– 9:15 am

Your maternal grandmother, Julia and I are gardeners. I’m using the simplest meaning of the word as neither of us owns a garden. But we’d love to. We always talk about our love of earth and ground, having it in between our fingers…

Growing up through boarding school, we were assigned plots of farmland. I had ten farm beds and worked using a short handle hoe, the type that requires you to really break your back. It took time to appreciate the land, nature, life and survival. it took time to find peace and enjoyment in outdoor solitude. I would love to own a farm I don’t necessarily have to live off of, a farmhouse.

Today, however, Julia and I garden without a garden. They have a well-lit top-floor flat in Riga which welcomes pot plants, unlike our ground and lower-ground duplex where plants forcefully come to retire and die. It’s a cemetery. Many have come, but very few are left. And it saddens me. So I stopped buying them.

The last time she visited, I got a bay tree delivered not long after she left. Its leaves are still green on the prison-cell size patio. It’s pretty low maintenance and I haven’t had to do as much as I would with other flowery plants. I’m pretty happy looking at it every day though.

In general, I love craftsmanship and using my hands. I’ve imagined myself living in Japan, under the tutelage of a shoemaker, tailor or carpenter. Every time I look into who I am, and the things I like, I rekindle a fondness for solitary crafts (and activities) that require as few people as possible. I’m a loner.

Ah! That’s how! I remember why she bought a bay tree. I was slow cooking some oxtail – it’s a staple in this house – and didn’t have my usual dried bay leaves to toss in. This was her answer to it. An endless supply of bay leaves.

Just a sec, the door just buzzed. I should get that. I think the Crosstown doughnuts are here.

You’ll meet Rozalia soon. She’s best friends with your mother. She’s organising a baby shower today at the house. In fact, she’s in a cab on her way here. I’m speed typing so I can get ready. She needs my help… To be honest, I am unsure what needs doing. There are guests coming so I’m anticipating some light catering.

So this morning around eight – I don’t sleep much – I saw, for the very first time, a fox snoozing on the fake grass astroturf next to the bay tree. For reasons currently unknown to me, it’d dug up a hole in the pot housing the bay tree, emptying the ground on the turf in a neat pile. So odd. Even weirder it did it today. I also have no evidence the fox is the culprit, just piecing 1 and 2 together. Anyway, gotta go.

PS – Is that a little human nature artfully drew on the bottom centre of the bay tree pot? I’m seeing things.