From time to time I like to ruin one of the Nation’s favourite poems, as voted some years ago in a BBC poll. This time I have been musing on the hottest ever February, in doing so, have taken an axe to Rudyard Kipling’s fabulous The Glory of the Garden (here, if you don’t know it).
*the images are from my garden over the last few, rather extraordinary days…
Our England is a garden that is full of stately views,
Though you’d really have to wonder if you listened to the news.
The anchors turn you icy with all their talk of wars
While sneery politicians debate like old pub bores.
*
But while they focus their trite ire on running down the clock
The world that matters to us all is preparing its own shock.
It’s fed up with the disregard with which we’ve treated it
And soon enough will prove to us we’ve not defeated it.
*
With little thought for others we have wasted nature’s gift
And made a virtue out of spending when sense demanded thrift
Consumption of resources has become our default state
And while we try and change our habits it may be far too late.
*
The icecaps are receding as the desert centre grows
And winter months seem like June with little chance of snow.
And all the time that the chatterati’s attention is elsewhere
Our hopes of changing course are as doomed as the polar bear.
*
So enjoy those simple pleasures in England’s pleasant garden
Before nature’s patience ends and her heart begins to harden.
For it’s not beyond imagining that soon will come the day
When the Glory of England’s Garden shall finally pass away.
TanGental 
In all seriousness Geoff a truth hidden in jest which is very close to my heart.
Great job 💜
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I do worry. Short term nonsense like Brexit annoys but long term things like climate does concern me
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Yes it really worries me too🤭
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Glorious blooms and chilling verse
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The colour has been good. Yours is looking fine too. And I’m not usually gloomy but the climate stuff does concern me.
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I think you just nailed our common situation. The pansy photo in particular is quite stunning – beauty disguises the harsh truth.
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Yes the colour has been good after our warm spell which might suit us but not necessarily others sadly… I hear the Aussies have been breaking temperature records. How about you guys?
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Yes, here too. Hottest Feb on record for the month that is generally the hottest…. oddly interspersed with a couple or so very cold days
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Lovely photos! And I don’t think you ruined this one at all, but rather made good use of the source material. I imagine even Kipling might approve, as he wasn’t above making pointed observations of his own in verse from time to time.
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Thank you Jennifer and, yes the old boy could pen a very effective dig. ‘ and Tommy this and Tommy that and Tommy get your gun…’
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Loved that, Geoff. I hold onto the resilience of some plants to adapt to adverse conditions.
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I think you’re right, they’re more likely to survive than us
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Wonderful take which hits the nail in the head 🤔
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Thanks. I hope my piece of gloom isn’t prescient
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🙏🏼
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Kipling would give you a solid hurrah! And the flowers are so beautiful.
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That would be @ nice thought…
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We are so easily distracted by the little temper tantrums of our leaders and meanwhile vast changes are taking place around us. Your verse is true.
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I wish not but, hey ho, it does seem so.
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That first blossom! Fabulous flower photographs, and I would say some of your best ones so far! I won’t contribute to the chatter on politics. The extreme weather is more of an “issue” for many of us island dwellers and the world as a whole.
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Yes, I think that’s true for so many. Wonder where the sea levels will be in a decade? The blossom is looking good so far… fingers remain crossed 🤞
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Will be great for those who wished for sea views and didn’t bank on having them 🙂 There will always be someone who receives a positive bonus and those a negative regarding our extreme weather. More of a serious situation for those in the Pacific Islands, where many will have to totally change their way of life and move off their island. Fingers crossed for more blooms and less extreme weather.
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Yep, v true. Having your whole island inundated is beyond appalling to contemplate
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A good bit of doggerel to make a very serious point, Geoff.
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Thanks Mick. Glad it worked as intended
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It did!
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Agreed – lovely photos and good point well made.
The roots of the problem are quite tangled, though, as the consumer boom and technical advances, plus population booms, after WWII seemed like the proverbial ‘good times’ (remember the white heat of technology and all that?) and seemed to be only desirable. You can’t blame people for wanting to be part of it – globally as well. It’s difficult to stop the bandwagon once it starts rolling. History shows that people mostly miss the tipping point when things could have turned out differently. We’ll survive and adapt, I’m sure, and hope that things don’t go too badly wrong before people ‘in charge’ take it seriously.
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I expect a disruptive technological advance or ten will sort out some of the issues and our grandkids will be worrying about too few people
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