The Weekend Starts Here !

It looks as if we are in for a wet and windy weekend in this neck of the woods so there goes the garden and allotment methinks. A hardy perennial I am not. There are chores to do,some shopping on the cards and a sixtieth birthday party to attend but come Sunday I think that I am going to spend some time curled up on the settee reading. Himself at work, the house to myself, so an ideal opportunity. For some years I have treated myself to a book to be savoured in that special lingering twilight zone between Christmas and New Year. This year the Christmas book did not get a look in, as I was laid low with the dreaded lurgy. Christmas and New Year came and went and I lost my appetite both for eating and for reading but am now fully revitalised.

My chosen book for Christmas 2008 was 'The Wonderful Weekend Book - Reclaim Life's Simple Pleasures' by
Elspeth Thompson. The introduction promises a an 'original and inspiring' book that 'shows how we can reclaim the weekend by recharging our batteries and enjoying the simple pleasures in life'. It is 'packed with ideas that will help restore the balance in our lives, reconnect us to the seasons and each other and, quite literally, not cost the earth'.

I usually choose a gardening book for but broke with tradition. Weekends have changed for me during the last few months as I took voluntary redundancy from my job at the end of last July. No more dreading Sunday afternoons/evenings when I had to iron work clothes, empty briefcase of its contents, extract forgotten dessicated bananas and other undesirable items, logically rearrange contents, bathe, wash hair, sometimes cook etc as well as think about and plan my week ahead. Matters further deteriorated when we could get onto our work computer systems via remote access from home. A quick look at my diary for the next week would soon lead to other work activities, and before I knew it I was still on the computer doing work related stuff well into Sunday evening. Now every day stretches ahead like a weekend day, but I can take it at much gentler pace and smile in the knowledge that Sundays are not going to come to such a premature end. So I thought that this book might give me some ideas of new activities to dip my toes into 2009.

I have had a sneaky peek to see what is inside. As well as 'Things to do : Year Round' there are sections on 'Seasonal Pleasures' covering each season, 'Having Guests and Going Away', 'A New Approach to Chores' and 'Bring Back Sunday'. I am pleased to say that the book is not without some gardening related snippets, as the author writes a regular gardening column for one of the British Sunday newspapers and has also written gardening books. I have previously read and thoroughly enjoyed her 'Urban Gardener' and 'A Tale of two gardens'. So come Sunday I will make myself cosy and comfy and hope to be inspired. I will report back here at some stage if I try and enjoy any of the suggested activities. I wonder what fellow gardeners and allotmenteers will be reading this weekend ?