About – ooohhhh – fifteen year ago, I decided not to have plants in the house any more. Let’s face it, I was a bit rubbish at looking after them, regularly forgetting to water them until they flumped over and showed me that they were desperate for a drink. You see, they need water so they can capture carbon from the atmosphere and turn it into sugars and these then build the leaves, stems, roots and all of the other things that animals eat at the start of the food chain. (I'm a biologist you know!)

In recent times, I’m reminded of how plants are so very good for us, not least because I have been a vegetarian for almost forty years. It’s more than that though, they process the air in our homes, getting rid of the stuff that’s not good for us and replacing it with oxygen and that most certainly is good for us.

So, first the herbs crept back onto the kitchen windowsill, then a couple of pot plants, courtesy of visitors, arrived, then the chillis moved into the front porch in the sunshine and now, ferns in the bathroom and parlour palms in the lounge. DM fretted (especially as the parlour palm soaked up all of my Christmas gift from my parents and a lot more besides) that the building works would spoil them. I replied that when they get a thick layer of dust on them I’ll take them outside and let the rain do its cleaning job.

Sundays and Wednesdays now see me scurrying round with a jug of water making sure they all have the ingredients they need to thrive. This phot could have been so much better with my 5d on a tripod but I’m still getting so much joy from my little pocketful of treasure that I now understand the G9 to be.