8 April 2005

Insomnia

I’ve been lying in bed for an hour or so and have finally admitted defeat and got up for a bit. It’s my own fault. I had a lovely nap this afternoon and then ate far too much chocolate late in the evening. Now I feel weary and wound-up and tense but not remotely sleepy.

Anyway, I thought it might be a good opportunity to catch up with a little motivational reading so I grabbed a few books off the shelves and plonked myself in front of the fire with a pot of soothing peppermint tea.

Monty Don’s The Complete Gardener and Fork to Fork are always enjoyable - I think he comes across much better on paper than he ever does on telly. I let Mr Don tell me all he knew about squashes, possibly my favourite vegetable.

Bob Flowerdew’s Organic Bible is also very inspirational, though I’ve not yet had the chance to read as much of it as I would like. It was a Christmas gift from Owen’s parents and so far I’ve only stroked the pages and cooed over the pictures.

My most-used book at the moment is Joy Larkcom’s Grow Your Own Vegetables. She doesn’t have the poetry of Monty or Bob (nor the waggishness of Uncle Alan, but we’ll discuss that another time) but it’s a damn fine reference manual. Yesterday I used it to look up the spacing and depth for my various potatoes - straight to it - brilliant! It really is an excellent tome for an amateur like me. If there’s one criticism it has to be of the illustrations which are a bit tired and old-fashioned ( ‘retro’ would be to put it kindly, but these pictures are pretty awful and they do not inspire kindness).

Still, reading about the brilliance and productiveness of expert gardeners is not the best thing for easing my tension, instead making me worry about how much work there is to do and how little time. Maybe I should try to get what’s left of a good night’s sleep so I have some energy to be vaguely productive tomorrow.

Filed under: Today's Bible — Clare @ 12:33 am