Growing & Walking

I decided that it was finally time to address the chaos that is my garage yesterday and also the chaos that is my garden. I plainly woke up feeling industrious and it had nothing to do with finishing the book I so deeply love. (Well maybe I was avoiding finishing it just a little, I couldn't bear for it to be over.)
Anyway, as I flailed with a trowel on my hands and knees a neighbour sauntered past and asked if I was getting some early veg in.
No, some late bulbs.
He then asked if I'd heard about the allotments they were creating in my village.
No I bloody hadn't! Ten half plots!
Is it weird that I am unnaturally excited by this?
I'm ringing first thing in the morning to get my name down for one of those wee plots so please, pretty please all keep your fingers crossed!

Also, last week I became aware of this awesome website: landshare.
What a brilliant idea. If you own a good plot of land, let someone grow veg on it and the rental for which will be produce. If you don't have any land, put your name down to please borrow some of someone elses.

If I'm not able to get one of the plots in the village and my landlord is iffy about my digging up some of my lawn then this is the perfect solution!

Anyway, on another note, my friend Rachael and I went out for a walk today. We joined up with the Young Ramblers for what, Rachael assured me, was going to be an amble. After the first few hundred metres I knew I was in trouble. I simply couldn't keep up to their pace.
I'm only a scratch over 5 feet and have particularly stumpy legs.
It was also incredibly wet and muddy. By the end of the walk the mud was literally to my knees. Partly due to the sudden immersion of my left leg in a mud patch that was much deeper than it appeared. That mud patch also had ideas about my boot and tried desperately to wrench it from my foot. But it was foiled, not only had I laced my boots so tight that my toes felt a little numb, it was also impossible to remove - which by the way, was much less funny when I actually wanted to remove them when I got home.
And which meant I also had to drop my jeans in my conservatory.
Which is immediately next to the footpath. And road.
Quite how I managed not to indecently flash anyone is the product of pure luck. Their luck, not mine.
Anyway, I jump ahead.
I'm stumpy and squat as we've mentioned, I am not built for speed, I'm just not. The combination of big boobs and stumpy legs just doesn't equate to an aerodynamic shape.
As evidenced the last time I ran for a bus. Which is still mentioned. Despite the fact that my boyfriend at the time has been happily married to his wife for some years now - which happened after we broke up - just for clarification!
He still mentions my selfless act, as I lay, bleeding (not broken thankfully) and I looked up at him, knowing he would be late for work and said "Go, Leave me here."
Had he actually done that, I'm not entirely sure what I'd have done. He didn't though, he helped me limp my way back to his house as I sniffled.
Anyway, there were a lot of people on that bus that would be happy to testify I am not built for speed. Although I am built for a comfortable landing. Which is lucky really.

Goodness I'm in a world of digression today.
I told Rachael that was my first and last excursion with the young ramblers. I clearly need to be in the OAP group. Which is fine by me. I feel like I'm ageing too fast anyway.

Harriet has started drinking Apple Cider Vinegar as it's said to be good for you, possibly a little anti-ageing, maybe I need to try that too.

Yesterday evening I finally gave in and finished my book: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I don't understand how the building of a cathedral can be so completely absorbing. It must be the way he built the characters, you come to care for them or hate them, at times I found myself willing some of them to be killed. When literature can inspire that kind of feeling I think you have a skilled author. I know this is outside his usual realm of writing and I'm pleased he went for it.
I first heard about the book on Oprah and she raved about it so much, she went on to interview Ken Follett and he talked about how he'd wanted to write the book for years but that his publishers weren't really interested.
I can't even begin to explain how awesome this book is. I wanted to do nothing but read it, whilst also wanting it to never end.
At one point in the book he skips a period of years and I felt like I wanted to hear about every mundane thing that happened to those characters in that time.
I found myself completely absorbed by this tale of the Middle Ages, how they behaved, how they ate and drank. It was absolutely fascinating.
I want everyone to read it, because having read it feels like one of the best gifts I ever had.