On gardening, writing and runner beans on their tippy-toes

I found this Jeanette Winterson quote this morning on the very wonderful Peony Moon. I hope Michelle doesn't mind me transplanting it here - I'll be very careful not to damage the roots. It seemed criminal not to post it, what with the title of my blog and all.

“I learned to garden the way I learned to write - out of necessity. We needed vegetables and flowers, and I needed to tell myself a long story about life - I am still telling it - a kind of beanstalk that grows and grows, and I can climb it, both to escape the possibility of life at the bottom, and to find another world where giants and castles and harp-playing hens are still to be found. Gardening, like story-telling, is a continuing narrative. One thing leads to another. Like stories, there is always something going on in the garden long after the gardener has gone to bed. The thing grows, unfolds, changes, develops a maddening life of its own. For me, as a writer, I go to sleep with an idea in my head, and it takes hold during the night. I open the back door in the morning, and the tulips that refused to look at me the night before, have opened in the sun.” - Jeanette Winterson

You can read the whole article here - I shall do so when I've done my daily writing.

It's also relevant as Michelle is the first of my 100 Readers to finish reading about my gardener Leonard - she liked him (phew) and wants to adopt his dog Pickles. She'll be answering her interview questions over the next week or so - I'll let you know when the interview is up. In the meantime you can sign up to the mailing list by putting your email in the box on the right.

As I type, my runner beans are stretching up on their tippy-toes towards the twine and my blackcurrants are plumpening nicely. My leek seedlings are imperceptibly thickening and my Johnson's Blue geranium is magicking more and more sunny-sky-blue blooms.

Here's to planting, and to words.

PS talking of growing things, have a go at this - very lovely and a little bit addictive...