Oxford?

Cleaned the roof terrace and had a jolly good planting session. This was a consequence of learning that my long research project wasn’t going to earn me as much money as I had hoped. Less money, less work, and more time to garden. Hurrah. So I have frittered away the day by first going to the garden centre to get some citrus feed for my growing lemon and orange trees (a gift from Elli which she grew from seeds); potting them into bigger pots; clearing away the mess of old tulips, damaged branches of broad beans (they are monstrous) and then potting up the kale and cabbage. In my effort to avoid slug attacks at the allotment I have decided to grow a lot of kale and cabbage here in pots at home. There were plenty to plant up (I have a knack for growing them it seems) and they look rather good crowded in among the Australian shrubs I have growing up there.
The eucalyptus tree is no more. It didn’t recover its cold winter attack; but the other one which I pollarded is thriving, if a bit bruised on the ends. A hint of buds on the bottle brush, but nothing else. They are crying out for a good pruning – but as they haven’t flowered yet (or at all) I will have to wait another month at least. The roses are over their first manic flush (three vases on the go at once in the house) and I can see plenty of buds. Hopefully my second flush will come in time for the big barbecue we are having here on 9th June.

We are mightily distracted at the moment with the plans to leave London and move to the country. This has been a fairly constant theme of the past few years. Both of us yearn from something a bit more rural, especially as I want a garden. But David’s job at Imperial is so good that it would be mad to give it up. He is offered quite an interesting array of positions every year – from Sheffield in the north of this country, to Paris, to Chicago. But we have never really entertained any ideas of moving.

But then a few weeks ago he received a call from a very prestigious Oxford University department called The Dunn School to become their Professor of Molecular Microbiology. It’s a similar job to what he does now – except that the Dunn School is funded by profits from the scientists who discovered penicillin and antibiotics back in the 1950s and 1960s. And they were smart and made a fortune for the School with the patents (and themselves I hope). As a result it is one of the most well- endowed scientific institutions in the country. It’s what David calls the job of a lifetime, and he is the only candidate for the job – which is a great honour. We both go up mid June for a special dinner of the board of the Institution (plus assorted Wardens and Rectors of Wadham College or whatever their exotic titles are. Becoming an Oxford don is rather daunting) and the next day David has his interview.

I will spend that morning going to the excellent Oxford Botanic Gardens (they have a copper beech hedge of monstrous 50 foot trees which is sublime) or better still, see some properties. Eek. It’s rather frightening. One can daydream about living in the country, but it suddenly may become a reality. No wonder I have trouble knuckling down to work right now. Or thinking about weeding that extra bit at the allotment. Or investing in a strimmer to cut down that massive amount of grass. It would be ironic that after all this waiting and then working, I will have to give up my allotment before I harvest the crops.