Urban Gardens

My brother emailed me a few weeks back. Quite an extraordinary event, actually. We don't speak that often - not because we dislike each other but because we actually have very little in common. I realized this back in March when I was visiting my parents in the Czech Republic and decided to call him on his mobile at 8.30pm to discuss arragements for me to come up to Olomouc to see him and his wife for a couple of days. He was asleep. At eight freaking thirty pee em! He was angry and hung up without talking to me. I asked Mother if this was normal. She paused and said, "Oh yeaaaaah .... he goes to bed really early."

And now his email started with this ...

"I have just finished installing a UV lamp in my pond to kill microbes."

Alright, never mind the UV lamp. I don't know what you're talking about, I don't have a pond and I probably never will because I don't have a garden because I rent because I live in London because I am not settled down like you because ... because!!!

But there is hope. I found it. Maybe, just maybe, one day, I will have an urban garden like this one I found somewhere near Shepherd's Bush / Holland Park. And I will put a bucket outside, fill it with dirty water and call it Lucie's Pond. Maybe I'll call my brother to ask for UV lamp tips; I'll just have to make sure it's before 8.30pm. And then, we will have something in common again.