The Reluctant Gardner

Simple Beauty in a Fallen Blossom

SO, today was one of those days were we let The Young Prince talk us into playing chauffeur (and bank).  Yaddah, yaddah, yaddah, it all resulted in Dave having to spend much of the day driving around and doing errands and fitting in the Tom and Co. transport, sooo, I felt bad and offered to start on some planting here at the house.

What I had really wanted to do was take a shower. I had worked out earlier, and then was doing house things, laundry, dishes, etc and was feeling a little icky. Then Dave came home with stuff from Costco, and half of a Costco sausage roll - with lots of mustard and peppers - and I sank down on the couch to eat that, promptly dropping bits of mustardy pepper bits down my shirt and on my sweats. Nice. 

Now I REALLY wanted a shower.

But I felt bad for Dave, so I volunteered to at least start planting a few flowers. I really did not want to do this. But, since it was a sweaty dirty task, what better time to do it then when I was hot and sweaty. And he gave me the easy part of just doing the planters on the front steps.

So, there I was, had some music playing on the phone and I decided to deadhead some of the Sweet William that was already in one of the planters. These plants had somehow survived all winter and bloomed again in spring. Lots of dead blossoms though, and they had to go. Then I was going to bust open the sack of potting soil and and start in on the actual planting project.

At some point it occurred to me that I actually didn't hate gardening. Don't get me wrong. I'm not one to dream of seed catalogs and get high on the smell of fresh earth and grow all my own (healthy) vegetables. No, not so much. But I love the results and it seems like I used to have time AND inclination to do this before. 

Oh, I still love beautiful yards. I drool over the images in decorating magazines, and I love bringing flowers indoors, and I really some day would love a cutting garden. But to really get all worked up and do it myself? No. I just don't have the mental energy to make it happen. 

So here I was working with the dirt and flowers and not hating it.

But before long I was not alone. I won't elaborate, but there was a distraction that I really didn't want to indulge in at that moment. I kind of had to though. If I was dark blogging, I'd go into more detail, as it is,  my ramblings here might not make much sense.

OK, so I was indulging this distraction, making conversation, and it was OK. I was not hating it.

So, I'm thinking that I was involved in more than one kind of nurturing. And I thought of this: If you just relax and give in to the situation, sometimes it's not as bad as you thought it might be. You might even even enjoy it a little, and create something new at the same time.