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Fallen down the rabbit hole
Just before Christmas my mum went to a mad hatter’s tea party and knowing I like all sorts of fancy dress, presented me with the top hat she’d been given. I thought, gosh, this really sums up my year, as at times it’s felt like I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole. I’m sure you’ve noticed the blogs getting less frequent. Well it’s been a bit of a trying eighteen months, with sadness, stress and extreme tiredness. It’s involved losses, health scares, four house moves (not mine) and lots of ongoing building work (definitely mine). Don’t get me wrong, I know all too well that my problems pale into insignificance compared…
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The Garden Nurtures the sole
Well, it’s certainly been an strange week! Unfortunately I lost someone very dear to me. It’s a funny thing grief, one minute you feel huge, like a force of nature wanting to scream and rage at the world at the injustice of it, the next you feel so small like gravity has doubled and it’s crushing you into the ground. And so to the garden. I haven’t done any gardening, but I have trotted off down to the compost heap. Even the long walk to the end of the garden feels good for the sole. When I’m out there I can feel myself relaxing, just being outside surrounded by nature…
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Sciatica Makes For A Frustrated Gardener!
I need an apprentice! This has to be the busiest time of the year in the garden. Unfortunately I am still struggling with sciatica. So I can safely say this is the most frustrating spring of my gardening life! There is a reasonably famous garden, blogger Dan Cooper, he calls himself ‘The Frustrated Gardener’. If he hadn’t have already used the name, I’d be pinching it! I’ve been comparing this time in my head to lockdown, stuck at home for weeks on end. However lockdown physically for me was good, beautiful weather, no bad back and all the time in the world to garden! On the other hand mentally it…
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Gardening through a pandemic – Part 5 Spring 2021
March, April, May 2021 Who’d have thought this time last year, that twelve months on we’d be in a third National lockdown! Admittedly the second was only a mini break, but still! They always say “it’s a good job you don’t know what’s coming” and it’s true! The amazing news however, is how many people in the UK that have already been vaccinated. Something to be truly proud of. So here we are in spring again! Luckily nature and the seasons know nothing of a human pandemic and carry-on regardless. I do think most gardeners would pick spring as their favourite month, I certainly do. All the trees and plants…
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Gardening through a pandemic – Part 4 Winter 2020/21
December, January, February So here we are in winter, we’re now in a full blown second wave of Covid infection. With the pandemic showing no signs of abating. We’re facing another lockdown and gardening alone isn’t going to get me through this one! I guess I’m finally going to have to tackle that list of indoor jobs. Luckily the first vaccine has been given approval here in the UK, so there is light at the end of the tunnel. We all feel cautiously optimistic for next year. December is probably the quietest gardening month for me. A bit of mulching and tidying on the nicer days. Flicking through the seed…
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Gardening through a pandemic – Part 1 Spring
March, April, May. As we progressed through March 2020, coronavirus was becoming more and more alarming. When Italy put their country into lockdown, followed by Spain, panic buying ramped up here. As everyone else clambered for toilet rolls, my biggest concern was, have I got enough compost? I knew that as long as I could garden I could cope with anything! On 23rd March 2020, Britain followed others into a nationwide lockdown. Like so many people I found myself stuck at home. I am not a keyworker and I can’t work from home. So there it was, an unspecified period of time off work, with nowhere to go. 24th March…
