Dear Readers, I arrived at East Finchley Station en route to Walthamstow Wetlands (about which more tomorrow) only to find I had ten minutes to wait before my elderly person’s tube pass kicked in at 9 a.m. However, it was a real pleasure because the lovely gardeners at N2 Community Gardens have been at it again! I haven’t been outside much in the past few weeks because of my Covid isolation, so it was a real  pleasure to see this lovely array of spring flowers on a very tricky, steep, sloping site next to the entrance of the station.

The cowslips, primulas, forget-me-nots and wallflowers are all a real treat not just for the human eye, but for any passing pollinators too. And while the daffodils are more to the taste of humans than insects, the display of different kinds was a real delight.

There are usually some vegetables and herbs popping up too – I remember some redcurrants and some very jazzy rainbow chard last year – and the rosemary, another pollinator favourite, is already in flower.

And honestly, who can resist the cowslips, with their little yellow and orange faces? They certainly cheer me up.

And finally, the hellebores are in full flower. One of the lovely things about this site is that the flowers are at eye height, so you can actually see them – hellebores have a tendency to hang their heads shyly, but here you can actually see those lovely freckled petals.

It just goes to show how a small patch of ground can punch well above its weight in terms of the variety of plants, the benefit to wildlife and the sheer happiness that it brings to people passing by. While many souls were rushing to get to work, every so often someone would see me taking photographs, stop, and actually look at the garden. I’d love to think that it had brightened up their day. It certainly brightened up mine.