Living Here :: Sunset Walk

I miss being close to my family, but there are times that I am so overwhelmed by the beauty of our little corner of the coast that I can not imagine living anywhere else.

Overwhelmed… and grateful.

An Unimpressed Visitor

A few days ago, we had a surprise visitor sitting in the back yard, making himself quite at home and helping himself to dinner.

With my friendly attempts at conversation, Preying Mantis Is Unimpressed.

Metamorphosis

On Sunday, for Mother’s Day, we spent the majority of the day pottering around in the yard. And while we did, look what we found!

A chrysalis of some variety hanging out in the ground directly below our new blueberry bushes. I do believe it is a moth—Sorry Janet!—but no worries for us here. We are all still amazed at what we found and what it may become, especially the older two kids. Nature never seems to disappoint.

Our newly found friend needed a habitat, of course, so out they all went to find the choicest bits to make her or him comfortable.

I have to admit that as far as temporary shelters go, I wouldn’t mind the accommodations in which our new guest has been happily (we hope) ensconced.

And now, as with so many other things in our lives, we wait and see what happens.

Growing Things

Today we spent nearly the entire day outside planting and weeding and tearing up and moving about. After ten days of rainy, foggy, cold coastal spring weather, the bright spot of sun that came out ever-so-briefly in the morning gave us all the push we needed to get out of our pj’s, down the last bits of coffee, and get into the yard for some fresh air. After a few minutes, the fog came back and stayed for a few hours before the sun broke through later in the afternoon, but that freshly washed spring air was something I’ve craved and needed.

We all needed it.

Although it seems as if Spring was stalled for all the cold that April held, things have been growing all around us. Some inside on our windowsills…

And some outside waiting for their chance to be put in the bed…

I’m afraid my cucumbers aren’t going to make it, but it’s OK, I have others germinating right now. To be quite honest, I fully expected the seedling project to utterly fail, so I planted things so much earlier than I should have. The tomatoes are still doing OK, although they need to be transplanted and out into some sort of greenhouse, but the cucumbers haven’t enjoyed the cold, windy weather we’ve been experiencing.

The peas, radishes, sorrel, leeks, beets, lettuce, escarole, bok choy, and tat soi are all doing well, although growing a bit slower due to the colder temperatures.

It was cold outside without the sun, and after an hour or so, the kids went back inside to warm up and grab some lunch while I stayed outside and planted the big bed. It took me five hours, but I got it done.

After many years of planning and dreaming, it is so gratifying to see it start coming together.

I am a little scared it’s going to fail miserably… I’m trying to work the bed with companion plantings which is entirely new and a little bit, well, uncomfortable for me, but I’m hoping and keeping my fingers crossed that it may just work.

And now we wait. It’s time for the roots to take hold. Because, of course, the dream was not only about a garden, but for a wish for a strong family, and a home to shelter us, and a community to ground us all. Watching a physical manifestation of that metaphor not only grow but thrive… well… it means so much more than a plate full of tasty vegetables doesn’t it.

But tasty vegetables would be awesome too.

First Harvest

Last night I had to thin out my radishes. It’s a little bittersweet for me, getting rid of all that potential just to give the others a chance to grow and thrive. I find the metaphor hard and discomforting.

But the bounty is surely sweet.

Dinner was a baby radish sandwich on a lovely slice of locally baked quinoa bread with thick slab of butter and just a touch of salt for good measure. Tonight I ate the baby greens with a bit of lemon, salt, pepper, and hazelnut oil.

They were tiny, they were tender, they were sown by my hand, they grew in our ground, and for all of it—all of it—I am so truly thankful.

 

The Bookshelves

A while ago, and I’m not saying exactly when, the Christmas villages that my Mom put up for us were finally taken off of my shelves and boxed up and put away.

Which left them a bit, uh, empty and looking a bit uncared for, possibly dusty… Possibly.

That window seat is quite popular in our house; it’s almost everyone’s favorite place to sit. The good thing about it is that while you’re there taking in the view, watching the ships sailing past, you can’t actually see the shelves. Of course this means I was able to ignore them a bit longer than I should. We started filling the shelves up with random bits of things that couldn’t find their home, and I knew that unless I came up with something, they were bound to stay the catch-all place for little bits of junk that would drive me to distraction.

The thing is, I’m miserable at decorating. I’ve never had the knack for it like some people do. Although I’m comfortable creating color schemes and painting walls, it’s really hard work for me to pull objects together or even have a vision of where I want it all to go. I know when it’s not right or I don’t like it, but I’m not good at figuring out what I’d like better. If you’d ask me what my style is, I’d refer you to my friend Heather (Hi Heather!!), because I really don’t have any idea what it’s called. Maybe Too-Tired-To-Clean-Up-The-Legos Transitional? How about Post-Modernist Meets Dust-Bunny?

Here’s what I decided to do. Well, I say “decided” but really, this is a project that’s in progress… so maybe I should say “I’m deciding” since it’s all subject to change should I come up with a better idea. I know that I do not want something so busy that it detracts or competes with the view out the window. I don’t want it to be too littered with tchotckies, since I’m afraid that not only will it get too busy, but it will become a little-kids-with-curious-fingers magnet area. I think that I’d like to keep it simple and monochromatic, with bits of natural color and textural contrast thrown in here and there. I’d like to keep it calm and focused. I thought I could use some of the big (and small) glass containers I have lying around, as well as some of the stones we have from our local beaches (they’re beautiful… and free!) and see where that got me. With all that glass and all those rocks, I thought it might be nice to jump on the terrarium bandwagon as well.

So! All that thinking, and a little bit of gathering, now I have…

The left bookcase…

The right bookcase…

I have no idea what all the plants in the big terrarium (which used to be a pretty awesome fish bowl) are, but they looked pretty nice at one of our local garden shops. I hope they all get along now that they have to play so closely together. The plant/moss in the little jars are hyper local terrariums, directly gathered from my backyard.

I only have the bottom sections of the shelves done so they’re both still pretty empty, but at least it’s a start, right? I need to rearrange a few things, get some more rocks and natural materials to work with, but now I have some idea of how to move forward.

What do you think?

 

My First Spring Bouquet

A few weeks ago my daughter came in from the yard with the absolutely stunning harbinger of Spring to present to me.

Is there anything sweeter than having your child bring you beautiful bits of nature to share with you?

We have been picking flowers from this wonderful yard to place around the house ever since. There has been no shortage of surprises coming from the earth. I am in awe of the bounty as well as my children’s wonderment and curiosity of it all.