Sweet Peas, Nasturtiums and the art of Feng Shui

Sweet Peas are easy to grow and fill the air with scent. We have a new flower to distribute around the house, in case visitors come and don’t like our smell. Except we don’t have visitors any more. I picked them anyway, filled the house with heavy stinking bunches and immediately triggered an asthma attack. I do this every year. It generally takes 45 minutes to remember they cause potentially deadly wheezing.

Sweet Peas and Nasturtiums

Nasturtiums don’t take any growing.  Every autumn they kindly drop their seeds, ready to arrive on time to keep the sweet peas company.  A lovely edible plant that can even be used to cure coughs. Possibly not all coughs…

And if you are looking for a backdrop for your chicken? This is how it turns out if you try to force a chicken to pose nicely.

Taking a photo of a chicken in Nasturtiums
Chicken refusing to look at the camera.

Nasturtium means ‘Nose Twist’ in Latin and is a symbol of courage. The sweet pea is a symbol of thankfulness and farewell.  

Do I need the courage to say thank you and goodbye? Are they a reminder to feng shui? There is stuff in the house, but it is all needed. For example:

Bathroom. Stale sun cream. Essential if fresh sun cream vanishes.

Sitting room. Small horses and scary puppets made by Gran. I had to beg her for those when she was alive. And I might take up puppetry. Art from ancestors, probably worth a fortune, despite what my cousin said.

Hall. Chest with ancestor’s tea set and silver plate candlesticks. Great for funerals when you need to impress distant relatives. Fleece lined dog basket for the cat, presuming she stops rejecting it because it ‘had a bloody dog in it once’.

Kitchen. Four graters. You never know when three of them might go missing.

Bedroom. Free hotel slippers. Christmas slippers that don’t fit. Knitted slipper socks. There is always a danger of getting 8 cold feet at once. Feathered hat that once made me best dressed person at a wedding. I may decide to be that person again one day. Broken printer and camera that only ‘need looking at’.

Miscellaneous. Picnic set. Why just take a sandwich when you can bring a range of plates, cutlery and plastic wine glasses in a heavy zip up bag? Assorted frames to suit pictures of certain sizes. Perfect for a rainy day when pictures need sorting.

And so it goes on. Meanwhile beyond the house or garden social media says people are camping, cycling the Danube, flying to Croatia or whatever I am not. Overcome by a fit of jealousy and fear of ‘never leaving the garden’ we un-sorn the van, fill it with stuff and head for hills.

East Prawle, oh beautiful hill beside the sea, where the fresh air rolls in on cool front and settles into thick fog. Where a happy day can be spent building a shelter to ward off the fog and where people turn up in extraordinary vans.

The sun temporarily revealed this view. I whacked it up on social media, happy that I had given a false impression of everything for no reason.

The perfect camp at East Prawle

Now everybody is having to cancel their holidays because of second waves all over Europe and everybody is quarantining everybody else, so it was lucky we at least got our days in the fog.

Back in the garden. The chickens are gathering under the apple tree and fighting over windfalls. This is pretty stupid of them because there are more apples than chickens.

4 thoughts on “Sweet Peas, Nasturtiums and the art of Feng Shui”

  1. Loved it.
    “Stale sun cream. Essential if fresh sun cream vanishes” –> I DIED. This captures exactly why, in my current moving process, I am for THE SECOND TIME moving boxes that have not been un-packed from previos moves.

    “Hall. Chest with ancestor’s tea set and silver plate candlesticks. Great for funerals when you need to impress distant relatives. “Although I was mildly impressed, I don’t consider myself a distant relative.

    xxxx

  2. I was thinking of getting chickens too. However, my sister who is a expert on fowl, says “Nooo chickens are really stupid” . Apparently ducks are the future…..lay bigger eggs, are more intelligent, don’t get stuck in trees and are more entertaining.

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