A Word In Your Ear - February 8, 2018

Before you warn I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s remember we’re in the last month of winter. What’s more, at Edmonds Towers the snowdrops are emerging bringing a promise of new life and sunnier days.

To an untrained eye the Towers’ back garden might look bare at present. This is because of local hero Joe, our gardener. He really was a hero once, before retiring as a fireman. Now he crops our great hedge once a year and, just recently, restored our flower bed which had been over-run by ivy.

With the right equipment and at a bargain price, he cleared in two hours what would have taken me two days. Mind you, the bacon and egg barm cake we gave him helped too.

The robin, my favourite of many birds nesting in our ivy hedge, was first out to investigate the freshly revealed soil bed. Now there are signs of my forgotten clump of daffodils sprouting up too, inspiring me to horticultural endeavours.

Despite being named so grandly, the ‘Towers’ is really a humble artisan’s cottage – though of historic age and cosy character. What I thought wise, following Joe’s tidy-up, was to replant flowering bushes which have outgrown their patio pots. However, what I’d really like would be a cottage garden.

“Easy,” the confident Joe told me, “just scatter seeds around then put on some top soil.”

Watching the robin hopping about, before being chased away by a touchy female blackbird, I decided on a compromise: replant those bushes, then scatter seeds around them, so we get the best show from both.

Mind you, it is of course still winter - with snowfalls and frost threatening. I’ll just have to have another mug of tea and bacon barm . . . while thinking about sunnier days coming.

• For Roy’s books visit www.royedmonds-blackpool.com.