Skating Uphill April Edition 2021
By Judith Lawrenson
“This is on of the three times a year that I just hate!”
“The Uphill Skater”
All right, so I really don’t mean that I actually hate any time of the year, especially Spring. but this my situation-three times a year I am moved, to get stuff done. New Years Day, my birthday, and Spring somehow get to me. I see everything I own as needing to be rearranged, thrown out, repaired, donated to charity and on and on. I think this might be hormonal, but I also know that that kind of thinking is very out of date nowadays. I feel the urge coming on though, so I thought I would share some insights with you.
Briefly, here it is. Clean out the pantry and start on a brand new healthy eating plan. Note I did not say diet and I have a very good reason for that. I hospital dietitian told me recently that any plan that you go on that has a beginning and an end will never work. I have enough experience to know that this is true. Next, go through your closet. and finally, clean your house. I did say this was brief, right? Oh, but of course, this is not really the point of this month’s column. In addition to this regular stuff that drives me crazy, I have added, this Spring, something new that I really must share. I have taken up gardening!
Maybe you already have a big vegetable garden or flowers by the ton, or even watermelon, but I do not and I never have. I grew up on a farm and we had alfalfa and cotton. People do not eat those things or have them in their house in case you have not noticed. I was inspired to all of this by a TV show which is a bit odd since I am not a real TV watcher. This show is about a British couple who buy a chateau in France that has 100 rooms, a 25 acre lot, and is nearly 200 years old. A big part of this show is about the garden they create. Just by sprinkling some wild flower seeds, the woman is able to grow what they call a cutting garden. She has lovely flowers for months and puts them in her chateau and everything looks fabulous. Okay, so maybe I can’t do that, but I can certainly go down to the nursery and buy some flower seedlings and make a start of it. I am really looking forward to trying this. I seldom try anything completely different so by going out of the box a bit I am taking a bit of a risk, but I think it is going to be fun.
I am also going to plant some tomatoes. I already have my plants in the garage and will put them in shortly. I did a bit of this last year. Just for fun and to fill an empty spot, I planted a little grape tomato plant. I actually had tomatoes and I actually ate them. Again, this may be all boring old news for some of you green thumb types out there, but i was quite a thrill for me. This year I am going to plant not only some more tomatoes, but some herbs too. I use a lot of basil and rosemary so I will plant that. I also really like flat leaf parsley so I am going for that too. I can hardly wait to see things grow, and I really hope not to have grocery store flowers and hard tomatoes this summer. Boy Oh Boy!
Part of the fun of this is that it is something completely different, of course. I am always advising readers to do that. Break out, give something different a try, I have done this with my BLOG www.skatinguphill.com and it has been wonderful. I am leaning as I go and I think things like that keep your brain from drying up. Do look at Spring a bit differently this year. New growth, new life, and let’s add to that, a new project. Why Not??? Love Judith