Mr E had a day off work this week.
It was a slow day. The kind you crave for, the kind you can't plan for, but the kind that surprises you with pleasure when it arrives.
The skies were overcast, the air warm, the street quiet.
So we made our coffee and went outside.
Mr E has been studying bonsai for a while now and his fig tree is coming along wonderfully, so he recently bought some plants to take cuttings from in order to bonsai them when roots are established.
After a week of preparing soil and a propagation mix he began with an azalea...
Six good cuttings prepared, and six to eight weeks of waiting while they establish roots...
The original azalea bush was given the bonsai treatment too - tap root removed and others trimmed, all flowers and buds cut away, replanted for now until he gets some more bonsai pots...
Next week he'll take cuttings from the Ixora and go through this process again...
Meanwhile I gave Bob-the-dog a bath...
...before settling on the steps near Private Charlie to read the new issue of Slow magazine.
Whilst Mr E worked on his bonsai I read aloud snippets of interesting articles to him, and after being inspired by a very touching one about the emotional healing from soups made and shared with love, we decided a nice pot of minestrone soup later in the week would be a good idea (I made it last night - yum, and very soothing) ...
Not wanting to see the discarded azalea blooms thrown away, I took them upstairs and lay them in a pretty bowl on a bed of moist paper towels. Azalea flowers don't like to get wet, so I was hoping this experiment might keep them bright for a day or so....
...and three days later they are still smiling at me from our dining table.
Slow days.
Unexpected.
Gratefully accepted.
Have a blessed weekend, and may it hold your very own slow day.
