As I take a break between cleaning the house, wrapping presents and mopping the water that’s dripping through the roof, I hear the lyrics ‘So this is Christmas, and what have you done?’ reverberating through the Sonos speakers. The answer that springs immediately to mind is ‘not enough’.
It’s been a challenging year, and I feel less on top of things than ever. I’ve got an annoying twitch in my left eye, caused by staring at my computer screen for too long with glasses that aren’t the right prescription. The workshop is still stacked with tulips that need planting and the garden looks soggy and desolate. I dare not think about the allotment, where we’ve already been given a yellow card for leaving our bamboo canes exposed. (One wonders if there might be more important things to make a fuss about in December?). I have also neglected this blog while I create a new bank of articles for Dan Cooper Garden.
Despite all of this, I have never counted my blessings more. We lost our water supply for twenty-four hours earlier in the week – a nuisance by any measure – but it made me appreciate all the more the plight of those in Ukraine and Africa, where a shortage of water isn’t a day-long irritation but a way of life. Try not to turn on a tap or flush a toilet for six hours and you’ll soon experience some discomfort. Imagine if that went on for days, weeks or even months? Every section of our roof now has a leak somewhere, which keeps me awake at night. They’re tiny, and they only manifest themselves when the rain is hard and persistent, but I know they won’t fix themselves. Yet we still have a roof over our heads, and no one is trying to take our home from us. We can keep it warm – just about – thanks to the vast quantity of logs that arrived in November.
Back to those lyrics and ‘what have you done?’. While the annoying earworm is definitely chanting ‘not enough’, I am bravely trying to sing a different lead vocal. I have started a new business, managed to maintain a garden and allotment and keep too many houseplants alive. I have made lots of new friends and become engaged to The Beau. So despite the challenges of 2022, which we’ve all shared to some extent, I am glad – glad I did what I did, glad I survived it and glad to be waving goodbye.
Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas. TFG.