Gardening

Gardening. I like the idea of it. I get into it sporadically, once every couple of years. I like to be able to say: Today I am gardening! It means I am not writing or worrying. It means I won’t have to go for a run because I will have done exercise. It means I am outside and communing with nature and making things grow. And let’s face it, as a novelty activity, pulling out weeds is fun.

But then it gets serious and you realise you are going to have to mulch and buy sand and soil and weed killer and manure and dig beds and raise things and plant and wait and buy more things and read gardening blogs and it all becomes a bit like sewing or fixing a car, it is all in a language I don’t understand and it makes me feel small and inadequate and somewhat retarded in my learning.

But nonetheless, for a few hours, every couple of years, it is a noble and satisfying thing to say: Today I am gardening!

This is how it is today.