Blossom time....

Am I imagining it, or is there much more blossom around at the moment than is usual? I spotted these lovely flowers - and many more - within a minute of our front garden. Magic!

Make Way for the Ducklings!

This is a quacking good time to visit the London Wetland Centre in Barnes.
The first baby birds have emerged and are providing endless entertainment. This coot was patiently paddling back and forth across the water with titbits for her newly hatched brood, while trying to keep them away from some rather aggressive Canada geese.

Not far from the Vistor Centre, a mallard was watching over her ducklings after their marathon swim across the pond. The chicks are much darker than is usual. "Who's the daddy?" one volunteer was wondering.

These black-necked swans have nested right by the path. While the female waits patiently for the eggs to hatch, her mate keeps visitors at bay. But the cygnets' early days may be hazardous - the male has apparently killed earlier offspring.

The London Wetlands Centre is at Queen Elizabeth’s Walk, Barnes, London SW13 9WT

For opening times and admission prices ph 020 8409 4400 or go to http://www.wwt.org.uk/visit-us/london

Keep on rolling....

Green points for the luggage company, Samsonite.

Did you know that if you lose a wheel or a handle from one of their suitcases, you needn't chuck it away? They say if you phone the company, they'll put a replacement part in the post for you, free of charge. And it doesn't have to be a current model - they keep spares for most of their earlier ranges, including the Oyster, which sold 40 million over 20-odd years. Apparently fixing a new wheel is quite easy, but if you're stuck, repairs can be done through a dealer.

Samsonite is currently celebrating its 100th anniversary - the first model was more like a trunk and, even when empty, weighed 10.2 kilos. The latest carry-on case is just 2.2 kilos. Such lightness may tempt me to finally upgrade my trusty 1990s model (above).

Spring at last

After such a long, hard winter, it's wonderful to see tiny shoots on branches which seemed to be dead, and the first bumblebee hovering over emerging blossom. In this blog, I hope to look at green and garden-related events and initiatives - both in the UK and abroad - with occasional snippets from fellow plant enthusiasts.

So first, here's news of an exhibition which proves the gardening boom didn't start with Ground Force. The Geffrye Museum in East London is staging "A Garden Within Doors", looking at the appeal and history of houseplants over the past 400 years. The museum's period rooms are decorated with flower arrangements in keeping with that time, while the main show area, downstairs, concentrates on the huge growth of interest in domestic gardening during the 19th century. There you'll find the gardening manuals a green-fingered Victorian housewife might have consulted, displays about trend-setting inventors, writers and publishers and details of the plantsmen, nurseries, and florists to whom she would have gone for seeds, plants and equipment. And of course there are flowers - scores of them - ranging from a typical conservatory display (above) to an eighteenth century ‘auricula theatre’ and a 'pelargonium pyramid' based on a drawing in The Amateur’s Flower Garden (1878). Inspirational.

'A Garden Within Doors' is free at the Geffrye Museum, 136 Kingsland Road, E2 8EA Ph 020 7739 9893, from now until Sunday 25 July. It will be open Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm, and on Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays from 12 noon until 5pm.