[tta_listen_btn]

Memories of 45 years of gardening

Today at 11:00 we trimmed a hedge for a local resident.  I always enjoy doing hedges if only to see the improvement of its appearance after my efforts.  For this we were paid £50.  I do not need the money but I need to be compensated from my effort. Why do I do gardening at all? I do it to keep fit. Power tools and their use are part of keeping the upper body responsive. I also do it to show myself that I am still capable of work. I know there are people who work until their 90s and I admire them. Farmers and so forth.

I have already reduced my workload considerably and know that one fine day I will say, ‘enough is enough’.  I first did gardening in my early 30s. That means 45 years of work, not consistently but when I needed to.  Most of my clients have been very content with my work. Only two people in the whole of my 45 years have not paid me. One was a gypsy family or gypsy related should I say. I would like to say that I have met a lot of interesting people.  This for the most part has not been true.  They were regular everyday people who wanted their gardens done.  I came, I did the job, I left. Occasionally I got offered a cup of tea but I did not mind if I did not.

Any outside occupation involves communion with nature and this is always a blessing. However for the last five years I have made it a rule not to work for people who are difficult or complaining. I find that in effect it becomes hard work just dealing with the customer never mind the work itself. I find that if I work for someone who is grateful and appreciative the burden is lighter and I end the day feeling refreshed and satisfied.  My rule is, if relations with the customer start badly it’s going to go on badly.

Overall, the work has kept me fit, hopefully improved the quality of life of some of my people  and enabled them to enjoy their gardens.    About charging rates, some people have no idea what is involved in self employed work.  They do not do so now but in previous decades they expected me to work for 10 pounds an hour. ‘ man with spade works for 10 pounds an hour’.  They do not exist any more.  We have to buy, service and maintain our own equipment and bear our own travel costs. If I worked for £10 an hour it would  be working for less than the national minimum wage and I would in fact be working out a loss.   20 pounds an hour is my minimum and more if the work is hard.

Failure of my internet connection

This may sound like a very nerdy thing but I have come to rely on my mobile phone in particular and the internet in general for so many flows of information such as my bank details, text messages from friends, deciding which of many applicants to employ, keeping up to date with my covid discussions not to mention the odd social media platform.

Last Sunday at about midday my mobile phone simply refused to connect to the internet. I’ve had this happen once before and I fell into the trap of thinking it was the fault of the phone.  It was in fact a local connectivity issues so when the same thing happened again I decided not to panic but wait and see.  Sunday night went. Nothing.  Should I call someone?  Who to call?  If it was a very local problem the company (Sky) probably wouldn’t know about it anyway. The point, I tell myself, is that in my area there must be other subscribers who have also been cut off so instead of engaging on yet another campaign and listening to endless music whilst waiting to be put through to some droid, I  assumed that the powers that be will eventually know that the system was not functioning, and other people will have telephoned to complain.

Sure enough the system came back today at about 3 o’clock. It is still stuttering with some apps but I guess ‘re-booting’ takes time to work through the system.

Fear

I’m shortly going to write a big article on fear. Everything is frequency, wavelengths and vibration as Nikola Tesla said.  Fear is  being forced on us as an idea 24/7.   I noticed they are even weaponizing the weather forecasts.
There’s a great storm threatened for this Wednesday,  storm Agnes

UK weather: Danger to life warnings issued by Met Office as 80mph winds set to batter Britons

I’m sick of reading these prognostications. They take the worst case scenario in other words the area which is most likely to be hit by a storm and then apply it to the whole country.   Believe it or not – and I don’t mind if you don’t believe it, The Powers That Be are trying to keep us in a state of fear which is very much like being tuned to a particular radio channel. If they can keep us on the channel then we’ll do what we are told.  So the reason – in a word – is CONTROL.

This is only one aspect of the topic so expect a  substantial article when I can get around to it, probably sooner rather than later. Ideas are boiling and they cannot be suppressed. If inspirations are ignored consistently they will go away to return another day, and return they will.

The value of hugging

Here is a small part of a discussion, which started on the topic of ‘community’ but reverted to hugging. Every Monday evening and other evenings the Scientific and Medical Network have ZOOM conversations. You are welcome to join that network.

Arthur Janov,  the founder of Primal Therapy said that ‘a twenty second hug was the equivalent of 5mg of valium’.

We discussed this topic at this evening’s meeting of the Scientific and Medical Network. The topic was the importance of the wider community introduced by the chair, Paul, but before you knew it the conversation turned to hugs. The theme of hugs returned repeatedly during the whole time.

A man gave a testimony that hugs run in his family and children regarded hugging as normal.

snippets:

there were some research that if you hold it for say a longer time like 20 seconds something happens. It’s not like just a squeeze it’s like you make a connection

when you’re hugging it’s a heart thing and you produce the hormone oxytocin

I live in Central America where touching is normal,  touching is seen hugging is seen as some part of life I know that covid stifled a lot but we are  slowly getting back into it

I guess I’d be called a natural hugger.  I hug everybody as much as I can as long as I can and I consider it energy sharing . When you are  hugging you are really sharing energy with one another and you know it’s just a wonderful thing to do and I do it all the time

It comes natural to me and I just think it’s a wonderful thing to do people need touch, people need touch. We don’t touch enough we don’t we really don’t and I think it’s important

The average length of a hug between two people is three seconds. researchers have discovered that when a hug lasts 20 seconds there is a therapeutic effect on the body of the mind and that hug will produce a hormones called ocytocin and also known as the love hormone so something to think about especially with my grandchildren and loved ones. If we can hold that hug for a little longer I think we get a special feeling from that

I’m a hugger but I am very discerning about hugging I think it’s really important that we deserve that we don’t rush into people and assume they would like a hug because as everybody has said touch is really important but it depends on who you’re touching and their history for instance if there’s a history of sexual abuse or anything like that that can be very threatening

I just wanted to mention about where maybe you know but the idea of meta as in say Buddhism so matter as in loving kindness and this is a practice that can be done through kind of meditation so it’s in the mental space so it’s not physical hugging

I’m out in the street I regard everyone as a friend that I haven’t yet met I promise you it transformed each and every day and when I go out I’m not lonely for one single second because I’m excited about the person I have yet to meet who could be around the next corner who knows and there’s no excuse for self-pity here ‘nobody loves me’. Well jolly will go out and demonstrate love to others. Stop whinging

The whole thing is about relationships. That’s why masking people was such a killer because the kids at their key age couldn’t see their mothers reaction and we have yet to see the full consequences of that.  I’m afraid they’re going to be stunted or they ARE stunted.

An example of a town with all the right community vibes is Bridport in Dorset and I recommend it to anyone. There’s a lot of art there, intelligent people, and you can virtually talk to anybody and get a meaningful response.

If after talking to someone you want to hug them it is okay to ask their permission for example do you mind if I give you a hug

Funny is the English language.   Consider the use of the word ‘touchy’ vs the word ‘touchy-feely’. Same word, two opposite meanings.