For someone so enamored of libraries in general and mine in particular, I have been spending precious little time reading and/or writing lately.

The thing is, is that at any given moment, given the choice between reading the particularly fascinating book that I couldn't resist at the library last week or climbing on the roof of the shed to pick loquats, I'll choose the loquats.

And we've got three overgrown loquat trees, so there are always more loquats to pick.

Not to mention tomatoes to water, compost to tend, and apricots to coral. (The apricots don't need picking -- enough of them drop from the tree of their own accord on a daily basis that I just have to take out a bucket and gather them up before the critters get to them.)

The garden could easily become a full-time job for both of us if we let it. I have to consciously limit myself to about three hours a day so that other stuff can get done, too.

It doesn't help much that my study is well-shaded. This is good for temperature control, not so good for motivating a sunlight-deprived depressive to stay indoors at her computer instead of outside in the sunshine.

Also, my computer is dang slow, which makes any time I spend at it seem three times as long.

Most of those books I got on the last trek to the lovely library? Cookbooks, gardening guides, and audiobooks to listen to while harvesting fruit. Not so much the traditional treatise-type.

And GrandDad just came into my study to alert me that I had failed to notice that the plums are ripe now, too. Another tree to check on daily! And the fig tree is getting close. So much for getting semi-caught up on the intellectual work.

I was a bit disturbed when I took note of my disinclination to work with words rather than plants -- seems inauspicious for someone who fancies herself to have some sort of vocation in the book world. But I think maybe it's good not to rush back into the fray if I don't have to. I'm starting to get what they say about gardening being good for the soul. For a season, maybe it's not all that bad to be spending more time with the fruit trees and vegetable patches.