Gardening leave

I have a confession to make. I’ve been neglecting my blog. I have another love. It’s crept up on me all of a sudden, but it’s turned into a deep passion, more or less overnight. Well, since it stopped raining anyway.

It’s gardening. It’s just so lovely to be outside, pottering around in the flowerbeds, hearing the birds a-tweeting, the bees humming, the cats meowing as they try to jump on the fork I’m using. And yes, alright, the police sirens a-wailing – this is London after all – but so distantly they could almost be an exotic wild animal with its foot trapped in something ouchy.

I didn’t think gardening would be so all-consuming. Until recently, I had a friend helping – well, doing all the donkey work – but then, unfortunately, after planting 218 box hedges in a day, she started to get palpitations and has had to go back to her day job, of being an important lawyer. That leaves me with a whole lot of lawn, full of horrible viper’s bugloss (does anyone have a clever way to get rid of this?) and not really all that much idea of what I’m up to. I do really enjoy it, though. Today, I’m going to have a go at trimming the privet hedge at the front – wish me luck. And, if you’re passing this way, look out for the hedge topiaried into a full-scale replica of the Loch Ness Monster.

* Erm, not really – I’ll be very lucky to accomplish a more-or-less straight line without getting palpitations myself!