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Mondrian. I` enjoying Parade`s End and, tho` not a sporty person, loved both lots of Olympics. A kind American friend e-mailed the US Open result
The Scapegoat wasn`t very like the novel. I just saw Anna Karenina. I couldn`t wait for the train to end it all! Mags.

I should explain - for those who`ve not read the book - Anna throws herself under a train near the end. M.

Jazzgirl. Thank you so much for all your efforts to help me. I did sort of work out 7A but could not see the connection with a fish. These crosswords dont half show up my ignorance. This time not only had I never heard of that cold and airy thing, I have never heard of that small word for a fish!! Glad you are enjoying your garden. And I am enjoying mine. My small patch of wild flower meadow did in the end work, to a certain extent. Will plant some red poppies and blue cornflower for next year. However the one big success has been my begonias. I had thought they had died on me (after a storm) but they resurected themselves and now give a marvellous show.

Mags. I am not sure by your comment on Anna K. and waiting for the train episode, whether you thought the film no good. I am looking forward to seeing it. As I have read the book at least twice, what you related did not surprise me.

Pipesmoker, I think you and I have about the same degree of computer literacy! Maybe I go one further in avoiding the modern age as I do not have a mobile phone!! Glad you are well.

Hi mondrian
I'm pleased your wildflower garden is working - we have one too. I would advise against poppies - they need the ground to be cultivated in order to germinate, so your first lot would also be your last (unless you dug the plot). We do best with fritillaries and turk's cap lilies; also ox-eye daisies, meadow sweet etc (and of course bluebells) - however we are on damp glacial clay. What is your soil?

P.S. on the poppies - I remember once driving up the upper reaches of the A1. A pipeline of some sort had been laid along the verge (disturbing the ground, of course) and its route was marked by a two foot wide, 10 mile long poppy bed!

Hello chrise. Thank yu so much for your suggestions. I have no idea what my soil is like - poor I imagine and sort of clayey. However you suggestions are so welcome. I am a complete novice at this wild flower lark. I will refer to your suggestions. Am I right in thinking that poppies do proliferate in disturbed ground - hence the poppies of battlegrounds of WW1? Will keep you posted. Have you tired clover?

P.P.S. and in spring, primroses, cowslips, species daffs and squills.

hi to the gardening club :)
My little wild patches are a bit like the curate's egg, good in parts. But Oxeye daisies, poppies, Self Heal (prunella) and Yarrow all do well. Cornflowers also good this year. Swan River Daisies (Brachysome)have never stopped spreading for about 10 years. Here the soil is rich, crumbly, well-draining and quite stony in parts. J

No mondrian, all my clover is wide-awake (sorry about that - shouldn't poke fun at misprints). Seriously, clover is nitrogen-fixing, so enriches the soil, whereas a wildflower meadow does best on nutrient-poor soil (or otherwsie the grass tends to dominate).

And yes, the poppies blew on Flanders fields (or something ike that) because of the soil disturbance.