The Gazelle celebrates three years on-line today.

It has been an ordinary Saturday. For the most part.

A proper, normal, Saturday begins with a trip to the newsagent for the weekend edition of a major paper, to be savoured over a cooked breakfast. Today was not quite normal, because my spouse is away; I had to serve as chef myself. I am capable of cooking for myself—let that be known—and I did. But my cooking is not the same as hers.

The choice of papers is not always the same. I have been a Guardian reader, but a generational change in writers leaves this once grand paper with a stable of columnists who think they have the world in their hands, but they have yet to grow up. That cannot be said of Terry Eagleton, of the University of Manchester, whose article deserves attention.

For Americans, the distinction between ‘liberals’ and ‘socialists’ may be difficult to process; the point to be contemplated is the critique of the liberal assumption of ‘superiority’ which can easily lead to ‘supremacist’ results—a danger not restricted to liberals.

I have avoided the Times, as all thing owned by Rupert Murdoch. But today it surprised me with two editorials which nail the current economic problem on the head. Giles Coren testifies to being a Labour man all his life, but almost ready to become Conservative now that he is in the highest income tax bracket. Colleague Janice Turner, on the other hand, has no sympathy for the rich who complain about the new higher tax demand from the government.

An American student of mine was contemptuous of the 50% tax placed on income above £150,00 in this week’s budget, as though it was clearly an example of socialism gone wild. This bemuses me, coming from a Christian. As Turner notes, the 350,000 people out of the 60 million Britons who will be taxed at this level earn six time the national average income. Average, not norm. Pity those who make just £150,000; they will most likely not be able to find the tax loop-holes of the million and billionares who find ways to avoid paying their share to support the society in which they live. You would think a Christian would be more sympathetic with those below the average rather than those so far above.

So much for breakfast.

The rest of the day was devoted to the garden. Gardening is a distinctively English pleasure that I have come to enjoy. Even living in the midst of a major city it is possible to dig the soil, get dirt under the fingernails, and watch the miracle of growing things.

God is a gardener—he made a garden specifically for the first humans. To be a gardener is to take part in creation.

When we moved into our house nine years ago, the back ‘garden’ was an overgrown jungle. It had been used for many years to grow soft-fruits: all kinds of berries. But they had overrun the plot. My first task was to clear the garden, and that took three years. Only then was it possible to start over again. That task has been a satisfying one, planting what I want in the places I want. My garden is my own creation, the result of my own ideas, labour, and sweat. And, it is not yet complete.

It never will be, I am sure. With the help of my resourceful and energetic son-in-law, the garden has been re-arranged. New flower beds have been dug; shrubs have been moved to new situations. Today, new plants have been brought in to be placed in new arrangements. I have broad ideas of what I want—the details will follow as I see how things turn out.

I imagine that God is a better planner than I am. It strikes me that he planned his garden rather more efficiently than I have. But, it also strikes me that he was also fascinated to watch how it grew; and, that he has never stopped re-arranging it.

The ethos—spirit—of the Daily Gazelle is a celebration of the creativity of life; and, reflection on life from the view of the garden.

Will it carry on another year? That is up to you.