The Christmas tree at St George's Circus, London

It’s Christmas all year round at St George’s Circus since we planted a Christmas tree in the centre of the bed. Our first tree passed away a while ago but there’s been a baby one there since last January when Meike 155 and I salvaged one from Andy 157’s Christmas decorations. But it’s so shy there hiding amongst the Rosemary and Lavender giving no festive cheer to the passers by. So I cobbled together a shining star from cardboard, silver foil and old garden wire and tied it on this evening.

Helianthus annuus "Russian Giant" (dwarf) flowers outside Morley College, London.

Incredibly, despite the cold weather, the short hours of day light and that we sowed these sunflowers in May, they are still in full bloom in winter. Could this be evidence of global warming? Not this time. These did not mature and bloom until September, well after we harvested the lavender and gave the seedlings adequate sunlight. They have only grown to a third of the size of their giant siblings, (and it will take a chill of -2°C to accelerate their decline). A great accident.

A beetle crashed into the lavender field

Location: Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1
Incident: Friday 5 December 08
An exotic looking giant beetle bit a chunk off the corner of our lavender field this morning after careering through the crash barrier. No one was hurt but a few clumps were uprooted. The car was an estate agent’s, and this crash is perhaps fitting for the the times. A jogger asked me was it an ad?

South London Press 5 December 2008

NEWS: Friday 5 December 2008
Regular readers of this blog and those who have read the final chapter of my book On Guerrilla Gardening will know that a year ago I secured a significant guerrilla gardening victory when Southwark Council refunded me and my neighbours three years of their fraudulent charges for gardening that guerrilla gardeners had done voluntarily and agreed not to charge us again. But two weeks ago our annual bills arrived and they include the charge. I hoped it was a mistake but this week I got a response from Margaret O’Brien, Head of Housing asserting that the refund was an error and that the charge will be imposed. Not because they were going to resume gardening again (no, thankfully permission has been granted for me to continue as a volunteer) but because of an entirely resolvable anomaly that groups our block with a cul-de-sac housing estate several streets away. In today’s paper our oily local Conservative councilor (who has a track record of causing trouble at Perronet House) Kim Humphreys weighs in backing Margaret’s decision. The council’s scandalous and incompetent stance about this issue has lit the blue touch paper here as other residents join the fight and the grounds maintenance issue becomes a focal point for a range of other grievances. Read more about the highs and lows of Perronet House here.