Fabulous Time of Year

There has been a high pressure system overhead, which has brought a fabulous day with lovely sunny weather and a gentle cool wind - in fact, ideal for a great day sail aboard ‘Minnow’, and yet I have been very contented to be at home pottering in the garden. I say, ‘pottering’, but the effort required for cutting lawns and cleaning edges was more demanding than just poking around in a few flowerpots, adding compost and watering plants.

Undoubtedly, the physical exercise was good for my back, and it was enough to generate a healthy pulse for keeping down the cholesterol.  In addition to being good for my physical health, gardening is therapeutic and beneficial for my general wellbeing. One’s spirit is lifted when surrounded by trees in blossom and flowers in bloom and at the same time inhale scented air, blended with the distinct aroma of chlorophyll released from freshly mown lawns. The robin’s cheerful chirpings and the blackbird’s shrill warning was music to my soul.

Such things as these are very satisfying. Add to them our innate, but often unrecognized need for creative expression, shaping a garden, pruning, digging and handling earth, are hard to beat.

In today’s world we can be cut off from nature by our manmade environments. Instead of feeling rain on our face, or a healthy glow generated by wind and sun, we avoid them by sitting in our cars, travelling on trains, buses or the underground.  We live and work in centrally heated buildings, often without natural lighting, as in supermarkets, warehouses and factories. Worse still, thousands labour at night with no sunlight, not by choice, but to survive; often exploited, working long hours sometimes taking home less than the minimum wage.

Therefore I can rejoice that I have had a wonderful day here in glorious Essex, England, at this fabulous time of year, early summer in the year 2014.