A Sense of Enormous Wellbeing

I feed the pigeons, I sometimes feed the sparrows too
It gives me a sense of enormous well being
And then I'm happy for the rest of the day
Safe in the knowledge there will always be a bit of my heart devoted to it
Parklife - Blur (Parklife 1994)

Forgive me if this sounds a bit Benny Hill, but I've not been feeling myself lately. No big dramas and no obvious reasons, but I've been going around for a while like the losing bunny in the battery adverts. I'm sure this doesn't make me much company so I've been looking for ways to shake myself out of it.

Normally these things are linked to me not getting my skinny arse out there and doing some exercise, so with this in mind I unlocked the bike and for the past two weeks I've been riding to work again. As great as this has been (there's truly nothing like being able to go out in public in the clothes you just slept in) it hasn't exactly shaken me from my Morrissey moment which meant I had to search elsewhere for my malaise.

I finally found my happy doing something far less frenetic than car dodging; I had a potter in the garden. Spurred on by some nice weather and armed only with my crappy $10 straw cowboy hat and a trowel I did some weeding, chucked away some leaves and old soil, swept up and before i knew it I was away. An hour later I was at the nursery buying seeds, seedlings and potting mix, and within another hour I was back in the yard with ABC Grandstand on the radio arm deep in soil and a smile on my dial. I even listened to the whole build up and aftermath of the Cox Plate and I fucking hate horse racing.

You may recall I spent many happy hours in the yard last summer growing ridiculously small vegetables in an effort to prove that if Jamie Oliver can grow tomatoes in a tin then so can I. However I'd assumed that my happiness was in part linked to being able to listen to cricket on the radio for several months, so I must admit I'm quite surprised to find that I still like my new hobby, and it seems to like me.

Perhaps the obvious conclusion is that I was subconsciously fed up that spring has not yet truly sprung and I just needed some vitamin D. I'm not sure if I should be pleased that I shook off my funk with something as simple as a little bit of sunshine and some pensioner type activities but for now I'll take my happy where I can get it.

My gardening assistant Mr Fishhands shows off some basil, a couple of zucchini seedlings, some cherry toms and what I hope will be the mother of all jalapeno plants. Forgive his moustache. I assure you he isn't a fascist.