In the old days

A dull start to the day so I finished my report for the fern meeting, dug out a few pictures and sent it off. I hope I don't get a reply saying 'Please reduce by half and send some more exciting pictures'!

Having some time left before lunch I continued titling my old slides from my trip to Nepal in 1990. My brother-in-law is going to Nepal later in the year, trekking to Kangchenjunga Base Camp as I did all those years ago, and I wanted to remind myself of where we'd been. I assumed that I'd written a journal at the time but couldn't find it, then the other day Mrs M found it in a box - two notebooks - which someday soon I'll need to transcribe. I'd numbered all the slides at the time, but wanted  to make a list of titles to keep on the computer. I took eighteen slide films and so far have gone through ten - it brings it all back! Here are a couple that I must have scanned some time ago.

Spent the afternoon in the garden and planted three ferns. That may not sound much, but the first two, Dryopteris sieboldii, which I grew from spores ages ago, I wanted by the base of the tree fern, but there wasn't enough depth of soil to dig a hole, as I should have remembered as when planting the tree fern. So I had to break up the rootballs, lay them on the surface and take up several buckets of leaf mould to cover them with. The third fern, Phymatosorus diversifolius, which my friend Tim brought me when he came to stay last weekend, I wanted to climb on a rockface, so had to break up enough rock to make a platform to sit the fern on, surrounding it with soil. I may have to tie in in place until it roots in. This is why it's more time than simply planting on the flat!