A View from the Kitchen

A tiny pot of iris reticulata plonked on a rickety green chair outside the kitchen window charms me while I eat my porridge in the bone-cracking cold of these January mornings.

I’m longing for the shell-white camellia buds, all the more elegant in contrast to their galvanised metal hospital bucket pot, to split open.

Behind and to the side and out of sight, my garden needs attention. The fallen leaves are turning to slime, the single foolhardy Sharifa Asma rose is frigid and browned – but from my window, the greens vibrate, the slender iris buds swell.

Iris reticulata on a green chair