Busy

Mysteriously, the whitebeam I have been keeping an eye on lately, is being strangled by ivy. I have been thinking of doing something about it, but held back, at least in part, by not wanting to busy myself with someone else's affairs. Maybe the tree man from the council was into providing good habitat for various obscure insects?

Be that as it may, the other day I got around to it, cracking out my trolley to wheel around the modest gardening gear needed, principally the long handle Wilkinson pruner. The people who used to make swords.

Screwfix side at the top, the other side above.

Half an hour later. The thickest stems of ivy were maybe a centimetre thick. Good job I took a big screwdriver to lift them off the trunk for snipping. Rubbish removed to our own compost heap. We shall see how long it takes the rest of the ivy to realise that it has lost its mains water supply.

I dare say it will grow back, as there seems to be plenty of it in the grass round about. But that will be easy enough to deal with in due course, should need arise.

Most of the small number of passers-by looked the other way, but a couple of ladies commented positively, suggesting that I might like to come and attend to their gardens later.

On the way home. Not green alkanet, but is it borage, plain and simple? Google Images says rough or prickly comfrey, Symphytum asperum, as at reference 2. Not completely convinced but, judging by reference 3, it looks as if I got into much the same muddle about this time last year.

Back home, prior to hose action. Our micro ponds were very low for this time of year and were badly infested with duckweed. The first matter has been attended to and I have pulled out quite a lot of duckweed and dead leaves. All of which earned us a visit by the fox that very same evening.

A garden action day.

PS 1: slightly alarmed this afternoon to discover that I have lost two or three inches in height over the past few years. It seems that this is reasonably normal for someone of my age, but I can't say that I am best pleased to have found this out!

[The developers of Neom in Saudi Arabia call it the world’s biggest construction site © Neom]

PS 2: and I was reminded of the Neom mega-project in Saudi Arabia by the piece at reference 4, described more fully at references 5 and 6. Something vaguely indecent to my mind about this project. Is the huge amount of money being sucked into it a decent use of resources in a troubled world - particularly the Saudi part of the world? It includes snow and skiing in the mountains - with this being one of the hottest places on the globe at sea level, not to mention the near absence of fresh water - and a linear city measuring some 170km long, 500m high and 200m wide. To be home to some 9m people. With some 20,000 aboriginals being evicted to make the necessary room. Including many Howeitat, a tribe which has an honourable place in 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom'.

PS 3: the highest mountain in Saudi Arabia is at the other end, towards the southern end of the western coast. Called Jabal Soudah, getting on for 10,000 feet high and still pretty warm in the summer, according to reference 7. Big tourist destination. Very roughly speaking, the high ground in Saudi Arabia is to the west, with the peninsular sloping down from the west to the much flatter and low lying east. Mostly very sparsely populated until recently.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/04/trolley-814.html.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphytum_asperum.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/more-comfrey.html.

Reference 4: Neom’s acting chief reviews Saudi mega-project after setbacks: Aiman al-Mudaifer was appointed last year following increasing scrutiny of futuristic plan - Andrew England, Ahmed Al Omran, Financial Times - 2025.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neom.

Reference 6: https://www.neom.com/en-us.

Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabal_Soudah.