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I manage to get the kitchen extension ready for Christmas, and feel like I have finally honed my renovation skills. Meanwhile, the farm lays dormant, while energy levels build for the new year.
I had set myself the task of getting the kitchen extension in a usable state by Christmas, and am pleased to have exceeded expectations (for once) and have it, not only usable, but more or less finished. There's still a long list of snagging jobs, but then, when has there ever not been. It’s a posh space, that seems a little too good for us, and I feel far too grown up and sensible when I sit and admire it. After years of renovating, I feel I have finally honed my building skills to an acceptable standard. It also helps that I have, probably for the first time, completed this particular renovation in a mostly sober state. In the past, much of my DIY efforts have been aimed at second homes, where the brief renovation stints have also doubled up as a rare chance to let my hair down away from the demanding routines of family life and a pressurised day job, and I have often woken up with a sore head to some rather interesting interior design.
The truth is, I just can't burn the candle at both ends any more and nor do I want to. In fact, I can barely manage to keep one end alight. I often reminisce of my younger days when, what I lacked in experience, I made up for in energy and enthusiasm. I remember with fondness, the old stone ruins I bought in France in my 20’s, where my job list would start with a glass of Breton cider, and end with a bottle of chardonnay 24 hours later, with the intervening period involving scaffolding, heavy stones, power tools, and copious roll ups. I must have used my nine lives up ten times over. What it is to be young..... and stupid.
Whilst I have soberly and sensibly focused on the kitchen renovations and my part time job in the town, the farm has been largely dormant. With the exception of the annual garlic planting in November, and some routine maintenance, I have made a conscious effort to distance myself. Consequently, the beds have lay empty and still, especially under the eerie blanket of the recent frosts - but it also feels a little bit like the calm before the storm. I know that, after the melee of Christmas has subsided, the focus needs to be firmly turned to the market garden and the next stage of this venture. After finishing this season in a bedraggled state feeling, not for the first time, that I’d been sharing the ring with Mike Tyson, I knew from past experiences that a mental break was desperately needed to rejuvenate. I now feel that this healing has taken place, and I can feel the desire and energy start to bubble again.
All in all, I feel like i'm in a much better place to push forward. This time last year it was all new, it was unknown. Now I am equipped with experience and hindsight, that most invaluable life tool that we often take for granted, and I feel so much better for it. I am hoping therefore, that next year will not so much be a storm, but a calm and organised crescendo, where everything starts to slot into place. What's more, with the funds dwindling, it is crucial that the farm starts to pay, and I know my attitude needs to become more business-like and concentrated. The turbulent transition has now taken place, and we are now firmly heading into chapter two.