More Garden Days

Our garden was looking a bit unloved even as we were starting to spend more time in it. Just little things that have gotten away from us over the winter. Yesterday we had a huge clear-up and suddenly it feels like a proper part of our home again. We have finally decided that, as we can't afford to further fox-proof, we can't bear to get more chickens and have them eaten or stolen. So the hen-house is coming down while we are dealing with all of the other jobs that need doing. With some sighing on my part, I admit, but nevertheless it seems like the right decision.

The girls have such a whole way of being in nature, it makes me smile to see them busy in the sunshine.

The pots and vegetable beds are warm, fresh, clear soil now that I have done the hard work. Next year I WILL remember to cover them to overwinter so that I don't have to do this in the spring! Anyhow, the potatoes still aren't in (I know, I know) but salads and herbs are, courgette plants and onions have been planted (some of the onions are doing really well already, those that were started off as soon as I cleared a few inches of vegetable bed!) so I am feeling quite productive.This week I have been feeling very out of sorts, and ratty with the children (though it is a relief to find that even when I'm feeling very negative, the shouting and ranting and threatening that at one time seemed an impossible character trait to rid myself of are just... gone, and I have not returned to those old habits). In the garden, with muddy grass-stained knees and dirty hands, the tension seems to seep away from me.

When we come in, sometimes only as darkness draws in, and other days as soon as we are all cold and wanting a hot supper, the children have very little time to create chaos before bedtime.

Every kind of gift, from this little patch of earth we call our own.