Laura Kane

Leaves! Green ones! They’re alive!

My win­dowsill garden is sprout­ing. I actu­ally can’t believe it, my garden­ing his­tory so peppered with dis­aster as it is.

Of course, one can’t start count­ing one’s chick­ens (veget­ables?), so I shall reserve judge­ment until I start see­ing teeny tiny sweet pep­pers and toma­toes. They are due to have a friend join them soon, cour­tesy of the lovely Miss Amer­ica who, while try­ing to grow a chilli plant, acci­dent­ally grew a chilli plant in another pot next to her Peace Lily, Allen (the name of which tickles me more than I should really admit.) I should really start pre­par­ing for his arrival — per­haps a wide, trough-like pot for all of them? I am truly clue­less in the way of green­ery, but I am find­ing it all rather exciting.

On a sim­il­arly grown-up note, I’ve star­ted to think about what I would like to put on my walls. I am a huge fan of Adrian McMurchie’s illus­tra­tions, in par­tic­u­lar this lovely one of Ashton Lane:

I far prefer illus­tra­tions to ‘proper’ paint­ings and espe­cially pic­tures of Glas­gow — the city really is a lovely place through the eyes of an artist! In real­ity, Ashton Lane is a far less serene loc­a­tion than the image above might sug­gest. It is still very charm­ing though, even when filled with swathes of drunk­ards on a Fri­day night. And of course, the omis­sion of the con­crete mon­stros­ity that is the Boyd Orr Build­ing is a vast improve­ment on the true view from this vant­age point.

I can tell it will be a long pro­cess for me to adequately adorn my walls, but it’ll all be worth it for the oppor­tun­ity to make my mark on my home for the first time. Any recom­mend­a­tions for local artists, illus­trat­ors or pho­to­graph­ers I should be check­ing out would be greatly appreciated!