Potatoes

I CAME TO POTATOES through love. I’d met Candida and she loved to garden, whereas I couldn’t have been less interested. She had a top floor flat; I had a garden. She moved in very quickly. I did what any man would do under such circumstances: I bought some seed potatoes. I mostly listened to the football out there, being semi-helpful by moving the odd rock or heavy barrow. When she went to the loo or to put the kettle on, I pinched her trowel and sunk a few more tubers into the soil. A little watering and drawing soil up into earthy Toblerones kept me as busy as I wanted to be (i.e. not very) in the garden that spring and summer.