Thursday, September 12, 2013

Glut, defence and peaceful sleep

Beans. They are now growing so densely that I have no time to take photographs. This was taken a few days ago.  It's pick, pick all  the time. Neighbours are suffering as much as ourselves from the glut which I channel in their direction. In a couple of weeks we'll have the white  beans from inside the pod to blanch and sauté  with a little garlic.

"Going anywhere interesting?" Another bit of automatic speak, this time from a man in a travel shop who assumes that I am going anywhere at all, which I may or may not be. "Usual," I say, a recent defence against this new kind of small talk. "Going on holiday?" another shop person says, "Sort of," I say.
 
"Oat straw flower, licorice root,  chamomile flower, lavender flower, lime flower, valerian root, tulsi leaf,"  so reads the list of ingredients on  the packet of  Pukka Night Time, a herbal tea promoting "peaceful sleep". I normally sleep peacefully but some who don't tell that they do after a cup of it in the evening. I try  some and find that when I wake I remember my dreams which is unusual for me.

1 comment:

Roderick Robinson said...

I always think there's a degree of one-upmanship in spelling chamomile with an aitch. Years ago there was a TV adaptation, The Camomile Lawn, which was aitch-less. But that's telly for you
- hinting at but ultimately denying you the finer things in life.

I'd got valerian completely wrong, imagining it to be some kind of herbal threat rather than a soporific. Perhaps because the first three letters made it cognate (I'm sure I haven't got this right either, but I'm determined to use it) with valedictory. The Herbal Goodbye might work as a novel title but only if valerian, taken in a sufficiently large dose. could effect someone's quietus.