A simple flower so small and plain

Wood Anemone
(source: Wikimedia Commons)

Walking in the woods below Carwinion (just down the coast from Trebah) a few days ago I came across banks of wood anemones. Their white, star-bell flowers put me in mind of a song by Gillian Welch about another early spring flower, Acony Bell.

Marvellous shades of green

This blog takes its name from one of the greatest of all garden poems - Andrew Marvell's The Garden.

Marvell lived through one of the most turbulent periods of English history - the Civil War and its aftermath. He spent some of this time at Nun Appleton House in Yorkshire as a tutor to the daughter of Thomas Fairfax, commander of the Parliamentarian forces.