This whole 10 10 etc. thing was really amazing because whoever decided it was an important and auspicious date (be it angels, guides or some clever person) was quite right. It turns out that if you decide whatever date is an auspicious one then it becomes auspicious. Spent the day with my Satsang friends going "lovely" this and "lovely" that for no apparent reason but the fact that a) the sun was shining and b) I had been told it was going to be a lovely day being the etc. etc. etc...
So I suggest that we all decide that random days/hours/minutes are going to be lovely and it is garanteed to make them lovely, for sure!
As to the onions...went to my local farm equipment shop to get my early onions set. I plant onions and garlic around my vegetable beds in the autumn and believe that it protects them from pests...funnilly enough, the pests seem to believe it too which means that my crops are usually not eaten by snails and sluggs although my lovely neighbour suggested the first year that was because they "had not found me yet", a lovely image of gossiping sluggs knitting in a corner of the field behind us saying "have you heard that French woman at number 75 has planted her beans" came to my mind then and has never quite left it...
Sorry, keep wondering off the point, back to the onions...as I was walking into the shop, I spotted a huge bag of grown up onions for sale at £3.50. Now my onion set was going to cost me £1.70 for 70 baby onions and I could have a whole lot more for £3.50 with no back breaking work, no tilling, weeding, digging. And I did wonder then, dear reader, why I bother, I did, I really did and nearly bought the grown up onions when I remembered that its not about money, its about love! Its about ritual. In October/November I plant my onions and garlics and then they grow and in the spring they get the sluggs off my plot and then I harvest them and they taste nice and they give me good energy and vibes because, I love my land, I dig it on my knees with all my heart and I can taste it!
There they are, my little baby onions, aren't they cute
On a completely unrelated topic, only it might not be, somebody said to me the other day that they had not got me down as someone who belongs to the WI (Women Institute). Not a surprising comment because I myself have not got me down as someone who belongs to the WI and yet I do. I do because I wanted to find out about it and because the WI is where all the powerful old women of my village roar, laugh and generally have a lovely time. Those women have been members since they were in their 20s sometimes and they say that the WI changed their lives. That before then, they were never allowed time for themselves and that that one evening a month changed everything. Did you know that traditionnally the WI magazine is read at the beginning of each meeting because when it started most of the women members could not read...And the saddest thing of all is that even if they wanted to, my younger friends cannot join because their husbands and partners never get home until 8pm at the earliest, which is after the meeting has started...
So my older friends at the WI teach me all sorts of things, that its ok to be a bit ill sometimes, that you can have a walking stick and put ribbons on it and threaten younger members who are beeing cheeky with it, that life is always worth living even with the ailments and that friendship and community matters above all. They are also teaching me how to finish my blanket squares and how to make special pickles and where the best wild plums are to be had.
I don't know how to end this week's episode of my life on the land. With gratitude, love and joy, grateful thanks to the University for replacing me with a computer programme because, people, I AM HAVING A LOVELY LOVELY LOVELY TIME!
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