A muffin-top waistline, greying hair and crepe skin. I'm not getting any younger but I was a bit saddened to hear my eldest daughter saying, "Dad's gone to seed."
She was of course on the phone to her grandmother and I had misinterpreted what she'd meant. My spin on the statement was in light of the reflection that had greeted me in the bathroom mirror that morning. Subliminally, it was loitering in my mind, just waiting to burst in to the open at the first possible opportunity.
In reality this old and aching body had just been outside sowing grass seed on the bank I've built on top of the spoil heap left by the previous owners of our home. There is no access to the rear of our house so the rubble had to be either carried through the house or used in the garden. Being a lazy gardener I opted for the latter, covered it in top-soil and now hope to have a soft, grassy raised hillock where I can spend warm summer evening's relaxing in a comfy chair with a good book and a drink. To add to the colour and wildlife value I've sown a wildflower/grass mix to attract and shelter insects.
I've been desperate to finish this for some time and reckon I've just squeezed it in ahead of Spring. However, the edges of the hillock are already bursting with daffodils and bluebells so my timing is a bit confused; just like the daffs and bluebells.
Having seeded the area, I'm now constantly jumping up from my chair to scare off the pigeons, squirrels and blackbirds that seem attracted to the newly raked soil! As I think I've already mentioned, the lazy side of me is desperate to find a solution to this issue if only to give my knees a break. I've rummaged through the piles of paper that build-up on my table for some of those CD's that increasingly fall from the weekend supplements. The CD's have been suspended from canes poked into the seeded soil and the wildlife in my garden appears thrilled with this cheap version of a disco mirrorball. I don't think it's scaring the pigeons. They seem happy watching the sun bouncing off the CD's surface while they graze on the grass seed.
Regular readers of this blog may have noticed a gap in coverage last week. I apologise for this - I'd cycled up the Lee Valley to meet a man and his dog. Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg from the New North London Synagogue was walking 100 miles around the edge of London to raise money for the RSPB and others. He was also building support for efforts to foster peace between Israel and Palestine. We met in the Dragonfly Sanctuary just outside Waltham Abbey and walked along the waterways there. The Rabbi's two year old sheepdog, Mitzpah, gamboled on ahead of us as we walked and talked. There is a growing cross-over between a variety of faiths and conservation, so it was a wide ranging and positive discussion.
It was easy to find common ground. Less easy is explaining the complexities of bio-fuels or opposition to some windfarms. Getting the idea across that green energy is good - but ONLY where it is sustainable, is proving difficult. It's not a popular stance and you get mud thrown at you fom all sides. I think the best way of putting it is to say we want sustainable energy that doesn't leave the next generation with a difficult choice or a huge clean-up bill. Wind turbines in the right place are excellent and bio-fuels are fine, just so long as they don't degrade the environment or deprive us of land used to grow food. The current plans for biofuels threaten both land for food and land for wildlife.. and this is a price too high to pay.
If you have any good tips for protecting newly sown grass seed, comments on faith and the environment or would like to find out how to support our work on sustainable energy, then please do comment on this blog. You will need to register first (this is free). Once you are logged in, there is space to type at the end of each post. Please note that comments are moderated so may take some time to appear. We also reserve the right not to publish comments.