"Frequently asked questions" / FAQs is something websites are supposed to have. Now this site is a proper grown-up one, it does have FAQs. Previously I had to imagine what people might want to know, so these are the TIIPHWO, which stands for Things I Imagine People Have Wondered Occasionally.

Did you really do all of that concrete and wall demolition yourself? Don't you have a man to help you?

Yes, despite being a petite person of the female gender, I did do the hard work myself. This was for several reasons: a) because I could b) because I didn't want to have to explain what I wanted to someone else and then watch them do it c) because I don't believe in paying someone else to do something I can do myself.

Anything involving drilling holes in walls with a power tool is not my forte, and neither is driving the rubbish from the garden work to the tip. For these Him Indoors has total credit. On other occasions, such as shed demolition, he knows to keep a distance when I have that determined wall-bashing look on my face.

Are you mad?

Yes.

How do you find the time to knock walls to bits and then heroically drag yourself to the computer and update this website so often?

I don't know really, but I hope my OBE will arrive soon.

Why isn't this site database-driven?

I got far too involved in the "front end", obsessed with valid XHTML coding, and I only have one head.

What did you use to take the photos?

The majority of photos on this site - until December 2003 - were taken with a traditional non-digital camera, a Pentax. In December 2003 I finally got myself a digital camera and am now wowed by how easy it is to take photos of plants in the garden and transfer them to the computer, and this website, without having to walk right into town to the photo developers (ending up, usually, with only one photo from a 24-exposure film that is good enough to put on this website . ...). At least now I can see immediately how many of my photos are rubbish, without having to hand over £5 to Boots first.

Geranium magnificum and Allium christophii, June 2002

Above: Geranium and Allium, June 2002. Top left: Clematis "Ascotiensis"