Human Flower Project

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Pruner’s Diary

Photography, teaching, reading, riding, fund-raising can’t crowd out the gardener in John Levett. Out come the pen, and shears, just in time.

Essay and photos by John Levett

This piece of writing is not about gardens. More follows.

I have the advantages of retirement—state pension, teacher’s pension and time. I spend most of the first on train fares but still have some left over for savings which will go on Istanbul. The second, time, I fill with all the energy and inefficiency that I did whilst working for the pension.

I have projects. Getting up in the morning is a project. Walking to the shops is a project. Sitting in the summer garden, in the deckchair, reading is part of the ‘Ten histories and ten biographies by the end of March’ project. My photography goes according to the project—even if it didn’t start as one it finishes as one once the final click clicks.

I currently have the benefit and no small honour of being a Visiting Researcher of a college of London University. This came completely out of the blue and is better for that. I have the added benefit that I can enjoy all the academic benefits bestowed by a fine college with none of the exams that my last stint in a university had attached to it. As I wrote in my letter of grateful acceptance, “Thank you for this opportunity to fill my boots!”

It also means that I have more projects. I walk into a university for the first time in forty years, look at the lectures, seminars, proposals, collaborations on offer; take a tour of the library; sit in on a casual meeting with the next desk occupant; pick up the latest departmental publication, read the latest email digest—how can one not have projects?

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