I've had a number of serial obsessions, but lately all my energy has been sucked into gardening. I kind of got drafted into it as I bought a house in the spring with extremely high-maintenance gardens in the front and back. It's all I can do to properly deadhead the flowers and keep everything from dying in our wilting SoCal heat. And I feel a certain amount of pressure to keep it all going because the old owners (who were retired and had all the time in the world to deadhead roses) were sort of known as the Better Homes and Gardens droids of the neighborhood. Letting the preternaturally green lawn develop brown spots would be a pox on the neighborhood and might get my name brought up sternly at the next HOA meeting! Needless to say, when a copse of flowers dies I stealthily dig them up and transplant new varieties from the nursery, whistling a casual tune and flitting my eyes shiftily up and down the block as I work.

Which is to say, I'm finding gardening very relaxing and therapeutic!