In an English country garden

There is no more effective way of getting me to do those laborious chores around the house than exam week. True to the spirit of escapism, I will be defrosting the freezer, painting the bedroom or rearranging my drawers. Anything not to have to sit still and study! This time it is no different. My new distraction is the most unlikely so far. Instead of working on my Marketing exam, I have today taken up that most English of hobbies: gardening!

Anybody who has ever lived with me will appreciate the unlikeliness of this. I have the least green fingers ever. I have repeatedly managed to kill off cacti! I was once even given a "how to take care of your potted plants" book for my birthday by friends who took pity on the sorry state of my flora. So gardening wouldn't exactly seem to be my thing. In all honesty; it still isn't. The gardening I have been doing so far is no more than trying to rid our patio of the thick layer of weeds that is covering it. Our flat has a small garden in the back but because of the high turnover in occupants no one ever feels responsible for it. There is not a single plant in that garden that is actually supposed to be there. It is a big jungle of weeds run amok. It is further adorned with a completely rusted through barbeque and a collapsed wooden bench. All in all a pretty sorry sight. Now that the weather is getting so warm and sunny though, it would be nice to be able to sit outside without nettles stinging my legs all the time. So rather than focusing on the "4P's of marketing"(I'll tell you but only if you really, really want to know) I have been attacking this jungle with some garden scissors, uprooting a lot of creepy many-legged crawlers in the process.

My back is killing me and my hands are a bit rough but the patio definitely looks much better. I can even see the tiles again! Ideally I would like to do something about the rest of the garden as well, maybe even plant some real plants and flowers. Then again, by the time I would have the garden ready enough for that, my exams will be over and the spirit will most likely have left me again...