Monday 24 July 2023
It’s 08:00, 9°C and sunny. I had a very enjoyable day considering I worked in the garden in the rain yesterday. My friend Becky and I spent most of the day outdoors around the house even though it rained until mid-afternoon. We were both covered in mud and not-particularly-waterproof waterproof clothing and have managed to dig over most of the patch needed for a foundation for a cabin. It may not look like a lot of work but the soil is full of rocks and what seem to be miles of roots. We both decided that digging is very satisfying exercise.
Although we had plenty of breaks, including to watch a YouTube video about how to tie builder’s string around markers, pick and eat blackcurrants and walk up to the spring, we put in quite a few hours of digging. As it was Becky’s birthday, there was tea, chocolate, cheese, salami, coq au vin and more vin, though all things wine-related came after the work. We suffered no major injuries, though discovered a wasp’s nest (fortunately dormant), a field vole and its nest, a selection of dead birds, a frog that gave me a pathetically squeal-inducing fright as it leapt in front of me, one step away from being trod on, and Becky managed to squash a knuckle between a rock and a garden fork.
Today, Chris, Becky and I are going out and Becky and I are planning to finish the foundation area. I did used to have an allotment and friends would help out and we’d all have a feast of some kind afterwards. However, it’s been a long time since (indeed, ever?!) a friend has come to stay largely so she can help out with garden/outdoor related stuff. I did think she was kind of mad, particularly over her birthday, offering to help out, but I genuinely loved being outdoors yesterday, chatting, digging, measuring and getting covered in mud and rain. I even believe Becky when she said she had had a good day and had appreciated being outdoors for most of the day. I feel like I’m learning a lot by being out here, things I never expected to want or need to learn about, and I want to do more outdoors. I am hoping that by Becky and I having spent so much time digging and both of us enjoying it and my enjoying it even in the rain, when I have previously not gone outdoors to do anything resembling work, that I will more often go outdoors whatever the weather. I suspect I won’t but I do like to think I will. It might be worth purchasing a more outdoor-suitable and more waterproof jacket and trousers though.
The photo below is Becky’s approach to some of the dykes that need to be crossed en route to our spring. My approach is more a slow stretch from lower in the ‘valley’; Becky’s is an enormous, impressive leap.
