Probably not the right hobby for me

When we were in Foyle's on New Year's Day, Stephen gravitated to the Philosophy section, Bobby to the model plane section (odd that there is such a section, but there you go...) and the girls to the teen vampire section. I on the other hand wandered around slightly aimlessly. None of the new fiction jumped out at me, the days when I used to be drawn to the books on natural birth and breastfeeding and child development are over, as are the days of reading about homeschooling. I did have a brief look at the books on educational theory, but I have enough of those at home, and anyway it felt far too much like work and not enough like pleasure. I had a brief look at the books on simpler living and so forth, but it seemed a bit out of keeping with the simpler living ethos to buy a book on it. Wandered through the arts and crafts section, but all those hobbies just seem to generate tat. And then I thought, well, what the heck, I could have gardening for my new passion. It would be useful, after all, since our garden is a neglected disaster. So I made my way down to the basement where the gardening books are, and I picked up a book called something like "Gardening in Half-Hours" which was supposedly aimed at the novice gardener. Flipped through it, read something about raspberries, and was excited, since we actually have raspberries growing out there somewhere. So I started reading about their care, and the book said something like "prune them back to the ground, and then tie off two horizontal shoots." At that point, I replaced the book on the shelf and left the gardening section. Because, while I might manage the pruning to the ground (how hard can it be, I suppose you just chop at them) I am lost when it comes to the tieing of shoots. What's a shoot, and what would you tie it to? And how would you make it go horizontal? Listening to Desert Island Discs yesterday morning I heard a good analogy for my level of gardening incompetence. The woman being interviewed had lived a very privileged life, but wanted to learn to cook. So she asked a friend, what's the simplest thing I could cook? The friend told her, take a pot, put some water in it, when the water boils, put in an egg. Four minutes later, take the egg out and you'll have a boiled egg. So she said, great, started the process - and then had to run after her friend to ask how she would know when the water was boiling. That is how clueless I am when it comes to gardens. Ah well. Just one more day of holiday and then it's back to the grindstone anyway, so I won't have time for hobbies till June anyway. The next six months are going to be tough. But, touch wood, I'll have finished studying by the end of the summer, so next year should be much, much easier. (And much better paid, too.)