Unwelcome reading on the cover of the latest edition of 'The St Helena Connection' the official news magazine of the Society of Friends of St Helena which arrived last week. I was introduced to Georgie by agronomist Richard Gillett in early 1985 after expressing an interest in painting the wild flowers of St Helena, the South Atlantic island that was my home from October 1984 - October 1987. Our first outing took us part way along the uneven rocky route to Lots Wife Ponds on the Sandy Bay side of the Island and we weren't successful on that day in finding an example of 'Babies Toes' or 'Old Man Live Forever' or maybe even the 'Salad Plant'. Can't remember in truth what we were looking for now - but I do remember the feeling of anticipation and adventure and the sun and 'newness' of being out in the open air in such a different landscape. Subsequently, Georgie showed me where all the different flowering endemic plant s...
a painter in st ives