Hello dear friends! Long time, no see! Ran asked me to download some pictures of our garden, as this blog acts as a sort of journal of our life, so please bear with me.
This summer has been very good for the garden, although Spring was almost completely non-existant. We were still wearing our winter coats into the first week of June. Seeds were slow to germinate and had to be replanted several times. (That's why it's important to save your seeds from season to season.) Anyway, after a cold start, the weather cooperated and we've had the perfect amount of rain and warmth to make a lush vegetable plot. Even that dreadful heat wave that plagued many only lasted a few days here.
Where I've Been
Liberosis:The desire to care less about things, to let things go. Having a sense of liberating indifference to other people's opinions. A longing for playfulness and lightness in life.
A few years back I started thinking about my life. Not to sound morbid, but realistically I only have about a decade or so of it left. And time flies so quickly! I just want to enjoy what ever time I have left. One day Ran and I were driving down the road and I noticed that the sky was so blue. When was the last time I really looked at the sky? So the past year, I've been really "looking" at everything. The wonder of it all!
While I'm taking in all the experiences I can, I've also been letting go of a lot of things. Not only downsizing and clearing physical clutter, but a lot of baggage that comes from growing up in an abusive home. One day I was having a conversation with Ran and I told him, "I can't figure out if (a certain friend) is being passive-aggressive or just thoughtless." and he said something so simple, yet so insightful that I feel as if it has changed my life forever. He said, "Does it really matter? " No it doesn't, hurtful is still hurtful, isn't it? So out went the people that bring drama or negativity into my life. My circle is very small, just my immediate family and a few neighbors that I chat with over the fence and some folks I deal with on a weekly basis, like my little Amish friend at the scratch-and-dent store and the gentleman that regularily checks us out at the Mennonite store. And you know what? I have never had such contentment in my entire almost seventy years of life.
Right now, the garden dictates my life. The weeding, the watering, the picking and the preserving take hours out of each day. Someone, rather snarkily, I might add, told me that they wish they had such a quiet life and could lie about all day in their pajamas and read all day. Ouch! Did I have flashbacks to the days as a stay-at-home mother when people used to say that old, tired phrase "I wish I could stay at home and lie on the couch eating bon-bons all day."! For the record, I don't think I've ever eaten a bon-bon in my life. Ha!
In between garden chores, I snatch a few hours to do something creative. At the moment, I'm knitting a rather complicated intarsia patterned shawl and doing some Jacobean crewel-work (a kit I picked up at a church rummage sale for a quarter). I've narrowed down what I read to books that are either informative or are in my wheelhouse (set in the period between the mid-1600s to the early 1800s in the country with lot of country folklore and customs). Anyone have any suggestions? I'm also trying very hard to keep to a consistent exercise regime (and hating every minute of it). Ha! Well, at least it is keeping me from becoming a complete marshmallow during the winter's slower months, so there's that.
As for this blog, I really don't know what its future holds. Ran does like to come on here and see how our little home has changed throughout the years, so I suppose I will post from time to time. I think I've said all that I can say about being thrifty. I've learned that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink. Experience and necessity are really the only two ways anyone will ever learn to be truly thrifty. I realize most of my advice goes in one ear and right out the other. So what is left to write about? The weather? Even I would be bored with that and I am easily amused. Ha! Well anyway, I'm just rambling here, so if you have stuck with me thus far, I thank you kindly. Have a blessed August!
Hugs
Jane
