D.O.P.-T.

[weofodthignen]

With all the soapy handwashing, I've finally been able to retire the bar of soap with conditioner that I had to buy early in the first lockdown in order to avoid perfume. It had degenerated into a puddle of oily goo. On our last in-person store trip they finally had unscented clear glycerin bars again.




(Liquidambar / sweetgum; note all the spiky seed balls.)

Comments

[altrinc]

Yes, the liquid amber in the public gardens opposite us dropped its seed pods in the late summer and I thought they looked like coronaviruses.

[weofodthignen]

Yes, they kind of do look like the pictures, poor trees; they get enough hate as it is, for dropping branches as well. I don't remember ever seeing them when I was there; was it a recent planting? (Not that it was recent when I was last there; Google Street View of London is eerie, with the futuristic buses and real skyscrapers, but still mostly the same houses and front gardens, though I haven't been able to see whether the towering cedar trees are still there.)

[altrinc]

No, it's an old tree in the gardens, next to the house at the back by the sunken lawn. It bears several scars where branches have been lopped off. There are several exotic trees in the gardens, including a catalpa. We like the liquid amber very much and enjoyed the red foliage in the autumn as well as the intricate little seedpods; it's not their fault that humans are preoccupied by a virus! The towering cedars in the gardens and nearby are protected in law and are still there, as are the Victorian pissoir, and the Oceanides fountain, fortunately now restored.

[weofodthignen]

Wow. I never walked much in those gardens. I only remember sycamores and plane trees. And I don't think I knew about the pissoir (though I did know they restored the fountain). Upload a pic to Wikimedia Commons? The gardens and pissoirs both have categories, as do "The Naked Ladies" :-)