I have a new occupation - garden hunting.
I have found several neglected gardens that need the TLC of a gardener - the more weedy and overgrown the better. Not for me the fanatically clipped, over manicured and brand spanking new. As long as these owners are willing to give a decent wage, or failing that, food in return for time and labour, and a thank you, then I am happy. Not for me being shortchanged, starved and told to hurry. Or sworn at. Also, if the garden has dogs, I'm inclined to refuse to work there. I am not a fan of yappy dogs that bark and bite. And that goes for supervisors and bosses too.
My own garden is now too tidy in comparison. I've got it to the stage where I can relax, everything is as it ought to be this season at least - all the areas I've planted and looked after. Aside from the fact mum cut down the maple tree and my brother massacred the buxus hedges. I'm rather ashamed of that because it now looks absolutely terrible and not something I can do anything about. Come autumn I will be planning on expansion. Also it might be because I don't have any income right now to be spending - being a pauper means I have limits.
The sun is pouring down and I'm meant to water the potatoes at Woodside. After dinner. But I'm exhausted. It's one of those days. I don't know why I volunteer for the job, it takes me a while to walk to the garden on my own and then I must walk all the way back through our dodgy park thats sprayed with Roundup, and by the time I'm finished watering, it's dark. Sorry. I just can't get over that. Our playground is totally neglected for over 20 years yet council workers come every six months to spray poison and think they've done their job in maintenance. I weep for the creek, that runs along side, one that nobody ever swims in anymore, because of the pollution.
I have done some small things today. Moved a parsley that was getting to much sun and drying out in the pot to the shady side of the house. Moved the watermelon in the pot to beside the fence. Fed the worms. Scattered some love-in-the-mist seeds.
Nothing too taxing. Surprisingly I am not really missing watering 300+ pots at the retirement village anymore. I was at church on Sunday, and our preacher was saying something about if you didn't want to do something, you hired a contractor in. I thought he was talking about me. But maybe it was not that you didn't want to do something, it was that you wanted something done but you just couldn't do it yourself. Because if you could actually do it all yourself, why would you pay someone else to do it? The difference between slavery perhaps and servanthood?
Sometimes I don't listen in to the sermon too much at church. Because sometimes I think the preacher is really talking about himself and confessing his own sins more than anyone else's. I could never treat someone like a slave. But I have come to the conclusion slavery is alive and well in the 21st century it was never eradicated, just moved to different places and has a new name - workplace bullying. Thank God I have been set free.
