Gardening Season has started!

Last week I mentioned multi-tasking, and whether it's really any good for us. I think I concluded that there are degrees of it, from not doing anything at all other than being in the moment, then just concentrating on 1 current task, or attempting to be present while concentrating on many tasks, and then almost disregarding the present moment and be fixated on the next one - getting to school etc. The latter being the stressful one.

I opened up A New Earth the next day and what did I see? It's basically saying give your children YOU..and to not become just the bundle of tasks that you are doing. I've also watched my children and while in this 'space' of being, I've noticed and learned so much. Children do not wait. Yes that's obvious but they are only ever being in the waiting room, playing and having fun, they do not naturally anticipate, or suspend the present moment's activities for the promise of a future one ("Sit still, you'll be going to football soon and can run around then").

(The original post showed photographed pages from A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. They are not reproduced here — it's well worth reading the book itself.)

This week we've been spending a lot of time in the garden. Last year we successfully harvested Lettuce, Potatoes, Chinese Broccoli, Kale, Cabbage, Spring Onions, Chives, Rosemary and other herbs. Below pics of our brassica and potatoes harvested this week.

We unsuccessfully tried peas, tomatoes, beans, and the strawberries were mostly eaten by slugs.

This year I'm going to cover everything in a fine netting as I did with the brassica and redo a lot of them. We've only got a small patio so I use pots.

We have a garden on 5 levels, so other than the patio, a small fenced lawn area, a stoned pergola covered area, a shed on another level and a drive way at the bottom which is currently covered in a really awful compost heap from a collapsed hedge.

Lots to do but just today I cut back the hedge, trimmed the lawn and my eldest and I built a mini greenhouse and sowed tomato seeds - 3 varieties!

In the next week we are hoping to build a large wooden composter and beds for the bigger crops. I just need the wood!