Pressing The Case For Local Plant Life

Today was very wet yet again. Ironically it felt like my blip imagination was running dry until I saw the front of an old freezer drawer (no idea why we've kept it!) and combined it with some very localised flora, anything less than 5 yards from my back door, so I didn't get soaked taking this image. I like the effect pressing them against the surface of the drawer made.

Time for another telly recommendation - "The People's Piazza: A History of Covent Garden" (you can find it on the BBC iPlayer).
It was a fantastic programme about the iconic London square narrated and presented by the historian David Olusoga - whose opening statement was "It is one of those places where it feels like history is close to the surface...if we are open to the idea, it is almost possible to sense the presence of earlier generations".
It may now be a chi-chi home to the Apple store, a Chanel beauty boutique and even an outlet for a make-up brand founded by a social media influencer but the piazza is still recognisable as the square commissioned by the Earl of Bedord in the 1680's and its church (St Paul's) is still standing. 
It took you through its early days as home to London's wealthiest residents, before the arrival of the coffee houses (including the notorious Tom King's coffee house) in the the 1700's and the development of theatreland turning it into a place of revelry in Hogarth's time.
It would eventually clean itself up but that spirit never left - from its long history as a fruit, vegetable and flower market and on to the 1960's when it even had it's own nightclub called Middle Earth and it remained a working class community until the market closed and was moved to a new site in 1974.
The local council then unbelievably came up with a plan to demolish many of the buildings in the square until a campaign led by a local resident and architect, Jim Monahan, succeeded in saving it.
Despite his achievement the programme ended on a rather wistful note as he lamented that activists were ultimately unable to prevent the growth of what he called the "candy floss economy' that has taken over the square - with government policies of the 80's and 90's arbitrarily considering commercial success (especially as a destination for tourism and high-end shopping) and land value as their highest priority rather than as an asset for local communities.