The Hand Blender.

Do you remember your first Kitchen or Gardening Accessory? It is something of a small event which can make you smile... For me kitchen wise it was simply a Pyrex measuring Jug. How handy this can be to learn how to cook and to follow a recipe? Answer: Very Handy!

Of course there is always the Mum's way of how to do things: A bit of this, a bit of that, a bit more of that and Bob is your Uncle, this will do just fine and if it doesn't she would scold: Do it yourself!

And if you F'it up yourself either you give up, hands up I am no good at it or you can persevere and tell yourself that you can learn by your mistakes and that you will nail this at some point. Like the five year old Nathan said to me the day before an exam at University (UEL): 'You can make it, you can do it, you can win it.' This was what his father told him before he was going to do a Football match at the Fulham Soccer School. This was a good Motto. It helped, I did have my BSC in Archaeological Sciences and Anthropology.

An Accessory can be made of words like a Cook Book... My Mum gave me a parting gift just when I was going to England and told me: You may need that. It was a massive yellow covered book, bible size or Tolstoi War and Peace size, and it was all about cooking. I wanted something else as a parting gift I must confess. However, even though I swore I would never open the book, two weeks later I did it with great relief and learnt to cook for myself and a family in desperate need to eat something better than ready meals or microwaved Broccoli and Carrots. I made my first Gratin Dauphinois then.

For a Kitchen accessory I will add another one which makes you think about home sweet home: Your first Apron. Oven Gloves and Tea Towels did follow suit...

 Oven gloves and Tea Towels, confession for confession I always like to have lots of novelty ones at any one time.

As for my first Gardening kit it was a glass Terrarium for small plants in a shape of an Apple. I was only a child and I will not swear it gave me green fingers but I did love plants ever since. It is to the point that I can't think of a year without plants or flowers in my life. Sometimes the contagion was infectious and came from others, the Lady who taught me how to grow Papyrus from Egypt, the nursery teacher who made us grow Watercress inside the shell of an Egg so when it was there it looked like hair upon a smiling face we did draw upon our own Eggs, My Father with his love of yellow Roses, my Mother liking Geranium because it was the only plant she was not killing because it survived her forgetfulness to water them, my Sister with her impetus to have show stopping Yucca in her flats, the Romanian Lady who adored Hydrangea and finally RIP Kay who loved African Violets...

To Kay Lawman who is greatly missed by many because she did touch so many during her life.

Maybe there is a rite of passage gardening wise when you have to change from the watering probe for your house plant to the right container that will fit your windowsill, to one that could fit on the railing of a balcony, to gardening gloves and getting gardening clogs and Wellies. If you may still learn to have green fingers, you definitely caught the gardening bug...

My old garden gloves still going strong, substance other style to do the job. You can tackle with them not only the Roses, the Nettles (Nice Soup to be made from them) and the Bramble with fruits which can be lovely in Jams or Cakes or Coulis.

It is not something to be ashamed of, because it gives so much pleasure to yourself and others if you share your garden bounty with someone or your neighbours or your guests. It is a little like your inclusion in the world of peace and love. I gave ten bulbs of the Iris called Eyecatcher to my neighbour Stan who loves his garden just like we do. It is useful to look after one another and to share anything we know which can make an old man smile next Spring.

Eyecatcher Iris

If you want to find out about that pretty Iris just click upon the red link above. So to go back about the Gardening Gear, I do think it is important for multiple reasons. When it comes to it, if you can have a thousand Roses, a thousand Trees, a thousand fruitful Bushes you will need the proper accessories to deal with everything. But this is my only point, plants will grow and you will need to deal with them as required, and then you will need that accessory to allow you to do so efficiently.

One step at a time: 

One Step for a Man, a giant Leap for Mankind.

One thing I will say on the same page do not kill a branch which doesn't do any harm and will not affect anything else by being there and is building an environment in your garden by being a landing zone for Sparrows. Humanity has a heart.

Fluffy baby Sparrows on a dead Raspberry branch bush in my Garden. We did create happy birds by not using our secators... Food for thought... 

I am not going anywhere as far as I know ( Mobility Challenged is a biggy, legs wise) but anywhere I have been I care about my environment. For one I will never cut my trees.

Try to count the Sparrows in my trees, they are being well fed my little birds in my branches, and my trees became their nursery.

I would say another accesory of use in one's garden is a bird's feeder but I will recommand a bird's bath. It encourages nature to have a breathing space in a large town like London and its suburbs.