OK, I have my first “writers block”. But persistence overcomes resistance, so let me use the auto function on my phone to write for me.
Err, perhaps not.
Let me rather share my anticipation. Come up to the lab, see what’s on the slab, its just a jump to the left, and then a step to the right…
The definition of sardonic – Tim Curry as Frank N. Furter
And there you have today’s life lesson – sometimes you have to jump to the left, and other times, step to the right. Like this week, when an external event, caused me to indubitably look within. What was the real reason for me tentatively taking steps into a different direction? This different direction is yet another branch of “exploring options”. Separate, yet connected at source, from the other options that form, and will form, the substance of this blog.
This other option is a potential different job, still very much in the vein of making a difference, but it comes with a bag full of politics, and besides, who likes the tax man anyway? Let me take a step to the right.
And just like that, I have inspiration for the next blog – using song lyrics to convey a concept. The very connectedness of things. Nothing in isolation, one thing informs the next and so on. I wonder what the other me in alternate universe number nth to the nth is doing right now.
Perhaps there is one alternate Talita, who knows exactly whether the rocket can be planted next to the Japanese mustard? (Anton, you can come in here with your mass of knowledge). And that you do not have to bother trying to seed the cabbage and cauliflower right now, because soon it will be too hot (Thank you Jens).
Any and all advice is welcome.
I do not quite suffer from macrophobia (the fear of long waits). But I cannot procrastinate. It is impossible. Thus, I started for the following reasons:
- Spring has sprung, and is that not the perfect time to start one’s vegetable greenhouse income stream?
The list includes (thanks to the administrative planning support of Marthana…)
- Our “mulch” is coming along nicely. (Sensitive viewers, please look away now).
The magic of grass fed cattle by-product, recycled.
- My anti-poaching double perimeter is in place.
- Plumbing works installed. Thanks to The Husband.
- We have had our first rain for the season. 4 mm in total. Now I do need to construct some context to this. I was in a board meeting with a colleague from Zimbabwe, who runs a banana plantation. I was expressing concern with the lack of our rain of the season before last. I was saying we need an average of 300mm, and we had only had 68mm. She was non-plussed, that is not particularly concerning to her. Until I said we needed 300mm a year. She has that in a day!
So this year is off to a good start, if we started 2 months early, with 4mm in one weekend.
The petrichor is abundant.
Petrichor – A pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather.
That is the “dry” dictionary explanation.
Let me put your nose in place. It smells of earth, well fed nutrient rich soil. It smells of wholesome fresh sheep droppings, feeding our umbilical cord with mother earth.
It smells of camel thorn seed pods waking up.
It smells of hard physical labour (of love) tilling the soil.
It smells of new beginnings.
It smells of feisty yellow weaver ladies, indignantly destroying an untidy nest being built by a dutiful yellow weaver fella.
It smells of brisk morning walks in the veld.
How I have longed these long winter months for you, the sunshine in my life.
