I’m told that beards are trendy this year and just as stopped clocks tell the right time twice a day, I’ve suddenly become dead trendy without realising it. Well I’ve mostly had a beard so I’m pleased all those stylish guys have caught up with me at last.

In fact some beards have gone decidedly avant-garde – a good thing in my opinion because men do have a tendency to be rather conservative in their appearance and, since the British General Election victory for the Conservative Party, I’m decidedly off the idea of conservative values.

Familiar old faces have sprouted hairs too. George Clooney carries it off well just as he makes grey hair the new black.

As for David Beckham, bless him, he’d adapt the latest trend even if someone told him paper bags placed over the head were the hottest thing on the street. He looks OK in his beard though but presumably it will be shaved off in a couple of minutes so, if you like it, enjoy it will you can.

Why all this stuff about beards, you may wonder. It’s not because I’ve been letting mine grow a bit longer, honestly but, while we’re here, this is it.

No, it’s not about my beard or George’s or David’s, the reason for my beard enthusiasm is this:

Yes, my Bearded Irises are in bloom and, be honest, wouldn’t you rather look at these instead of a lot of hairy guys? My Irises looked great today, in the sunshine and after the rain.

Now that the daffodils and tulips have gone and just before the roses come out, Bearded Irises fill the gap here in my Lewes, UK, garden. So here’s looking at you, Iris. We need a bit of cheering up here in Lewes after you know what. (Don’t mention the Election).

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Easter Monday is blue jeans Monday for me. Time to stand a look in my small urban garden in Lewes, UK. What better than my crop of blue irises, variety: Blue Denim.

My Blue Denim irises have just the right street-cred for an urban garden and standing there I keep thinking of Lana Del Ray’s song Blue Jeans. Here it is – enjoy your Monday too.

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 I’m going to be appearing with three of my fellow Ward Wood writers in Greenwich,  London on 30th April.  Come along if you can – it would be good to see you.

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STEPHEN DEARSLEY’S SUMMER OF LOVE BY COLIN BELL

My novel, Stephen Dearsley’s Summer Of Love, was published  on 31 October 2013. It is the story of a young fogey living in Brighton in 1967 who has a lot to learn when the flowering hippie counter culture changes him and the world around him.

It is now available as a paperback or on Kindle (go to your region’s Amazon site for Kindle orders)

You can order the book from the publishers, Ward Wood Publishing:

http://wardwoodpublishing.co.uk/titles-fiction-colin-bell-stephen-dearsleys-summer-of-love.htm 

…or from Book Depository:

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Stephen-Dearsleys-Summer-Love-Colin-Bell/9781908742070

…or from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Stephen%20Dearsley’s%20Summer%20Of%20love

The post Blue jeans in urban gardens appeared first on Wolfie Wolfgang.

Sorry to bore you all but I couldn’t resist posting some more photographs from my Spring garden. the sun is shining and the plants are responding accordingly. Taking it easy, as I’m told to do by the doctor, is a lot more pleasant and days like today. I’m sorry that I’m not clever enough to let you smell the cherry blossom – its the aroma of new life. Enjoy imagining it.

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STEPHEN DEARSLEY’S SUMMER OF LOVE BY COLIN BELL

My novel, Stephen Dearsley’s Summer Of Love, was published  on 31 October 2013. It is the story of a young fogey living in Brighton in 1967 who has a lot to learn when the flowering hippie counter culture changes him and the world around him.

It is now available as a paperback or on Kindle (go to your region’s Amazon site for Kindle orders)

You can order the book from the publishers, Ward Wood Publishing:

http://wardwoodpublishing.co.uk/titles-fiction-colin-bell-stephen-dearsleys-summer-of-love.htm 

…or from Book Depository:

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Stephen-Dearsleys-Summer-Love-Colin-Bell/9781908742070

…or from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Stephen%20Dearsley’s%20Summer%20Of%20love

The post Taking it easy is, well, easy, on a day like today here in my Lewes garden. appeared first on Wolfie Wolfgang.

