Why do we hare around?

Why is it so desirable to be too busy? Is it an essential part of the human condition?

A lot of people tell me variations on the "I'm too busy" storyline. It tends to be "Oh you are so lucky, I am just too busy to buy from local shops" or "Oh you are so lucky, I am just too busy to help out at the school".

I used to think, in my insecurity, that it was actually being used as a synonym for "too important" - as in "I am too important to help with weeding playgrounds". Now I am deciding that it is a bit more complicated than that.

Like the jacket on the back of the office chair and the boasting about taking a Blackberry on holiday I think that this frantic "busyness" is perhaps itself a sign of insecurity - of needing to be seen to be doing things. A symptom of our tendency to judge people's worth by what they do for a living. A person who does so much that they are always "too busy" much therefore be more important than someone who has time to drink coffee in the sunshine.


We all live busy lives, "too busy" lives, but I also think that we all make decisions about what we prioritise in those lives. I know that when I use the "too busy" phrase it is usually about something I don't want to do anyway - I am, for example, "too busy" to go to the gym or have a manicure. That is indeed rubbish - if I hadn't prioritised reading or gazing at birds in the garden over going to the gym I would indeed have time - as well as a more toned derriere and nicer nails.


My resolution is to find some other, more honest, phrase to explain why I don't do all those things that I perhaps should (ironing, labelling school clothes, going to the theatre are a few more examples) and yet how there still seems to be time for making mayonnaise or embroidering baby shoes.

My theory of time is that expands when I slow down - today the baby housemartins are learning to fly from cherry tree to telephone wire and back. The air is full of their chirps.

We also have Timmy, the Jack Russell we fostered a while back, here for his holidays so I have my click-clicking shadow again.

The hares in the top photo were made as a response to a request for a boy's equivalent of the ragdolls - I toyed with a boy doll but had my reservations - these hares in oilskin dungarees were the solution. The one on the right sold in the shop this morning - the other is available for £28.95. NOW SOLD - Thank you (I might make more when I get time so e-mail me if you want one)

New home for Tim . . .

An update on Tim - the dog we are fostering - for all the e-mailing well wishers.

After a delay caused by tying up legal loose ends there is now a permanent home for Tim to go to. It will be back in Dumbarton, near to where he used to live, so I think that he will be happy. We shall have him here for the next 10 days or so and then deliver him to his new owner.

He is a really lovely dog but I am glad that he is moving on. He has become very attached to me and follows me round all the time - tap, tap, tap on the chipboard floors. This has got more pronounced over the last week and now he howls if I have to go out. Hopefully he will make the transition to his new home smoothly. Fingers crossed.

His main complaints about our house are the presence of cats and the absence of biscuits. With the enforced diet and the cat chasing, he is definitely leaving a trimmer dog than he arrived.

Peblo v. Jasmine - an update

This photo is of Peblo, survivor of the fox attack, frequent flier, and determined free ranger.

Up until Tuesday, Peblo would shriek and squawk when she met Jasmine - running around like a particularly interesting feathery ball - with dog in pursuit until I rescued her.

On Tuesday I was on the telephone and didn't get out there as quickly as usual. Peblo, fed up with the chase, stopped, turned on Jasmine and pecked her sharply on the nose. Now Jasmine is largely ignoring her- chicken, what chicken? - she is obviously not used to being attacked by her toys.

I suspect it will not last so I have bought a copy of The Practical Dog Whisperer as suggested and so far I am very impressed by the simplicity and humanity of the approach. I will report back