The Diary of a Bookseller

TUESDAY, 10 JUNE

Online orders: 3

Books found: 2

Today Laurie was in, and I spent most of the day in the garden, so my only interaction with a customer was during her lunch break at 12.30 p.m. The customer asked, ‘Do you have any pamphlets about the history of the area?’, to which I replied, ‘No, but we’ve got plenty of books about local history in the Scottish room. You’re welcome to have a look there.’ The customer parted – on the way out of the door – with ‘Oh no, we don’t want books. We’re only interested in free pamphlets.’

The garden behind the shop is long and narrow (50m by 7m) and would have been a vegetable garden for the house during its heyday in the late Georgian period. Consequently it has been fertilised with lime, and as such is not conducive to the growth of rhododendrons, magnolias, azaleas and other ericaceous plants, which I like to grow. There is a healthy looking camellia, which flowers in April, but the flowers turn brown within days and fall off shortly afterwards.

When I bought the place, the garden was mainly rock gardens and dwarf conifers, but over the years I have replanted all of it, and now in spring it is an explosion of colour and scent, with gardenia, scented clematis, wisteria, viburnum, laurel, all manner of ground cover, native trees and shrubs. With the help of pots and ericaceous compost there are even azaleas and rhododendrons. It is my favourite place, and at this time of year, when the days are long and warm, sitting out there alone at night is a singular pleasure. At dusk the bats appear, and it is a joy to sit on the bench with a glass of whisky watching them flitting, silhouetted against the fading light. Once, one came so close to me in pursuit of its prey that I could feel the breath of its wings against my face as it wheeled away. Older Gallovidians refer to them as ‘flittermice’, probably something that fans of operetta would recognise.

Till total £184.89

19 customers