When I was a child, my parents took me and my two brothers on holiday to the Lake District in the North of England where we lived an exciting few weeks experiencing camping life in a touring caravan. It was there that we three brothers had to choose our favourite colour. We were in one of those outdoor shops that exist to equip peripatetic holiday-makers and, we were, thrillingly, choosing plastic mugs and plates in the days when plastic was a modernist joy. We had to make a life-changing decision. What was our favourite colour? My brothers chose green and yellow – I chose blue. I’m sure none of us had really thought about favourite colours before and maybe not even then but there we were stuck with “our” colour for the rest of childhood. Our possessions and clothes from then on were defined by these colours. Nowadays, I really don’t think I have a favourite colour but blue is the colour of the moment in my Lewes garden with the blooming of my bed of Iris pumila. The variety is called Blue Denim and they are, I like to think, very cool.

Maybe, all those years ago in the Lake District, I made the right choice. After-all denim blue became the defining look for an entire generation and for every new generation since then.

Maybe, without realizing it, that small boy in his light blue cotton shirt, navy shorts sandals, wanted to be an American country singer when he grew up. If that was denied me, then at least I still wear blue denim and the spirit of the ’60s lives on in my Lewes flowerbed.

Country singer Jake Owen seems to have fun on the lakeside too in his, er, classically uncool or, is that naff song Barefoot Blue Jean Night which, believe it or not, went to No. 1 in the 2011 American Country Music Charts. Lakeside holidays were a lot more sedate in my childhood but the iced lollies were good.

The post Looking cool in Iris blue denim. appeared first on Wolfie Wolfgang.

Sunday morning here in Lewes was sunny and warm until a breeze arrived mid afternoon with some milky clouds. It was the perfect day to admire the cherry blossom which has been especially beautiful this Spring but will peak in perfection this week just as it has been joined by my “Denim” Irises and its neighbourly Bramley Apple blossom. They were all set off perfectly by the pure blue sky.

My small walled garden is looking particularly orderly at the moment but it is also bursting with energy now that last week’s rain has brought a rush of new foliage whilst failing to disturb the blossom or my magnolia which has finally settled down in its giant pot after reacting bad-temperedly to being replanted last year.

The bright red ranunculus plants, the first time I’ve grown them, are looking very much at home blending their confident colour nicely with the blues and pinks that surround them. They go especially well with my neighbour’s washing too – I’m pleased they weren’t hanging out anything orange coloured this Sunday.

Blossom, flowers and new leaves made my small garden a mini-oasis yesterday allowing me to enjoy the Spring with enough promise of Summer too to fill me with optimism for the future.

The cherry blossom has been particularly popular with the bees who fly away quite intoxicated after their sojourn in those delicate pink blooms. When the blossom has long faded, I’m hoping to keep the bees interested with two new lavender plants that will sit in urns by the roses all Summer.

This though is the time for delicate, short lived pleasures so I’m enjoying my irises and tulips in their brief moment centre stage.

The primrose flowers that have been radiant bunches of yellow at the shadowy recesses  have nearly all gone now but their new foliage is illuminating darkness with vivid green and will remain like that right through the Summer and justifying it place in the shadiest corners of my small space-challenged garden. They are like our own native aspidistras sitting their in their urns like lights in the darkness.

My climbing roses are also adding their leafy energy to this space contrasting well with the grey of my old flint walls and reminding me that, come Summer, the garden will be full of colour and rosy perfume.

I have just noticed the first crop of rose buds taunting me with anticipation.

Another set of Summer’s prophets are thrusting their way upwards out of the grow-bag that has been sitting out by the dustbin since I decided that the frost isn’t going to return round here. These little plants are heliotropes getting ready for planting around my small apple tree when the bulbs have all died down.  They, like my roses, are not just beautiful to look at but they will fill this part of the garden with the heady vanilla perfume.

Another seasonal sign has been the increasing number of snail shells lying crushed on my Yorkshire flagstones this week. I have a new friend in the garden, who leaves up to eight snail shells out there each morning. It is the handiwork of a song thrush who uses the stones to break open the shells for a deliciously soggy breakfast of snail, the principal pest in my garden. Now though I just have to sweep up the shells – a pleasant form of washing-up that I’m happy to undertake.

Whilst I’m gardening I’m also entertained by the song thrush’ s glorious singing voice – nothing in these parts sounds more like Summer. Here is a recording so that you can share my daily pleasure – it also includes the cooing of a wood pigeon another cheery Summer sound in my Lewes garden.

The post A sunny Springtime gap in the rain here in Lewes lets me enjoy the Spring flowers. appeared first on Wolfie Wolfgang.