A post, carried (after a fashion) by a carrot

So I wanted to come here and write, about something, nothing specific, just this and that, but when I looked for some photos from these short dark days there were almost none.  The trouble is the rain and the lack of light.  Indoor photos are yellow.  Outside, well, it's been raining.  I haven't been to the allotment for ages, although there's a big list of things to be done there.  It's been so wet that trampling around on the soil wouldn't have done it any good at all.  The sun did come out on Tuesday, but only after the clouds had filled the puddles all the way up.

I got the memory card out of the camera and put it in the laptop.  Since Sunday what photos were there?  What happy memories preserved for all eternity, what record of days spent in bucolic pleasure, what pictures of cheek clenching excitement and riotous fun, what pretty things made and what goals achieved?  There was a carrot.  To be precise, there was this carrot.

I know, words failed me too.  But this is what I have (and in fact all I have) so I'm telling you about it.  Brace yourselves.

I grew it myself you know.  I made my usual early season attempt to grow a nice carrot patch, to feed the children, and the other half and in fact the guinea pig.  In this house I can't imagine there ever being any such thing as too many carrots.   (Although you will note that I'm not queuing up to eat them myself).  It involves making neat little rows in the soil, emptying two or three packets of seed in, covering them up, and marvelling at how any seedlings that appear then miraculously disappear overnight.  Then after a few weeks I plant something else there instead and put it all down to experience and swear that next year I will do better.  

But this year I tried again, late in the season, and blow me down I have thirteen, count them, thirteen carrots.  Me and the guinea pig were beyond excited.  I waited and waited for them to grow.  I knew they'd never be huge, but finally they looked sort of promising, what with their nice green tops and what looked like decent carrot shoulders (this is the proper term for the top of the carrot, I'm sure it is).  So as the weather deteriorated I made the wild decision to pull one out.  And there it is.  Not so much carrot as stump.  I was expecting so much more.  I don't know why.  The triumph of hope over experience I suppose.  But there it is.  I'm over it now.  And I'm almost certain the others will all be long and straight and smooth.  

I know the disappointment of just one photo would be hard to bear, so I have another.  The close-up.  Are you ready?

There is promise there I think.  It's almost as if things started out well but then there was a crisis, or an event of some kind and what could have been something ended up being almost nothing.

I shall try harder next time.  But it had been a while and I just really wanted to stop by and say hello.  So please forgive me my sad carrot, and know that I am thinking of you all.  You're probably wondering what it tasted like.  The happy recipient found it quite delicious.

Next time I think I might complain about crochet.  Everyone makes it look so easy, but I am having a knotty, stringy nightmare of a time with it all and nothing makes sense and I really don't deal well at all with things that I can't do.  Bet you can't wait.  Until then, adios amigos.