of hydrangea spilling happily over a fence.
There was a bit of main road on my way, where everything dresses to impress. At this time that means sign and signals as well as smart shrubs and barrier planting. Wiggly shrubs outside a closed pub re-purposed as hospital parking; shady planting outside a closed student union building; a pigeon at the crossing; thank-you messages outside a care home.
The hospital roads are only visible if you're getting to the hospital on foot or by bike (or if the Taxi driver says the traffic is too bad an nips you up to one of the pedestrian gates). Leafy, prosocial, a comfortable tapestry of friendly signs, nurseries, smart walls and mature trees. Outside a rainbow-windowed house I picked up a tomato plant from a help-yourself seed tray. Though I already have many tomato plants, these were a different variety, so a legitimate pick. Then the hospital border ushers in a very different aesthetic.
Smoker's desire lines streak in from every direction around the hospital, informal shuffles between the scrubby boundary shrubs and nettles. In the official spaces, it is a world of prioritised trees, healthful greenery and secret gardens, damp grass left long for pollinators, trees counted and assessed for wellbeing benefit. Emptyish car-parks have been colonised by new facilities, gently sheltered by mature trees, approached by permeable walkovers, sparsely grassed in this dry spring.
The stumble back down the hill afterwards went fast, my legs still warmed up from earlier. Little weather-worn gratitude gardens, formal and informal, thanking postmen, NHS, charities. Highlights of the season like cow parsley and Judas Tree.
Nearly at home I came upon these magnificent lilies. It's a very warm spring.
This is me going to the hospital for a diagnostic scan. It was early in the day, but I still didn't fancy public transport, so I went pedestrian through the beautiful spring morning. My route took me past the lovely Southfield Hill gardens, where plants were just coming into their own:
There are some impressive colour combinations, like the silver and gold garden, and the red and silver hedge; clematis montanii is coming into its own right now; and this friendly ivy seemed to be reaching arms out into the street.
It's an area where the traffic calming is treed and underplanted; this erigeron, bronze fennel and silver birch combination was particularly pretty. Basic Campanula grows rampantly on many walls, but so does common crack weed Yellow Corydalis, here seen contrasting delightfully with the recycling bins in an unplanted but nevertheless quite stunning front garden. Some people's lockdowns have been quite active though; the palmed-up front garden is a new addition.
Two particular heroes among the houses on the hill stand out for me, the Tropical House and the Shy House:
The Tropical House gets a little more exciting every year, and the shy house a little more mysterious. They're both looking lovely this morning. Loving the cacti in the old Belfast sinks.
Up on the hill, a play area was closed but spilling fluffy veronica out into the street; and an unprepossessing alleyway contained abundant snowballs of hydrangea spilling happily over a fence.
There was a bit of main road on my way, where everything dresses to impress. At this time that means sign and signals as well as smart shrubs and barrier planting. Wiggly shrubs outside a closed pub re-purposed as hospital parking; shady planting outside a closed student union building; a pigeon at the crossing; thank-you messages outside a care home.
The hospital roads are only visible if you're getting to the hospital on foot or by bike (or if the Taxi driver says the traffic is too bad an nips you up to one of the pedestrian gates). Leafy, prosocial, a comfortable tapestry of friendly signs, nurseries, smart walls and mature trees. Outside a rainbow-windowed house I picked up a tomato plant from a help-yourself seed tray. Though I already have many tomato plants, these were a different variety, so a legitimate pick. Then the hospital border ushers in a very different aesthetic.
Smoker's desire lines streak in from every direction around the hospital, informal shuffles between the scrubby boundary shrubs and nettles. In the official spaces, it is a world of prioritised trees, healthful greenery and secret gardens, damp grass left long for pollinators, trees counted and assessed for wellbeing benefit. Emptyish car-parks have been colonised by new facilities, gently sheltered by mature trees, approached by permeable walkovers, sparsely grassed in this dry spring.
The stumble back down the hill afterwards went fast, my legs still warmed up from earlier. Little weather-worn gratitude gardens, formal and informal, thanking postmen, NHS, charities. Highlights of the season like cow parsley and Judas Tree.
Nearly at home I came upon these magnificent lilies. It's a very warm spring.
No comments:
Post a Comment