Time wasting and self actualisation?

I am sitting waiting for a potential tenant to look through our house, one cottage has already found some young women for when we move out but the other is yet to have an application so this means lots of sitting and waiting whilst everyone else in the (other) house has a siesta.

I have been finding I am doing a lot of time wasting in these moments, reading rubbish online and refreshing the email etc so I thought at least I can pop a blog in whilst I wait.

I have been watching lots of Escape to the Country and being very charmed by Alistair Appleton (even his name is adorable) inevitably, as he is handsome, stylish, charming, spiritually enlightened he is of course gay which is a terrible waste from my perspective (probably not from others' of course). I was interested to find that he is a long time practitioner of mindfulness meditation and have been reading his blog eagerly.

Definitely food for thought and it gets me thinking about the value of meditation in our lives and making it part of mine once again as I find my deep-seated distrust in myself and my stress levels can fluctuate badly and affect my relationships with my dear little family, not to mention myself. I doubt anyone can reach their potential whilst not being present in the here and now and live and being comfortable with who they truly are.

Meditation brings peace to the monkey chatter in the mind and is the best option I can think of for a path to self actualisation. Living in the here and now is something so often neglected by us all and  I have been having discussions with my darling husband about the implications of doing so verses muddling on regardless. Makes for an interesting conversation. I might have to pull out the Dhammapada and revisit the Buddhist principles.

Deep stuff coming from the fact I had to Wikipedia Alistair Appleton on account of his adorable dimples and fears that my dream of having him as a backup husband were to be dashed.

Purple! Sprouting! Broccoli!

Gardening has come to nearly a standstill at Apple Isle Cottages as we prepare for our big move three doors up the road. 

After raking the frost affected pumpkin vines and harvesting the last of the volunteers (they might actually be some kind of squash, I should ask the hens as they seem to have been the ones who planted them- I certainly didn't) one of the only things left standing in the garden was a lone purple sprouting broccoli plant. 

Spindly is the word I would use. This poor plant has been attacked but thousands (maybe) of caterpillars, pecked by chickens and swamped by pumpkin vines and yet it remains standing (if rather rangier than I expected) I am giving it a monthly derris dusting but that is all the "good"attention it has been getting. Poor thing. I couldn't just leave it. I have soaked it with seasol and bundled it into an old Styrofoam box with it's soil and soaked it with more seasol (evidently it should help prevent transplant shock) and will trundle it up the road with us to see if it will ever do anything edible for me.

It is seriously cold and frosty here and I am eating a lot of cheese which I am kidding myself is some kind of keep warm tactic.. that's why I bought a whole wheel of brie (that would be a kilo of it).