According to my moon calendar, we are in the middle of the barren period, which is just as well for it's that time of the month when I don't have the energy to do anything plus I have caught the cold and have been off work for a week. I think maybe I just always have this virus, and it just gets triggered whenever we have a cold snap. So its not that I've been catching it from anyone else. It just never goes away, and comes to life whenever the temperature drops below a certain degree when we forget to turn the heating on.
Thankfully it is not fatal like the OTHER virus. It just makes life very foggy and listless, and now all the leaves have fallen and the ground is mush, so I can't do anything anyway. When I did go to the garden centre, it was to have lunch with friends. I asked 'are there any bulbs left to plant?' and the answer was no, they had all sold out.
Winter hibernation is my cue to get reading all those gardening books on the bookshelf that I've never had the time to read, like books on Espaliering, Making Ponds and Waterfalls, and other obscurities like 'Herbs for the Pregnant mother'. I gave the last book away because I thought that was just too unlikely to ever happen.
I have read one that is quite inspiring though (thanks Adrienne for recommending it) called Wilding by Isabella Tree. Yes that's her actual name. The subtitle is 'The return to nature of a British Farm'. It was all about a country estate who's owners decided that they would quit farming it and let it go...back to nature. Then surprisingly all the wildlife came back, even the supposedly extinct ones (well, maybe exaggerating, but when they farmed it, the wildlife up and left) and so even..GORSE and ragwort have their place - as little nurseries for mighty oak trees.
Now if only I had a huge country estate that I could turn into pastoral paradise and have wild pigs turning up truffles and chinese mushrooms that fetch the highest price in the gourmet number one bbq restaurant.
Unfortunately, I do not, but the lack of land (or rather ownership of said land) has not deterred me. I live near a river right? Surely there must be some sort of clause that says 'if living near a river, there must be access to it and fish'. Or 'those living near a river need to keep it clean' or something like that. Can't just go dumping dead bodies and supermarket trolleys in it all the time.
What about school? Apparently there is a whole kitchen garden set up behind some classrooms that nobody has tended to in a few years. Maybe that could be...MY patch. And there won't be a Mrs Busybody nagging me to chop up the compost into tiny pieces and pull clover out that the bees are happily snacking on. What if I bring a few chickens to school?
hmm
Big dreams for a little gardener.
Well, must get on with life and lie low until the 8th.
