#SixOnSaturday – Six things happening in my garden this week

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Six on Saturday is a weekly meme originally hosted by The Propagator but now in the tender care of Jim at Garden Ruminations.

What a difference a couple of days of sunshine makes, both to the garden and the gardener. My husband and I even had our mid-morning coffee break outside on Wednesday. Also the first sighting of a queen bumblebee looking for somewhere to establish a nest.

One – A clump of crocuses opening their faces to the sunshine

Two – Your weekly dose of pulmonaria, this time with flowers that are a lovely shade of blue/purple.

Three – More blue with a small clump of anenome blanda.

Four – Lovely yellow primrose but bearing the telltale signs the slimy ones are about.

Five – An area beneath a young field maple planted in very random fashion with miniature daffodils and crocus, some cyclamen, the odd primrose and tulips, plus a lot of self-seeded forget-me-nots. I also scattered some cornflower seeds back in the autumn but no sign of them yet.

Six – Shocking pink hyacinth that came as three bulbs crammed together in a pot. I shall try to replant them further apart once they’ve finished flowering with a bit more company.

Do check out the posts of other participants by following the links in the comments section of Jim’s post. If you fancy taking part yourself but don’t know where to start, here’s the participant’s guide.

Book Review – Tin Man by Sarah Winman

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About the Book

It begins with a painting won in a raffle: fifteen sunflowers, hung on the wall by a woman who believes that men and boys are capable of beautiful things.

And then there are two boys, Ellis and Michael,
who are inseparable.
And the boys become men,
and then Annie walks into their lives,
and it changes nothing and everything.

Format: ebook (214 pages) Publisher: Tinder Press
Publication date: 27th July 2017 Genre: Fiction

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My Review

Tin Man is described by the publishers as ‘a love letter to human kindness and friendship, loss and living’ and I think that’s an apt summary of this gentle, very moving novel.

The book opens in 1950 when Dora Judd, pregnant with her first child, becomes mesmerized by a reproduction of Van Gogh’s painting ‘Sunflowers’, one of several prizes in a raffle in the local Community Centre. The painting stirs happy memories of seeing the original on a school trip. When she draws a winning ticket she chooses the painting, much to the disgust of her overbearing husband Len who is more interested in a bottle of whisky. She hangs the painting in their lounge in an act of defiance, provoking her husband’s anger.

Move forward forty years and Dora’s son Ellis is living a lonely life of quiet despair following the death of his wife, Annie. His days are filled with the mundane routine of work in the local car factory, banging out dents as his father did before him. It’s a far cry from his early ambition to become an artist. A photograph of himself and Annie alongside his childhood friend Michael is a reminder of happier times.

Ellis and Michael meet as twelve-year-olds and immediately become close friends spending most of their time together. Gradually their relationship evolves into something more than friendship, one that requires secrecy. When Ellis meets Annie, two become three but in an entirely harmonious way. Then one day Michael leaves. It’s only in the second half of the book, told from Michael’s perspective, that we – and Ellis – learn the full story. I won’t say more other than Michael, like Ellis, finds what he was looking for but also experiences the pain of loss.

Tin Man is an exquisitely told story about the complexity of human relationships. Although unbearably sad at times, the author balances this by ending it on a note of hope.

In three words: Moving, tender, insightful

About the Author

Sarah Winman grew up in Essex and now lives in London. She attended the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, and went on to act in theatre, film and television. She is the author of the novels When God was a Rabbit (2011), A Year of Marvellous Ways (2015) and Still Life (2021).

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