Monday 27 July 2015

27 July : Jim

This is my local nursery.


It doesn't look much from the road
but inside the plants jostle for space


and the colours shimmer under the glass.


They are celebrating the 70th anniversary this year,


the kind, friendly people who welcome me every summer.


I am invited to a party with a five piece band
(and the mayor will be there too!)


It is a family business
started as a way of escaping from factory work.


I took these photographs to make a gift album
because I have enjoyed every moment
I have spent in these tranquil greenhouses.


For the first time I realised
how much more confident my photography has become.


This time last year
I would not have asked for this photograph.



Original post : An Anniversary Album 9 May 2008

Forgive me for reposting but I wanted a record of my local nursery and Jim, the owner, in this blog because I am so fond of him. The nursery is part of an old fashioned world of allotments and produce shows, hanging baskets and bedding plants and it won't be there forever.

7 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. There is an ironmongers in Cornwall called Bickles which was old fashioned when I first visited thirty years ago, a living museum. It is closing down soon and the boxes of nails, shelves of pie dishes and racks of vegetable seeds will be gone forever. I am afraid that one day Jim's nursery will close and the land become housing so I am glad to have a record of it.

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    2. O, Alice, this so reminds me of a poem by JC Bloem, famous dutch poet, called Memory. Famous last line is Voorbij, voorbij, o en voorgoed voorbij (Gone, gone, o and forever gone). I've searched the net for an english translation but alas. I certainly couldn't do it justice if I tried. I did find a couple of translations here http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_low001200201_01/_low001200201_01_0030.php of which Dapperstreet captures the original beautifully. Different theme than Memory though. But anyway. The weather here calls for melancholy poetry.
      Andrea

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  2. Replies
    1. Thank you. Jim is a gentle soul and it is always a pleasure to visit the nursery and see the benches full of colour.

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  3. How lovely - places like this are a delight. Fingers crossed it'll keep going for many more years.

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  4. It will be a very sad day if it ever does close.

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