I was reading the latest chapter in The Frugal Hedonist this afternoon, when I had a sudden thought. It was a chapter about how, in the 1950’s, society was ready to reduce the working week, increase leisure time and, essentially, make life so much better. Unfortunately, we were told we had to save ‘The Economy’ and everything went the other way. So, we work longer hours and have less leisure time. This, it seems, has occurred because our capitalist society has told us it must. We need more stuff and, in order to get more stuff, we need to make more. Then we need to make more money in order to buy even more. There are a lot of pointless ‘things’ we must have. And that’s when the thought struck me: There’s only the poor because there’s the wealthy.
That’s not all I did today. Thinking and reading, I mean. I also worked in the garden, something quite rare. Mirinda also worked in the garden but, that’s not so rare.
A job that we can’t leave for the gardeners (because they’re not delicate enough) is the planting of bleeding hearts. I weeded then excavated three appropriately sized holes around the bird bath in The Garden of One Thousand Yaps, sprinkled some chicken poo in the base and plonked them in. Delicately. I then covered them with guards because Emma and Freya are likely to destroy them otherwise.
Mirinda also wanted me to find and remove a few steps I’d put in the Hot Border years ago. They were invisible, having been gradually buried under the accumulation of compost and dirt. Because they’d gradually vanished, they were pointless and just taking up plant space. Armed with a fork, I started hunting.
I managed to find all three, dug them up and moved them. This left three rectangular holes in the Hot Border. I guess if we leave the holes for a few years, eventually they’ll just fill up naturally.
That was enough for me. Apart from the fact that I have balance problems – you try lifting stepping stones while supporting yourself with a walking stick – I really don’t like gardening very much. Mind you, I had the rugby on the radio while I planted the bleeding hearts, which was very exciting. In fact, I’m thinking of changing my allegiance from football to rugby.
Eventually, Mirinda took Emma for a walk (Freya is still in season) and I settled down on the sun lounger for my Reading Hour. It was a glorious afternoon and the garden looked intriguing from where I reclined.
It was the end of a lovely day.
Actually, it wasn’t the end.
There was dinner and our Saturday night movie which, this week, was my choice. I chose The Dig. I’m not a big Ralph Fiennes fan (I’ve told the ‘Ralph’ v ‘Rafe’ story before) but I thought he was exceptionally good as Basil Brown and I’m a big Carey Mulligan fan. And then, of course, there’s the archaeology.
We both loved it very much. One of those films that has everything just right.
Dinner, by the way, was a delicious, no pasta lasagne, thoroughly enjoyed by us both.
