Food for thought

Thought I might try to articulate some of what growing has come to mean to me. It is not just about being able to eat food straight from the soil – and being able to share it. It is not just about being part of the seasons, rooted to the earth, about sowing seed, nurturing seedlings from their first signs of life until you can sit around a table with friends and family and delight in the taste sensations that real, local, loved, food can bring. It is of course about all this and more, but I am beginning to suspect that being a gardener is somehow about becoming a 'part' of the garden. By which I think I mean another (almost natural) element, along with the sun, soil, rain, seed, in the mystery of growing, the creation of life. Reading back on this it barely makes sense even to me. And maybe that is part of it too (he says!). It is also about being in a place where intellect and articulacy matter less than intuition. Where logic and 'knowing' isn't nearly enough. But enough of that, too. My apologies for half-baked thinking (though I would really welcome other people's thoughts, please?). Here are some snapshots of some of what is happening on the plot at the moment. Will talk about our wonderful beans, our stunning salad leaves and other riches another time.