I haven’t been writing much on the blog in the last few weeks as I’ve been concentrating on completing a book that will be coming up to three years since starting (I can be the master of procrastination). In addition to that, I’ve just returned from the first “proper” holiday in years. While I have taken holiday from an employment sense, they have been filled with doing chores, gardening projects and just generally staying at home trying to get things done. I am so renowned for this that my office colleagues were genuinely surprised and happy that this time, I was not using holiday to do home and garden work and that I was using holiday as just that, holiday.
This holiday I’ve just come back from was the first in a couple of years where I actually left the country and was away from the garden, the house and all those reminders about the countless errands, tasks and just, “things” that need doing.
I had a week of rest and relaxation with lots of eating out too. I completely forgot about the things that need doing at home, all those winter jobs in the garden, the preparation for spring and checking the plants to see how they’re over-wintering. None of it occurred to me, not even once while I was sat on the hammock, watching the sun go down behind the date palms. I’ve not felt like that for years.
I’m back home now and back to “normal”, I’ve noticed the days getting longer and the first signs of spring in the emerging crocuses and fattening buds of spring shrubs. I’ll be continuing to work on the book and work in the garden as it starts to wake up and the new growing season dawns. This holiday has made me think that I’ve been focussing too much on spending every possible minute in the garden working on it, weeding, planting, tending, digging, pruning, clearing, creating new borders and so on. While this has made for phenomenal progress in creating a stunning garden from a blank canvas, perhaps it’s time to not have the “pedal to the metal” so much and instead focus on using some of that garden time to relax and unwind.
It’s a novel thought for me.
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