My title comes not from a description of a tranquil place but more a temporary state. As I trimmed back the tomato plants and weeded yesterday the boys were waging war. For one reason or another. Finally I had heard enough and both boys were sent screaming from the backyard to their rooms for time outs…landing me 10 minutes of quiet time in the yard to take a few pictures to share with you. The garden has been such a pleasure this year and very much a learning experience. It’s great that even though we aren’t experts that our plants still grow and change, despite us!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’re crossing our fingers that the peak of harvest isn’t while we are in Texas in a few weeks! I guess worst case scenario our neighbors will enjoy it for us!

 

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Hiya!!

Well we are finally getting into our new groove with a new sitter, job, and lots on the Spring docket. We sat down a few evenings ago to really look at the calendar and it seems we are booked most weekends and a couple evenings a week until school gets out in mid June! We have a trip planned early July to have a Kolb family reunion and to spend time with my family welcoming our niece Grace into the world!  It’s all good stuff but we definitely need to pace ourselves! It’s nice to be busy this year with life and not a move. It’s nice to literally put down some roots and look forward to seeing the fruit.

The biggest gig around here right now is the garden project. When we were house shopping last year one of our biggest things on the list was a yard that could both fit and provide enough sunlight for a garden.  While the house and yard have some quirkiness we are excited that it does fit the bill to have space and sun for a garden. We are hoping our light green thumbs darken as we dive into this learning experience of growing lots at one time.

My mom is my garden consultant from afar. She is the one who planted the love for gardening in me. So much of her life as a young mom was spent being involved in serving others through our church as a pastors wife. Her garden was her own project that she enjoyed cultivating and sharing with others.  She always had some kind of garden no matter what parsonage she was in. The one that sticks out to me the most was the one that she did down the road from our house on the church property. Our yard had a steep slope and a zillion trees so a garden was impossible. She asked the leaders of the church if they would let her use a plot of land on the back of the property to plant. They agreed….not withholding their chuckles about planting a garden in a back field with no hose or water line. I can remember my mom saving milk jugs and filling the minivan with enough jugs to water the garden. Not sure how on earth she did it with three young children but it must have been a project that brought her sanity and joy because she pressed on! She recalled the shock of the small town Ohio folk when they saw things like eggplant growing in her garden.  They had never seen it and the thought of growing it and eating it was unheard of. That might have been the year she wowed us all with Eggplant Parmesan.   Even my not so adventurous husband is now known to request it. That and ratatouille…which by the way isn’t just a kids movie. We are looking forward to lots of deliciousness to come…or at least we hope!  Currently we have strawberries and herbs in the ground as well as flower pots. Next round will be tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, eggplant,  watermelon, cantaloupe, zinnias and sunflowers.  The only thing missing is my mom being close by or able to just pop up!

 

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As I sit down to share this post it feels a bit like dejavu. Like I have already written these words in years past because it’s likely I have these same thoughts each time this season comes. But that’s how seasons are after all. Spring is coming and so are the changes that it brings.  After a snowy week last week the weekend was warm and begging for us to come on outside. The sound of the table saw whizzing through boards that turned into a beautiful window box, little boys wobbly on longtime hibernating bikes, learning to use a jump rope for the first time and the garden gloves covered with fresh mess were evidence of the day.

I gave the flowers beds a once over glance before diving in and it looked like nothing but brown. Apart from some unruly daffodils that have sprung up in no particular order, the bushes are naked twigs and the once flowering plants are withered and show the wear of winter.  As I knelt and pulled away the dead I saw the new shoots coming up buried below the brush.  As I bent down on the level of the bushes I saw not only dry wood but fresh buds eeking out. I was reminded once again of the need to prune and pull back the old. Those bundles of dead grasses and old blooms serve their purpose to protect during the cold, yet at some point they have to go if the new is going to come. This winter has had it’s share of cold and dry, old blooms in our lives. Dreams that have peaked and tough things that I am ready to toss in the waste. Yet as I do the chilly air meets the new plants and I pray that the new ones will be strong enough to face it. Amazingly they are and day by day I can see their growth.  This year will no doubt be packed with growth and change and as the seasons roll on we will no doubt roll into another Fall and another winter. The faith journey will follow suit and we will go through those times of sharp pruning, upturned soil, new growth, mature fruit often followed by quiet times of quiet hibernation. I love Spring and all that it welcomes! But first comes the pruning. Necessary, delicate and growth-bringing. My Spring heart is revealed, new and ready for what is to come, but shivering every so often as it feels the remnant winter breezes.

 

This season happens to come at a funny time in the typical foreign service timeline. For those of you in the FS family you know that around 6-8 months you step back and evaluate your new life. This back home post has proven to be no different. The first month are settling in and enjoying the “harvest” so to speak followed by some hunkering down and navigating the new waters. By this point you have your feet solid on the ground, the logistics sorted out, lots of networks springing up but it’s time to really evaluate the depth of what you’ve been cultivating. What are we spending our time, energy, money and life on? What are we looking towards in the future? How are we putting down roots and maintaining relationships that matter? We are in the midst of that pruning season too in addition to spiritual pruning.  Thankfully through these seasons we hold on to the words in the hymn above that remind us that God’s presence cheers and guides us through His faithfulness!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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When we arrived the house looked like this….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was spider grass literally trying to grow under the front door. Our sweet friends had already come by to work on stump grinding and clearing fallen trees. Each and every neighbor we meet talks about the fallen trees and wondering who on earth lived here. Since then we have dug, and uprooted, thinned out, dug a little more and had a gardener come and do the final digging of the spider grasses that had a million root bulbs. The previous owners had put in azalea bushes and a funny variety of things that could have been pretty but they were so overgrown. So we started trying to trim them back and give them some shape. We wanted to keep as much as we could. But as much potential as they had, they had grown out of control for too long. I promise I won’t spiritualize every part of this house renovation but honestly I see so many similarities with our faith. The plantings were good intentioned but not maintained and disregarded. When things built up the homeowner just didn’t care or chose not to put in the time. Fortunately or unfortunately the plants continued to grow even without the proper care. But they were not living up to their full potential to be beautiful and enjoyed by the viewer! We literally dug up cement chunks that had been buried between the bushes. Do the regular weeding folks, the jungle grows fast and the nasty roots go deep.

So in the end we kept 2 small grasses (that got transplanted) and a couple of flowering plants, tore everything else out and shopped garden sales to fill the rest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over the last weeks we have added Crepe Myrtles (that reminded us of Texas), knock out roses and lots of perennials that we had in our garden in Switzerland like cone flowers, Black-eyed Susan and lambs ear.  A couple of days ago I spread mulch so that everything won’t die in the winter and then today we put the finishing touches on the yard with the addition of 2 trees and 2 hydrangea bushes. We bought a tree for each boy…(check out the end of season sales if you are in the market for trees….who knew Christopher Columbus was a good reason for markdowns)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It will be along time until these boys can climb these trees but our hope is that they will one day enjoy them! And that they will provide pretty shade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the finished product! Just like the trees it feels like it will be a long time before everything is matured and looking full but in the meantime it looks fresh and rid of the jungle!

 

 

 

 

 

 

ps- I am still resisting every urge to paint the front door red while Seth is at work one day…probably because I know once I do the door red I will have to get going on all of those shutters! Someday!

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