As a kid, I never thought I would be into growing Lavender. I remember going into some large gift shop whilst holidaying with the family. They were selling lavender products of some sort and the fragrance hit me like a plastic bag over the head, hypoxic, disagreeable perfume.

As I crawled for my life out the door, back to the car I remember that the one concession was that Mum and Dad bought my older brothers and I erasers shaped like clothes pegs. Unfortunately these were, despite my tender age, too small to place on my nose.

In more recent times I have surprisingly found myself growing and ..... ahem ... even propagating this fine plant. Perhaps it is just a sign of me getting old or maybe these plants are just best experienced alive, with their roots still firmly in the ground.

Maybe without really knowing it, I am attempting to reach back into the memory of youth and days gone, wishing I still had that rainbow coloured peg eraser.