Ara Murray

At school we learned a particular form of cursive writing although I have modified mine over the years. When I was a student, other students in my class would ask to borrow my notes to photocopy (showing my age here) if they had missed a class because I could write quickly, neatly and legibly in cursive. If they saw my writing now they would be horrified as it has degenerated into a barely legible scrawl. My parents and I used to write to each other every week once I left home and they both wrote using a similar form of cursive. Interestingly, my father's script looked neater at a distance but my mother's was easier to read.

My latest update on shovel breakers: yesterday I found a handleless shovel in the garden. It was another one left behind by the previous owner. She certainly knew how to break her tools.

Sara, your comment about my garden being wonderfully diverse made me look at it differently as I had never considered that before. I have never been a "straight lines" gardener and have always mixed my veg and flowers. I suppose I am just following the traditions of cottage gardens or the French potager. I don't always think before I plant, however, and sometimes mix plants which are not good companions but it's all a learning experience.

Mr Ara and I were discussing bucket lists recently; he doesn't have one and I have only one thing on mine. I would like to see the sun rise out of the sea. I have seen it sink into the sea but not the other way round. I think it will have to be in winter so I don't have to get up too early. It doesn't sound very exciting so maybe I'm just a boring person.

The latest in the saga of my shovel breaking (well, another fork, actually) was the other day when Mr Ara asked me if I had noticed that the handle on my favourite fork was loose. I hadn't. It's all his fault though, because he left his mattock behind at our last house (he thought we wouldn't need it here as it's just an "ordinary" garden) and I have been using the fork (so has he) to try and remove the roots of some dead roses. I didn't tell him I'd also used it to pry a stone out of the soil too. Should I own up?

When I first discovered permaculture, I took "obtain a yield" to mean I should only grow food plants in my garden. As I found out more, I realised that not all yields are measurable. How can you quantify the pleasure of looking at your favourite flowers or the delight in the scents of the garden? These are still yields. Flowers attract beneficial insects (and pests, unfortunately but they are part of the ecosystem too) and some, like nasturtiums, one of my favourites, are also edible. Nowadays I have a mixture of food plants and ornamental plants, often next to each other. Looking out of the window I can see peas, brussels sprouts, pumpkins, courgettes (zucchini), cardoons, marjoram, tiny bay trees and lemon balm mixed in with nasturtiums (of course), roses, rose of Sharon, aubretia, Corsican mint and primulas. I hope it helps to confuse the pests as well as being pleasing to the eye. (Well, mine anyway.) My "aha" moment was when I expanded my view instead of thinking of a yield in such a narrow way.

Add it to Pimms and sit in the sun drinking a lovely chilled glass while surveying your plot.

Today, Mr Ara was digging out a dead plant in our garden. First he found a rather rusty knife - the kind you would use to cut up your dinner. Then he found the remains of a garden fork without a handle. It looks as if the previous owner of our house was also a shovel breaker.

Mr Ara gave me a funny look when I said earlier that I could smell petrichor.

This got me thinking. So far this year I have not bought any new clothing (including underwear). However, I have bought some material to make a dress for my son's wedding later this year so I suppose I must count that. I will also make myself a hat with some leftover material from another project from long ago. Does that count? I may buy some new shoes but struggle to find ones that fit since I have very unladylike broad feet. I do have a pair in the wardrobe so I may not buy new after all.
Do hand-me-downs from other people count? My son gave me some polo shirts he used to wear for work as they have changed their logo and the colour since being taken over by another firm. I wear these as "round the house and garden" tops in summer as it doesn't matter whether they get torn or stained which means other tops I have last longer.
Do I see myself buying anything else? Possibly a new waterproof summer coat as the one I have no longer keeps me dry. I will wait until the sales at the end of the summer for that if I don't manage to find anything in the local charity shops.
I think I can manage to keep to fewer than 5 items this year but if I was still working instead of happily retired that might have been different.