Yellow springtime flowers

The sky is blue, the air is warm, and our garden is getting some colour again! Texas doesn't boast the same array of early spring flowers as the UK, but I planted some daffodils in the autumn, and they duly sprouted and produced yellow trumpets to herald the spring. This bed also includes a clump of four-nerve daisies which has done particularly well.

On the fence in our back yard, the unidentified creepers (anyone got any ideas?) nearly froze to death in the Big Snow last year. I had to chop them back severely, but it did them good. This year they are a mass of yellow flowers. The bees and butterflies are having a field day out there.

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Erewash Valley Trail: Ilkeston

You could spend a lot of time following old canals and railways in the Erewash Valley. This walk included parts of the Erewash Canal, the Nottingham Canal, the Nutbrook Canal, and the Stanton branch line, and I could have continued further along any one of those, if I'd had the time. I started in Kirk Hallam, which is mostly a post-war housing estate with a distinctive outline on the map: the main road to Ilkeston through the middle, and a loop road encircling the village. It looks like the London Underground logo. I parked at the lake at the top of the loop. There was a sculpture commemorating the nearby Stanton Ironworks - the ground remembers the roar of the blast read the inscription around the base - and the remains of a lock on the Nutbrook Canal. Heading towards Ilkeston, I crossed a former golf course, now a nature reserve called Pewit Coronation Meadows, passed a large sports centre, and was soon in the town centre. There was a general impression of red-brickiness, with l...

Ten books that shaped my life

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Martha's Marvellous Munchies

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