funeral for a tree.

we once had a low hanging fruity apple tree in our back garden, where upon a set of musical wind chimes rang happily in the breeze,but one day last year we woke to find it lying dead on the ground…to clear up the bomb blast, it had to be chopped up into logs where it remained far too neat and behaved for the afterlife. the conformity of those stacked logs gave me a strong desire to free the very soul of all that lovely wood. i had a vision of it rising like a phoenix from it’s own ashes as a moss and lavender garden.

yesterday when we woke, i pleaded with thomas that we make this vision real by sundown,so we missioned off to one of those garden centre places.i don’t like garden centres. they’re a gateway to the world of beige, and i can slide into a dark mood in that kind of environment,but on this day i was on a keen pursuit of tres naturelle plants..lavender..heather…moss. my heart usually belongs to the sluttier flowers… i’m prone to common things like big brightly coloured daisies,or petunias, as they are without a doubt the purple velvet whores of the flower kingdom.my favourite flower of all is the dandelion. i love everything it stands for..it is wild and looked down upon by tight arsed folk who would sooner consider it a weed,even if it is not…it is scruffy, yellow and free. we’ll be wiped out long before it will .

i am so pleased with our newborn mossy lavender garden, that i fancy when i die, some of my ashes be scattered over it…the rest to be scattered up in the high desert in california near pioneertown … maybe scatter a few spoonfuls down the durty drains of soho in london, then a final cloud of my bone dust for northern ireland,to be blown in the fresh clean air over portrush beach near where the arcadia ballroom used to be.

i’m happy to report our mission was fulfilled just as the day got dark. we argued and laughed..i kept throwing hissy fits,but under it all we were having a groovy day,while billy fields looked on bemused and amused as much as we were…the same oscar peterson long playing gramophone record repeatedly spilled out of the open living room window…i got up this morning and went directly outdoors starkers to have a look and take a picture.there is grass seed planted too, which should green things up in a few weeks…dear reader…do you like it?…isn’t it very tasteful and understated?….not like me at all.

i feel a bit uncomfortable that i’m sitting here writing about bloody gardening,and will counteract this in my next post with a story about me getting caught with my personal supply of cannabis at the airport.

here’s a new song just to remind you why i winged my way down onto this beautiful yet dangerous planet 55 years ago… heavens willing, more songs to follow.

all my loving…mary mary..extremely contrary.