What total joy to dig in the sunshine.
I snatched a couple of hours alone on our first proper sunny, blue sky day this year and really wallowed in the solitude and physical work of turning the rotted manure into the beds. The soil was light and wormy and rich, willingly forked through with no struggle.
It is almost a guilty pleasure to enjoy the basic, feral feeling of getting honestly, wholesomely dirty as much as I do. I do not do the gym, ever, and to work up a sweat with enough warm sunshine to dig in my vest is more than good enough to get my endorphins going! I am so bored by ‘conventional’ excercise. I dont get how people can spend hours of their lives running like hamsters on treadmills. I easily forget, especially over the winter when getting in the car instead of pushing a buggy around, how good using my muscles makes me feel and clears my mind, when coupled with being in the elements.
The fact that working on the allotment allows me to get filthy in my husbands oversized scruffy hand-me-downs and look my absolute worst is an added bonus. Like not having to wash when at a festival. I feel some small rebellion against society in being sweaty and unfit for presentation. I have always needed to be a bit rebellious. The irony of that feeling coming from working with vegetables and not outrageous youthful behavior is not lost on me. My teenage self would be appalled!
The flowers and blossoms appearing is so reassuring. I feel all will be well again and there is hope for some time when no one has a cold and we do not have to spend so much time putting layers on.
Spring daffs
I found shoots of Garlic that had not been pulled up last year so split the bulbs and put the individual cloves back in. I had hoped to make tidy furrows for the Potatoes to go in and be gradually earthed up from, but as always ran out of precious time to do anything other than tidy up and get the worst of the deep rooted thistles and dock leaves out. it becomes clearer why it seems to be mostly elderly people tending the plots. They have no one to collect from nursery or feed with urgency!
Golden Crocuses
The solitary Rhubarb resident in the plot when we arrived has hopefully sprouted up again. I will really try to make some use of it this year and not just let it rot back. I feel if it is going to keep making the effort to grow it would be rude not to make the effort to eat it!
I never seem to learn to label the seeds I plant. I now cannot remember what the shoots are coming up in the plastic greenhouse!! At least I have learned to note down what I have planted so I can narrow down the possibilities.
Hopeful Rhubarb!
Love you my smelly rebel friend!