Well at least I don’t have to worry about getting my hair cut.  I have been shaving my head for 20 years – I think I started losing my hair when I was 19? I started shaving it when I was around 30 when I retired from my first career as a dancer.  As a young man growing up in suburban Toronto, with periodic trips to London thanks to my anglophile parents – I wasn’t afraid to experiment with hair styles, or colour.  I even dabbled in some ‘modelling’ when I was a teenager.  By modelling I mean willing victim to let a hairdresser do whatever they wanted to my hair – and not have to pay me.  Pictures were taken and these went up in the salon’s window. So much for my modelling career.  Weirdly a couple of months later, on a trip to London the summer I turned 17, I was walking past a window in Seven Dials… and there I was in black and white. A portrait of me with a bouffy do. It’s a shame it was in black and white because at the time I think my hair was the colour of autumn leaves, which was many shades of everything I suppose.  I shouldn’t be surprised that it started thinning soon after that. However, that has been one less obsession that my girlfriends, neighbours and colleagues have been going on about during week 8 of the lockdown.  Oh to visit a salon!  Examples of home haircuts have been one of many welcome distractions. I smile soberly and say, ‘You look great!’ when asked for my honest opinion.  Honestly, I’m glad I don’t have hair anymore. 

The number of hours spent in Zoom or Team meetings, has meant that life on the internet has been unrelenting.  The new normal is to start my gardening chores before nine o’clock and return to them after 5.  I’m averaging three to four hours every day. Thanks to the relatively dry spring, my Hosta’s have been free of snails and slugs! I hail this as a huge achievement, even if it has little to do with me.  I have tried grit, glasses of beer, sprays with soapy/vinegar/garlicy water, nothing but catching the critters in the tracks and removing them to the wood opposite the house seems to work. My weeding efforts have gotten top marks over these last few weeks.  If I spot even the whisper of a sprouting bindweed tendril, whoosh!  Out it comes.  This year I invested in a Niwaki Hori Hori knife. It is a fantastic tool, and you can use it to remove weeds, dig small holes to plant things, and to cut through roots and branches.  I wear it on my tool belt. It makes me feel almost invincible in the garden, like there’s nothing I can’t accomplish.  A true happy garden warrior.  Note to self – must rein in the internet shopping.  Keep happy, and keep gardening.