Time

My life of being gainfully employed is almost over. The extension I had agreed on last November will be completed by the end of this month. That's two days. In a bit I am going to cycle there for one last time to hand over my mobile phone and some data files and whatnots. I wanted to bake a cake for my colleagues but we only had one egg left last night, so tough luck. It's all over now.

Now, when I wake up I have to first tell myself what day of the week it actually is. I am discovering that I can slow down, that I can take my time. I am a knitter and I go for the complicated patterns that involve a lot of colours and a lot of counting and checking and rechecking. When I make a mistake, a tiny one, I sometimes used to ignore it, even it out with a slip here and there in the next row. Who cares, I would think. And: oriental carpets, the hand made ones, always have errors in their patterns. That way they can be recognised as originals. Once I was told by an old woman in a small village in the Ida mountains in western Turkey, these errors are proof that only Allah is perfect. But now, I have time and I go back and redo the row, unravel a whole section with one small mistake right at the start. No rush. But no need to be perfect.

I watched a long Terence Malick film without getting impatient. That's a first. We make elaborate plans for day trips, walks, swimming in cold water lakes and hot water springs, museums, galleries, Flemish cities across the border, the North Sea coast three hours drive away. And then we stay at home, get lost in the garden, make a pot of tea, listen to the news, talk with the neighbours, cycle a while along the river in the fading light at the end of the day. 

 

It's been cold and we had two nights of frost. This vine has got a touch of it but we hope it will recover. My father-in-law brought it back from the US many years ago, a gift from one the distant emigrant cousins. He nursed and pampered it in his greenhouse in Ireland and when the house was sold, R brought it here.

 

 

Meanwhile, mysterious stuff is going on inside our greenhouse.

 

While the vegetable patch is slowly coming along. The spuds survived the frost and the sugar snaps are up and climbing.

 

 

The colour theme this week is pink and purple.