coming back from cambridge

I'm coming back from Cambridge. The air is mild; there were daffodils in the garden of the house where we stayed, and as the party matured into the evening I sat out by their fire bowl, with a high street fake fur coat dropped over my party dress, while my shoes flashed into the night. I wasn't cold.

The next morning chickens came out and clucked conversationally to us. Nothing is worried about freezing to death this year. I gave up counting the flowers out in their garden; roses, clematis freckles, common abutilon hanging against a warm wall.There's hardly been a winter at all this year.

I'm thinking about resolutions for 2017, and I think the most important will be to stop gardening. I know, it sounds strange. But gardening is a form of entertainment, not a job, no matter how Monty Don might set us "jobs for the weekend". It's playing at cultivation, not depending on it for this season's sustenance. Time to treat gardening exactly as what it is - entertainment.

Resolutions for 2017:

1. Stop gardening when you're bored.
2. Optimise the garden for party.
3. Start optimising for easy care and high reward.
4. Improve your watering experience.
5. Throw away the old things that are limping on but not really working.
6. Get rid of some of the pots, for pete's sake. You have too many.
7. Refresh the strawberries.
8. Get a new camera.
9. Get the overhang trimmed away.
10. Do something tiny.