As I’ve already said, because of the two big projects I’ve been involved in since my finals, I have totally neglected my own garden and we don’t have any crops or other good things there other than the ones that just keep on going, year after year. Our greenhouse had three panels blown out in the winter and they’ve not yet been replaced. The whole place looks like an unloved and deserted space.

So imagine my surprise when I looked through one of the broken panes earlier today and noticed these exquisite seed pods everywhere. I think they are radish seeds and have come from some scattered seed last autumn that didn’t seem to do anything. When they germinate they are ready to eat in a few short weeks and if you don’t notice them being “ripe” they run to seed. Given that I have not set foot inside my greenhouse since last autumn, when I was enthusiastically and hopefully scattering seed for winter veg, I was surprised that there was anything of any beauty at all in there.

It occurred to me that we use the term “gone to seed” regularly to suggest that a person is past their prime yet these seed pods are by far the most attractive part of the radish plant. I’d like to think that as people look at me now, they don't see someone past their best, even though I'm a little frayed round the edges and a little past my “perfect skin” prime. Will they see someone with something still to give? I hope they see beauty or even simply utility at some level even if it’s only the twinkle in my eye or my ability to rustle up a good plate of food or my tenacious spirit. Let’s face it, you have to be pretty tenacious to do a PAD, it’s not for the faint-hearted is it?