Leo says:

"One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between Man and Nature shall not be broken."
It was with this in mind that I rose at 6:30 and started digging up the garden. I'm really not the type to rise at 6:30 or dig. Generally I'm a lazy cow. I tilled the soil like a goodun, (though not 100% on what "tilling" is) incorporating as I dug a large portion of homemade compost. I might have gone too soon on the compost, its supposed to be sweet smelling and crumbly, this was soggy, rank and included a potato that you could have still made chips out of. I suppose it will continue to decompose on site though.

I dunno though, is it weird of me to take Tolstoy's words to heart in this way? I have to say, that even after one whole hour of working the land I did not feel any sense of nobility nor that my body was simply a machine etc. Obviously I felt a bit smug but is that enough?

I notice that they say that Tolstoy didn't really like women. I don't see this though in my experience of nearly one-third (yay!) of Anna Karenina. It seems to me that it is the men that come in for the sharp edge of his tongue. I'll get back to you on this one.

Fallen off the wagon slightly tonight. I had that disturbing experience tonight (fellow big wine drinkers will know when I'm coming from) of trying to open a screw-top wine bottle with a corkscrew. I got in in the end though.

Drunken kisses,
Your Very Own
Dolores x