Gardening tools at the start of a day in Golders Hill Park
I was out for a walk in the fog this morning, photographing the usual suspects: trees against a background of mist. Yet, with all the obvious beauty of the familiar cloaked in unusual robes, I was drawn to this half-hidden collection of gardening tools, laid out for park gardeners at the start of the day. Would each person have a separate task – raking leaves, digging, hoeing? Or would everyone get a go on everything?
For a few moments I felt a pang of envy. I wanted to do one of those jobs. It reminded me of meditation retreats I’d been on, where some of the most enjoyable hours were those spent doing manual work outdoors, like raking leaves, or digging damp soil, listening to the birds and finding meaning in small things.
Peter Coles 