What is it That You Plan to Do with Your One Wild and Precious Life?

I realise that this blog is in danger of becoming increasingly infrequently updated, and then only with ‘sorry for the lack of posts’ posts – but I also realise that you’re all unlikely to be waiting with bated breath for my latest insights into my idyllic rural downshifted life of (checks notes) sitting at home working all day. However. The work pressures do appear to have eased, and I even managed an afternoon off last week on my birthday, which I immediately celebrated with a trip to the garden centre (I’m not even going to blame that on my advancing years – when I was seven we lived opposite a small garden centre and I loved spending my pocket money there).

Anyway, as I realised when I got home to another flurry of work emails with stupid deadlines, I have ended up not just with a load of lovely plants, as a to do list in vegetal form.

Today there was a rare alignment of no work, no rain and an hour or so off from the cycle campaigning so I started work on the horticultural backlog in an attempt to clear the raised beds so I can get my potatoes planted. An hour later, the rain had restarted and I was back at my desk trying to respond to the coonsil’s latest gaslighting email* in a way that wouldn’t get me on some sort of extremist watch list.

Meanwhile the potatoes remain unplanted.

And how is your spring going?

* Apparently a narrow footbridge where cycling is banned, leading to a one-in-five hill, counts as an ‘active travel route’ because the potential for conflict with traffic is very low, and yes I suppose hopping on and off your bike to cross a bridge and then powering up a steep slope is really quite active, but if you can explain to me how this meets their commitment to “prioritising non-motorised users and public transport” then answers on a postcard please.