Night-scented Flowers

  Last year, he planted two lines of Nicotania along the short path from his back door to the walled end of his garden. He works hard, and it is a small, but intense pleasure to greet them each evening. All those daylight hours he has spent in the computer-glare of his office, they have [...]

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Seeds

She opened the wardrobe exactly six weeks after he’d disappeared. Choked by the lines of jackets and neatly folded trousers, she slammed it shut again; waited another month – still hoping – before she tried again. This time she managed to keep her breath steady, and her eyes clear. She sat with her spine curved [...]

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My secret garden in the roof tops

Grass-less sky-scraped secret   we listen to the trees river-dance on wood   plant a colour palette – Viburnum, Geranium Busy Lizzy, Stock   hide from everyone but the birds   the city almost too far away to notice   my garden in the roof tops.   Inspired by Rebecca’s response in the Get Involved [...]

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… there is always the garden

He was a quiet man, had been a quiet boy too. It wasn’t that he had nothing to say, nor that he was uninterested in the world; it was just that he liked to leave space around things. He liked to take his time. He liked, more than anything, to observe. He didn’t judge people [...]

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Lemon verbena

K planted lemon verbena because it reminded her of her mother. There had been times, recently, when she found she couldn’t bring her mother’s face, or the tone of her voice to mind. They span her into a panic, these blank moments, sent her running for the line of photo albums in the room they [...]

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Sudden, treacherous gifts

It was over, they’d agreed that; had spent a long night unpicking and retying threads, getting everything in order. She’d woken the next morning, her head heavy with the wine they’d been saving for a special occasion, her heart bruised. But at least it was clear, she told her friends – herself – at least [...]

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The porcelain horse

She inherited the vase from her mother – a porcelain horse with a melancholy face, its flanks patterned with pink flowers, a small circular hole in the centre of its spine. She remembers the first time she cut flowers from the garden and arranged them, Ikebana style, in this vase, which used to stand empty [...]

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Ballooning, Balancing, Balconies and Birds

New stories inspired by the history and environment of Cremorne Gardens, in situ from today until the story walk event on 27th July. Read and/or download the full texts, find details of the event, and add your own answers to the four related questions  in the Cremorne Gardens section of the blog.

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Triangle

In the winter, it was nothing much to look at – a scrubby triangle of grass studded with cans and crisp packets. But on a day like today, with the sun glinting off the broken garage windows at the back, and the tree thick with leaves and the tiny, spiked beginnings of conkers – on [...]

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The Devil’s Darning Needles

My grandmothers disagree about dragonflies. Grandma – on my dad’s side – says that dragonflies are the work of the devil. She tells me that if they fly above my head they are trying to weigh my soul, and if I fall asleep by a river, they’ll sew my eyes shut. They follow snakes and [...]

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