For once at work, I wasn’t just weeding! Granted, the hedging isn’t exciting either, but when you have spent the past three weeks just weeding, then anything else is a blessing. While this is a miserable situation to be in, considering I spend four days a week doing this sort of nonsense full time, there are a couple of benefits to this situation.

The first one is that it has given me thinking time. I have needed this time without the added extra nonsense that comes with work. I am now clearer on what I want to do with myself once I am finished with my studying. I really want to get into working in a community gardening and therapeutic horticulture sort of area, where I can use my skills to help people, rather than just doing the gardens for people or organisations that can afford to do so.

The hard part about this is that I don’t know how long it will be exactly when I can get going with this plan or where exactly it will be. As I have decided on my general direction of where I want to be, I can do more reading and research on the topics involved (when I get the time). I’ll also have time to look into volunteering in this area too.

Another benefit I have recently had at work is that weeding means being close to the ground. This is hard on the knees, but I see a lot of little bugs in the garden. I do enjoy looking at bugs and other wildlife in the garden. I took this short video yesterday of something (I can’t say what it was) pulling along a spider. Random, but it put a smile on my face.

I have also seen a bee on a pig face (Carpobrotus) flower. Don’t ask me where the common name comes from-I really don’t have a clue! This succulent is an Australian native plant and another favourite plant of mine. The bright pink flowers are also rather fabulous, as you can see in the second photo.

I see spiders quite a lot too. Not the poxy little things that my mum and sister used to squeal over in the house, but proper sized ones. Spiders are great things to have around in the garden as they tend to eat other ‘creepy crawlies’, some of which you don’t want around.

I love the birds too.

I have always loved being outside watching wildlife and, thankfully, I can still do that.