Time.

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My garden is looking great just now, if I say so myself.  I have a Clematis Montana that travels from our back door, right down the trellis between us and the neighbours to the flowering cherry at the bottom of the garden and during May it looks amazing.  It takes over and flowers just as the blossom on the cherry gets blown off as it inevitably does every year!
This is the view of the clematis from our upstairs room window.
I also have some Honeysuckle about to flower and the smell of that on warm evenings is delicious.  The veg is all coming along nicely, we've eaten loads of rhubarb so far, I have spring onions just about ready to eat in the greenhouse and lots of cut and come again lettuce to eat now.  There are millions of Forget Me Nots everywhere.  I love them growing in all the little crevices of the paths and I have Foxgloves coming up all over the place too.  Mine is not a formal type of garden.  It's what I call a bit wild and wooly but its exactly what I like.
One advantage of lockdown has been having the time to concentrate on gardening without feeling I have somewhere else to be.  Being retired you'd think I have all the time in the world to do whatever takes my fancy but somehow that's not the case.  Of course I have more time than when I worked for a living.  I have more time than when I had three young children to bring up.  I have more time than ever, yet I always felt I didn't have time.  Go figure! 
Now, I feel all I have is time yet nothing very much has really changed.  I no longer pick up my granddaughter from school two days a week.  I no longer go to classes to improve my art skills.  I no longer meet friends for lunch or coffee and I now only go shopping one day a week.  If anyone had asked me before this I'd have said these things take up very little of my time yet now they are gone I find myself with much more time on my hands.  Clearly what I need to do is change my attitude to the amount of time I have or have not got.  It's along the same lines as a thing I once read.  I don't know the exact quote or who said it but its along the lines of ' don't tell me you don't have time to visit with me, what you are actually saying is that I am not a priority to you'  Aint that the truth.  We prioritise the things we want to do most.   We can usually make time where we really want to don't you think? x

Comments

  1. Lettice13 May 2020 at 07:33

    Love your garden, exactly my sort, let things grow where they will, they have a far better idea than us mere humans do!

    I can honestly say I drift through the days doing not really much of anything, look back and wonder where the day went? Being of a reclusive nature helps, added to which since moving here I haven’t found anything to do/join/classes etc. and I am content. Maybe, just maybe getting a bit twitchy...

    LX

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    Replies
    1. Marksgran13 May 2020 at 08:27

      I find I'm drifting through a lot of days too. I'm beginning to want to go out a bit more, I haven't, but I want to! I find most days I can busy myself quite happily but others I can't find the enthusiasm for anything much. I think the worst of it is that we don't know when it will end. If someone said, its only till August then it will be fine it would be easier to deal with but at the moment no-one knows when we will be 'safe' out in the world again. It's quite mind boggling. xx

      Delete
  2. Frances13 May 2020 at 08:58

    Your clematis is gorgeous. Years ago we had a borrowed one.....it actually grew next door , but covered the fence between us and went up over the front of our car port, but sadly the neighbours either cut it back or killed it somehow! We have however got a borrowed wisteria at the back of the house which is in full flower at the moment !
    I used to get the grandkids from school twice a week too....it took up a whole afternoon, not getting home til around 6.15 ish ( I took them back to their Dad's ....my son's house) and my shift at the Oxfam bookshop took up another afternoon. Luckily I am still walking the dog, and a bit of gardening, but I find I am quite lethargic about doing any of the things I thought I could while this
    covid is going on. I tend to think oh well, I can save it until tomorrow. ( or next week!) I made my calendar look busy this week as I organised 2 dog walk meet ups, a friend is whatsapping me this afternoon and I have a book club zoom on Thursday. I thought if I wrote them down it would look good.

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    Replies
    1. Marksgran14 May 2020 at 20:36

      I love the clematis. It really is taking over the world though! I used to have two wisteria plants in the garden but one died a couple of years ago for no apparent reason and the other died last year. Last years was a lovely mature plant and I've no idea what happened to it.
      I too find myself on some days quite lethargic. I have so many things I could/should do but yet find myself all loose endy. I did exactly the same this week on my calendar. I had to collect some cards from our little local gift shop. The owner is showing her stock on Facebook and we can message her to order stuff then pay by phone and collect from the shop or she'll deliver. I wanted to support her lovely shop so I put on my calendar that I had to collect my cards! I also had to put on that we were standing at our gate for a lovely neighbour who died last week. His hearse was leaving from the house and as there was to be very few at the funeral we all stood on the pavement to pay our respects. Then for my aunts 80th birthday, myself and my brother and mum went up in our separate cars to sing her happy birthday. It's been a busy week. :D x

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  3. Treaders13 May 2020 at 19:42

    I love your garden too. More wild and (hopefully) attracting all kinds of wildlife. I planted a few packets of "wild meadow flower" seeds (or called something like that) and I'm REALLY hoping they pop up in one part of my garden which is difficult to cultivate. Although that being said I must have thrown wild strawberries in there one year and they've totally taken over. And I know what you mean about time slipping through our fingers. I'm still not used to the fact that I actually don't have to do anything today for the most part. It feels kind of guilty to me but then it seems most bloggers are saying the same thing right now. Confusing times indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Marksgran14 May 2020 at 20:40

    Thankyou. Unfortunately the only wildlife I have are frogs and foxes. The frogs I don't mind but the foxes annoy the heck out of me! They dig up the garden and wee and poo which in turn attracts the dog to it to rub his head in it, then he stinks!
    I have some wild strawberries I planted in an old plastic dog bed one year and despite my neglect of them they continue to thrive, yet the cultivated strawberries I try to grow every year fail every time! Sods law.
    I don't feel so much guilty as just slothful when I don't do anything. But on the whole I'm enjoying the slower pace of life, if only it wasn't so scary out there! x

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  5. Scarlet14 May 2020 at 21:45

    Your clematis is stunning! J curtailed ours by stripping all of it, and the Virginia creeper, off the garage as he needed to repair the roof, and he removed a wall and trellis that it used to grow over. I was sad at the time, but he rebuilt the front of the garage using the bricks from the wall!
    I've just planted a clematis in the new bed at the bottom of the garden, and we've got another to go near the greenhouse to try to screen that because it's ugly. I'd like to get rid of it, but J starts his seeds off in there rather than the one at the allotment, so it has to stay.

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    Replies
    1. Marksgran14 May 2020 at 22:24

      Thank you. That is the second one we've had as the first had to be cut right back when the fence between our neighbours and us came down in a very strong wind one year. I was devastated taking it down but Clematis Montana grows again very quickly. I said to my neighbour today, in fact, 'I wonder how far the clematis would go if we just left it to go its own way across our town I presume we'll never know!" Our greenhouse isn't very pretty either but I wouldn't like to be without it, unless of course it was to get a newer prettier one! xx

      Delete

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