Hello from Rob

It's a heatwave here in Louisiana, and it's hard to cope with. Been over or around 100F for a few days.

Yay! I leave for a month in the US a week from today

Visiting California - San Diego, San Francisco plus Louisiana, where it's 99F, which scares me ;(

So, winding down, not doing so much, though I was up until after 2am booking some internal flights there - paying sooooo much more than if I'd booked a month ago, when I started looking - not to mention having to sit at the back of a plane on a 5 hour flight: I prefer quieter seats at the front, preferably window to see the gorgeous terrain outside. As it is, I have brain damage, and organising things like flights and hotels is difficult for me, so it's a bit of a pain

Back from California to a rainy, cool English home. Missing the sun, and being somewhere new and exciting, though it's great to be back too, with home comforts, and not living in a hotel room box, and eating out all the time - plus the cost of this.

I'm returning to the US in mid June, a trip I booked a long time ago, and visiting Louisiana - before the Hurricanes start, I hope, as well as San Diego and San Franciso. I got a wedding invite to some old friends do, who've been together for ages, but it's 2 days before my return trip from the US. Have considered getting a flight back for the wedding, at a cost of several hundred $, but I'm undecided. If only I'd known before I booked my flight in late winter!

This past winter was officially the coldest UK winter in about 20 years, though my plants have pulled through - mainly. I like to have a tropical theme to my English cottage garden, which is a bit of a stretch, and perhaps would not be approved of by famed English cottage gardeners of old. 2 Banana plants, Bottle Brushes, Succulents, scores of palms and plants that captivate me one way or the other. It's been an English spring, with snowdrops now finished, daffodils in flower, that have naturalised well, and native birds feeding and starting to nest. Currently have had blue and great tits starting to nest and, probably, robins, blackbirds and wrens at it too. Chaffinches are around, and possibly nesting, judging by their behavior - I've designed my garden to be a wildlife habitat too, and garden organically. generally.

I've kept some Agaves and Aloes outside all winter, and they're fine - my Bottle Brush Callistemon plants are mostly OK - a new one, planted last year, is poor, but I'm sure will sprout.

Just sowing some Castor Oil plant seeds, to give away, as I don't have the space this year, and I'm spending a couple of months in the US, from April through to June/July, with a short break in between.

My red Camellia has been in flower since February, and is almost finished, though I have another, in a cooler spot, that hasn't started yet.

OK, this is not so illuminating - I have a cold - I guess it won't be the flu, as I've had a flu jab, which covers most predicted and common flu viruses that may be around.

It's also cold here in England - no surprises, it's winter, but the last few winters have been really mild, which has been great for many of my near tropical plants. Not everything is dead, which is good, though we've had a week or so of freezing weather.

My palm trees outdoors are looking healthy, though they are mostly able to take -15 Celsius, which is way below the temperatures that we've had. My Loquat fruit tree is OK, but it's been suffering this past few months from cracking bark, which may be a bacterial infection, called Fire blight, which has spread from the US - it's been around in England for 40 years or so.

So, I'm not spending much time outdoors, to help my plants, as I'm feeling as under the weather as they are. I use a variety of protection methods, including garden fleece, moving things to warmer micro-climates, as well as some salvaged polystyrene sheets that I place over and at the sides of plants. Even some garden netting has helped one plant, a beautiful red bottle brush (supposedly hardy-ish, but scorched in some earlier frosts). I have another 4' (1m approx) bottle brush plant that has been reliably hardy for a few years, and I now give no protection to. Looks wonderful when in flower, again with deep red flowers, resembling bottle brushes.