Outside my front door, there are two plants, Lavender and Angela.

I don’t know what type Angela is, that’s her business.

When I first moved in, we had a very hot summer and Angela died. She was nothing but shrivelled brown leaves on brittle twigs. I cleaned up the mess until there was only one stick left. It looked rather forlorn, so I sprayed it with silver paint as a sort of “feature”.

Next spring, I saw that there were a few little leaves poking up from the root. I was glad I hadn’t ripped it out.

She thrived. She grew. She threw sprigs and shoots in all directions. And she hasn’t stopped since.

She has the most beautiful blue spike flowers and her perfume is sultry and heady.

Lavender, she’s a hardy type, nothing phases her. She just keeps growing and chucking up flowers all over.

I haven’t pruned either of them, it seems rude somehow, and now they almost meet in the middle so that I have to thread my way between them.

I have to do this carefully, because, at night, if there is any moisture, the snails come out and do wheelies and donuts up and down the paving stones. There are two types of snail. A big fella called Brian who has a shell like a polished horse chestnut, and a smaller group with pale cream shells. Obviously, these are all called Primrose.

I pointed out to Brian that it was dangerous to roar around late at night performing tricks without lights or even a helmet.

He said, “don’t need a helmet, just pull my shell down over my eyes”

“But, you can’t see where you’re going.”

“oh, I wandered why I kept bumping into stuff”

During the daytime, there are bumble bees. Lots of ‘em. And they are very persistent about getting on with their work. I have been almost shoved to one side by a large bee, mumbling, “Useless men, get out of my way.” I have to stand and wait until they move on to the next flower. And then I have to creep past without disturbing them.

Well, they’ve been here a lot longer than we have. They haven’t screwed up the planet, and they’ll be here after we’ve gone. So a little courtesy is in order.

In a while, I will need to have a discussion with Angela. She keeps putting out new twigs with little, delicate leaves. I think that as the older ones get larger and coarser, she is expecting them to be browsed off by something, so that the younger, fresher foliage can take over. It is probably more efficient. So we need to agree just how much of the old stuff I can take away.

Her flowers have finished now, just leaving the seed spikes. It will soon be time to discuss her haircut.

I’m told I’m supposed to trim Lavender, but she doesn’t seem to think so. She just keeps growing, so I think we’ll keep it that way.