Crocosmia 'Lucifer'
Honeysuckle - Lonicera similis var. delavayi
A deep velvety red flower of Nasturtium 'Whirlybird Mixed'
Saturday, 25 July 2015
Postcards from the Pergola
Crocosmia 'Lucifer'
Honeysuckle - Lonicera similis var. delavayi
A deep velvety red flower of Nasturtium 'Whirlybird Mixed'
Saturday, 11 July 2015
Gardening with ME: gardening, blogging & ME
The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that there wasn't a June #GardeningWithME post, and that in general, I've not been blogging quite so much.
When you garden with ME or another chronic illness, it not only means you have to garden more slowly and be careful where you spend your limited energy. It also means there are periods when you cannot garden much, if at all. This is one of those times for me. My ME has got worse recently and I'll confess it feels like it's a bit of a struggle to manage the garden. Which is frustrating as of course now is when the kitchen garden is starting to produce at an accelerated rate, and the flower borders are bursting, and falling over, at the edges.
My health, in turn, has had an impact on my blogging about the garden and related topics. I have posts I want to write, on garlic, on the herb bed, on a recent visit to Scampston Walled Garden and the North York Moors. But I haven't had the energy. In fact, I'm at the point now where I have to decide whether to spend my limited spoons* (energy), when I have it, to blog about gardening, or getting something done in the garden.
For now, being in the garden, enjoying it, harvesting and cooking the produce, is taking priority. And all my remaining energy. Even then, I only get to garden if I have enough energy after doing some studying (I'm doing a long-distance bookkeeping course) or trying to undertake daily tasks such as having a shower (who knew taking a shower used up so much energy?!) or doing the dishes.
Yesterday, I picked about 1.5kg of strawberries. It was great to be out there in the garden, in the sun, with strawberries. But it was also exhausting. I had no energy to do anything with the strawberries and went to bed. Today, my one goal, was to make strawberry ice cream. Which I did, then I went to bed. You get the idea.
So the blog is going to take a bit of a back seat for a while; hopefully not too long. I hope, and am trying my best to manage things, so that this worsening of the ME is only temporary and I'll still get to write those posts on garlic etc.
When you are gardening with ME, sometimes there aren't enough spoons to both garden and blog about gardening. Any gardener will understand. If it a toss up between being in the garden or writing about the garden, being in it wins every time.
Geranium Ann Folkard next to my garlic crop
When you garden with ME or another chronic illness, it not only means you have to garden more slowly and be careful where you spend your limited energy. It also means there are periods when you cannot garden much, if at all. This is one of those times for me. My ME has got worse recently and I'll confess it feels like it's a bit of a struggle to manage the garden. Which is frustrating as of course now is when the kitchen garden is starting to produce at an accelerated rate, and the flower borders are bursting, and falling over, at the edges.
My health, in turn, has had an impact on my blogging about the garden and related topics. I have posts I want to write, on garlic, on the herb bed, on a recent visit to Scampston Walled Garden and the North York Moors. But I haven't had the energy. In fact, I'm at the point now where I have to decide whether to spend my limited spoons* (energy), when I have it, to blog about gardening, or getting something done in the garden.
For now, being in the garden, enjoying it, harvesting and cooking the produce, is taking priority. And all my remaining energy. Even then, I only get to garden if I have enough energy after doing some studying (I'm doing a long-distance bookkeeping course) or trying to undertake daily tasks such as having a shower (who knew taking a shower used up so much energy?!) or doing the dishes.Yesterday, I picked about 1.5kg of strawberries. It was great to be out there in the garden, in the sun, with strawberries. But it was also exhausting. I had no energy to do anything with the strawberries and went to bed. Today, my one goal, was to make strawberry ice cream. Which I did, then I went to bed. You get the idea.
So the blog is going to take a bit of a back seat for a while; hopefully not too long. I hope, and am trying my best to manage things, so that this worsening of the ME is only temporary and I'll still get to write those posts on garlic etc.
When you are gardening with ME, sometimes there aren't enough spoons to both garden and blog about gardening. Any gardener will understand. If it a toss up between being in the garden or writing about the garden, being in it wins every time.
Strawberry ice cream. From my own strawberries and limited spoons. *proud face*
*If you don't know about spoon theory, I highly recommend this article by Christine Miserandino, from where it originates.
* * * * *
I welcome your thoughts and comments. And if you blog about gardening with ME/a chronic illness, do link to this post in your blog and leave a comment below with a link to your post, so we can all find each other.
About Gardening with ME
Twitter hashtag: #GardeningWithME
Recent Gardening with ME posts...
Gardening with ME: kitchen garden update
Gardening with ME: the importance of the right chair
* * * * *
I welcome your thoughts and comments. And if you blog about gardening with ME/a chronic illness, do link to this post in your blog and leave a comment below with a link to your post, so we can all find each other.
About Gardening with ME
Twitter hashtag: #GardeningWithME
Recent Gardening with ME posts...
Gardening with ME: kitchen garden update
Gardening with ME: the importance of the right chair
Wednesday, 1 July 2015
End of month view: June 2015
A day late, but you know, it's been HOT! The 'flaming June' that Jessica over at Rusty Duck Blog told me would be coming finally got there, just... It is great to have warm weather after all that cold, so I'm not complaining.
This will be a short post this month, with mainly pics. The ME isn't good this week and I don't have much energy, so I would rather spend what little energy I do have this week, in the garden, rather than writing about the garden!
The Long Shady Border has continued to be very lush and is a welcome sight in this warm weather. It does need some tidying/pruning in areas, so hopefully I'll get to that in July. So here it is, at the end of June, in pictures.
*****
This will be a short post this month, with mainly pics. The ME isn't good this week and I don't have much energy, so I would rather spend what little energy I do have this week, in the garden, rather than writing about the garden!
The Long Shady Border has continued to be very lush and is a welcome sight in this warm weather. It does need some tidying/pruning in areas, so hopefully I'll get to that in July. So here it is, at the end of June, in pictures.
*****
End of month view is hosted by Helen Johnstone, aka @patientgardener. Visit Helen's blog for her June 2015 EOMV and links to other bloggers EOMV posts.
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)