Each Winter, prodded by the promise of warm weather to come, and the seemingly endless number of seed catalogs that show up in the mail, I get ready to plant a garden like nobody has seen. Oh the number of vegetables I’ll plant, and by seed no less! Forget the stuff at the garden center.
Each Spring, prodded by the promise of warm weather to come, many lists of “books you should read this summer”, and good old-fashioned optimism, I keep buying books. This year I’ll get to the pile I tell myself!
The gardening? Tempered by reality I forget how much effort gardening actually takes. Starting seeds indoors can be a challenge, not one for the faint of heart. So each Spring I forget the catalogs of seeds and make up my mind that this time I’m going to just head to the garden center but next Spring and Summer it will be different. Even in that context gardening is hard work. Planting. Pruning. Watering. Watching the wildlife destroy what I’ve spent so many hours tending. I don’t end up with much and apparently never learn a lesson to temper my expectations.
And the reading? Held back by my seeming inability to concentrate on anything at all for more than 2 minutes at a time these days, come Summer I look at the pile, shake my head, and pick up my computer or phone for a quick hit that doesn’t take much brain power. All of those books purchased on the promise of Summer? Haven’t read a single one.