Here’s a little post about the tulips in my garden. I am still getting to grips with the difference between posts and notes on Substack. Bear with me if I’ve got it wrong.

Every autumn I have a conversation with my friend Kiran who does my garden, about the following year’s display. In 2021 we conducted this conversation via WhatsApp between Beckenham and Hong Kong, and I returned home to a beautiful display of white tulips. He plants a couple of hundred bulbs each time and now the garden is resplendent for weeks in waves of colour.

This year we decided on three important colours: blood red Oscar tulips in continuing tribute to our old boy; purple and pink for the empowerment of women, and yellow and orange for, well you can take a guess why. They’ve flowered a little earlier than I anticipated for the May local elections – and I had no idea at the time of planning that I’d be standing as a candidate – but here are some pictures: