The River Severn
Day 1 of the 3 day journey from West Wales to the Ecological Restoration conference in Estonia. Somebody nationalise these trains.
The first day involved driving to Carmarthen to catch a train to London Paddington, then a Tube to Tottenham to stay with absent friends. My advice is don’t travel with a stinking cold if you can avoid it. Exhausting is a word.
GWR railways managed to cancel the train leaving Carmarthen and finish the train one stop short of London. Nationalise the railways, that’s what I say.
The journey was fairly uneventful. I talked to an Irishman with a pair of lampshades wrapped in a blanket. And I thought about how big the world is and how small we are and how very small I am.
Because the Severn Tunnel was closed, we took a detour up to Gloucester, along the banks of the River Severn, quite the most scenic route. And I thought about how small all the gardens I’ve ever designed and helped create have been, and how they are swallowed up by this relentless, circular and globe-like and recycling landscape. And how a garden is as much about the idea as the place, it’s kind of both, and separating them is a fool’s game.