As the old year ebbs away I find my enthusiasm for being outdoors leaving with it. Now is the most difficult time to be a gardener, the effort required to leave a cosy bed and stand at the bus stop in the clammy pre-dawn darkness requires immense willpower! The garden tasks become more arduous too, pruning the climbing roses was never a favourite job of mine, teetering up a ladder with blade in hand is not the most comfortable position in which to spend a morning, but at least that's another thing ticked off the list. The day length is ever shortening and as four o'clock approaches we hurriedly pack up the tools and head for home, lingering and chatting are spring and summer luxuries. Garden beauty is at a low too, but if you look hard enough you can still find little treasures persisting, and of course a striking sunset is always a bonus. The one thing that does lift my spirits is the comparison between my occupation now and what I would be enduring if I still worked at the supermarket. Instead of only one or two snatched days off at Christmas amidst the retail nightmare I may now embrace a two week break and become almost as dormant as the garden. This feels in tune with nature and even if I don't earn any money I will not feel the poorer for it!
"Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you" Oscar Wilde
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