Resting

Taking time and taking stock in the cutting garden

I started off a whole piece today that was all very practical, and full of ideas and advice and things to do. I couldn’t get anywhere with it. The words just wouldn’t be wrangled into something worth reading or that I wanted to really say. When I thought about what I’m really feeling when I stand in the cut flower garden just now, I realised it was the deep urge to do nothing.

It’s been frosty here in the West of Scotland this week, as I know it has for many of you in the UK. That lovely clear weather is now giving way to the harsher cold of wind and occasional bitter rain. The cutting garden is firmly, completely dead for the season. Everything has collapsed or shrunk back to its most dormant form. This is not the time to talk brightly about ideas for next year or jobs to do now. This is the garden giving me a clear sign that it’s time to rest.