Life in a New Garden

I’m sorry to have left you with such a long silence. We spent the first two weeks at our new house without internet and I have to admit, it was kind of nice. With a lack of internet, tv, telephone it was like being on a vacation. Add to that being without a dryer and adjusting to life without the aid of a dishwasher and I spent a lot of time doing things slowly without any sort of modern day distractions. It was nice. It was beyond nice. Above is the new view out our kitchen window. One of the best views in the house, which is a good thing, because of that whole lack of a dishwasher issue.

Moving here has been overwhelming in every sense of the word. The sheer amount of physical work it takes to move a household was overwhelming. The generosity friends and family showed of by watching the kids and helping us schlep boxes and heavy furniture was incredible. Being here, in this most beautiful of spots, in the most amazing of gardens is overwhelming. Living in this house and realizing the vast amount of work we need to do to this house is amazingly overwhelming. I should also mention that there is not one piece of irrigation in this entire two acres of land. Not one sprinkler or piece of drip irrigation. All has been watered by hand all these years.


One thing that we certainly didn’t expect was the warm welcome we would receive when we moved into this house. On our first morning of moving I drove over here to find at the front gate a basket full of honey, homemade peach jam, a blue Bell jar full of sea salt, a bouquet of homegrown flowers and a photo history book of the house we bought. As I mentioned, the couple that lived here before us, built the original house 60 years ago and raised their family here. Their granddaughter is now our next door neighbor and she left us this incredible gift. It brought me to near tears. It makes us feel like we are inheriting quite a loving history. Meeting the other neighbors, most who have lived here for decades, and seeing how much they help each other out is overwhelming. In the eight years we lived in town, we didn’t meet this many neighbors. I didn’t know this generosity between neighbors still existed in today’s world. We feel humbled by it all. We only hope that we can fit into this functioning community and contribute to it.


We’ve also been enjoying inviting friends and family over to see our new home. They all know and have been along for the ride for our two plus years of active house hunting. They’ve patiently listened to all the ‘we made an offer’, ‘we got outbid….again’ heartbreaks we’ve been through. It has been nice to walk around with them all to show them where we landed.

(Mildred hanging laundry in the early 1950’s)

It has taken me a while to find my footing in this new house. To find our new groove. But I think I’m getting there. The camera is again being used and I’m anxious to share our gardening adventures with you.