What a half hour in the garden is for...

Yes! Don't you love it when you get a result! I had a spare half hour today (OK, so I was supposed to tidy my bedroom, but it wasn't raining and you take your pleasures when you can in England) and I spent it very well indeed in the garden, transforming a small patch of my earth from this....

to this.... (apologies for the difference in tone; I know the before is actually a better colour, but the after is neater)


and here is the pathetic flower currently sole occupant of this bed.


I was so guilty that, with my spare half hour when the Princess was at a party I had to go to the garden centre and get some bedding plants. Watch this space...

No not THIS space!

Mind you, gardening is a long term commitment. The other corner of my garden looks like this...


Yes, that is ground elder in there. Loads of it. I am as we speak blasting it with glycophosphate and pulling out every bit of root I can find... well, not literally as we speak. I was doing it 10 minutes ago until the rain began and I dived for cover in the 'puter room.I'll continue with my work tomorrow.

But in the meantime I am feeling successful.


When I was newly qualified as a teacher I treated myself to this valuable piece of advice and I have lived by it ever since.


I don't seek the fancy car (any old Porche Carrera will do) or a mansion of a house but I do seek for healthy children, a patch of tilled earth and to be a force for good, especially on a small scale, because big scale goodness doesn't fit in around the school run and bathtime. I get my pleasures where and when I can, whether it is the half hour pottering, the playing frisbee and football or the coffee drunk whilst reading a new book (I have a new handbag; it's lovely and red but too small for a book. It won't last long, I promise) and I am entitled to feel successful when I have achieved my ambitions; an empty laundry basket, a weed free patch, the sound of three giggling monkeys telling each other rude words. I feel successful because I have friends who I know I can call on at a moments notice, that I have good relationships with all my relations (There's a rarity, according to the papers) and that I have the love of a good man whom I love deeply. Nothing too expensive or hard to come by, but good enough for me.

And to help me feel good about my success, I will watch this tonight. 6 figure salary? Nein danke!