| Fascinating Musings |
| Season 1 – Friday – 28/04/23 |
| Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. Carl Sandburg |
| Music – Onward |
| One of the significant challenges over the last eight days has been the harvesting off of the three worm farms and moving the residents down to the allotment. These three farms produced just under a ton of vermicast. [Valuable fertiliser] We are now utilising this to great effect. One of the small ‘farms’ is staying here and will become a raised bed again and the other two will also become raised beds again down on Plot 17. |
| It’s been another tough week, physically demanding. This is the first ‘current’ post l have managed to sit down and write this week for this week. It’s Friday morning, and l am bushwhacked – my shoulder is caning me from whacking posts in yesterday, and my eyes, whilst okay, are gritty from mould spores. I have to wear my goggles every day now, and they can sometimes award a headache, and reading with sore eyes can be hard work. I have a quieter day today, well-ish. It’s quieter than any other time this week. That’s true. We have both been busy with all sorts of things. Outdoorsy things. Physically demanding and challenging things. I have a half-ton of ericaceous compost arriving today which we need for the blueberry trees at the allotment. They need a special requirement – as in highly acidic soil over what we have in situ, which is highly alkaline. For most of this week, l have retired in the evenings to bed knackered between 9.30 to 10 pm. That doesn’t mean l always fall asleep immediately, but that is because my mind isn’t tired. Only my ageing body is. But last night. Well, last night was different. Last night l was in bed by nine and out for the count by ten. Yesterday was the first day at the allotment since Saturday’s nine hours, and it was full-on with the day starting hard core at just after seven am. We finished just before half-four, and we arrived just after nine. But this week’s been super crazy for working hard with the allotment, harvesting worm farms, Willow transitioning and working on gardening projects. Which l will write about soon-ish, when l have the time. I am not short of content to create and publish, but l am short of continued Free Time and Good Weather. The jobs we were behind from March are slowly catching up with this month-ish. We get good weather and must work like the clappers to make the most of it. Some jobs are small and quickly done, while others take more time and require lots of energy. My energy levels are depleted, but shit doesn’t get done alone. So it gets done, tired or not. The good news is that we have another spell of good weather coming through next week, so it’ll mean we will be busy as Uckitty Doodle Duck when we can. There are still many small and large tasks that need completing. As said, jobs we are not short of. Someone asked me the other day if l stopped writing blog content. No. For the record, l create the 7.15 am GMT daily content on the weekend for the following week, so all the Greetings, Poetry, Dawdler and Silent Sunday have been post-dated from the previous Saturday and Sunday. The other thing is, l wrote about this in a comment last week in Renard’s blog: these posts may be small, but l enjoy creating them as much as l do current or more formal informative content. The reason is that they are close to who l am as a personality. My blog is like an allotment, as in seasonally reflective and an eclectic mixture of things that grow. Still, equally, l always greet people wherever l go, l take photos when l can and write and read poetry if time allows. I have always got a head filled with useless facts and snippets, and l am ALWAYS asking questions, which is why the morning line-up contains the structure it has. These are more accessible posts to create in bulk – they require some imagery formatting; l guess the longest part is shrinking and resizing images used. But the seven posts for the week take about ten hours, comfortably squeezed into the weekend’s spare time. Current, informative and highly visual content takes longer to create, and only if l am lucky can l create a couple on Monday for the week. Failing that, l make on the day itself for that day, but only if l have the time. I prefer to write from seven in the morning to around three in the afternoon. I can’t write after that as there are too many distractions or demands on my time. Although if l am working, l need more time to create something, which is why l am thankful for the morning post-dated content l have made on the weekend, so something is continuously published even if l am not there. When l had the blog shuffle last month, l changed the content publishing schedule from what was fourteen publishings a week to reflect eleven only. The new publishing schedule is a 7.15 am Monday to Sunday routine and a 1.15 pm slot Tuesday to Friday only. This was a more sustainable publishing schedule because the morning posts were always available. If l have limited time to write during the day, then l always have the morning content to float the blog with. This has worked much better for me. By lowering my expectations on available time and reprioritising the importance of my life, l was once again beginning to enjoy my writing and the blogging process. Throughout my life, l have always enjoyed working outdoors more than being cooped up inside, so sitting for X hours a day looking at a screen was starting to annoy me. With all the rain we have experienced over the last six months, l was also experiencing a form of cabin fever. I had to ask myself a big question: What is more important to you? Your blog or your business and visions for the future? Whilst all are connected, the reality is that the blog has to be second or third or fourth and not first. Once l had accepted that l rearranged my inside writing life to reflect that more, I keep a small blog that is relatively niche and will become more niche as time allows, but let’s be honest, not all of my friends are into the things l am – like worms and composting and gardening – l get that. But l am. I write for myself, but l also write and like to be read by others, and we all do. Otherwise, we would not have a public open-for-all-to-read blog but a journal tucked away somewhere private. l also have a responsibility to make some of my content worthy for others to read and be entertained with and by. If the readers also enjoy some of my geeky stuff, which is, in many respects, journal entries for me, then that is also a bonus. That is what is happening with my blog – l will only produce seven to eleven posts a week from now. If l am busy, then readers will only see seven. At least it’s the seven that’ll not bore them into slumber. This week has been gruelling. When l write about what has been achieved in the coming weeks, you will see significant changes in areas you are familiar with or have followed in other series like the gardening projects, the Willow garden and Plot 17. However, l only have a little spare time to create lots of written current content for now. But l will be back soon, and l am still here reading your blogs in the evenings, albeit slower. |
Earthly Comforts 
Rory, you have the energy of three men. I am glad you are able to do so very much. Prioritising is a difficult task. Best of luck on all your ventures.
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Thanks Lauren. 🙂
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I can relate to your level of busy and lack of time. Especially this year when we have been working for the last month on fencing the perimeter of our 7+ acre farm. Actually my husband has been doing the work on that but then I am picking up many of the chores that he normally does. He comes home daily complaining of aches and pains and he wasn’t real impressed when I told him “If you feel pain at least you know you are alive.” LOL! I am actual very impressed at how much work he has done.
I am also impressed at how well organized you are with your posts. I personally enjoy the gardening post the most but don’t need daily updates. No need to apologize – just get out there and live life – the update when you can. Be well!
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Yes l feel you both can easily relate to this tale Ruth. This time of year is always hard work.
Well working outside any time of the year is hard graft hahaha, but when the sun starts to shine, we start speeding up.
I have only another 8 8 foot long posts to hammer in, but geeps it’s seriously knackering work! The soil is clay which makes the going even harder.
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You are getting your money’s worth out of your time coin, Rory.
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Sheesh and gees you are not far wrong there Geoff 🙂
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I don’t see how you keep up with it! You’re amazing!
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Thanks Eugenia, it’s starting to take its toll on me, well both of us, we are a bit ragged around the edges now 🙂
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Time for a break!
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Hopefully soon Eugenia, with the longer days now getting here, a break is still a fair distance away 🙂
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