It's been a bumpy few weeks here on the inlet. I think Trace and I are both starting to truly settle in, haven't got any major jobs to do with the house as it's beautifully liveable now and we can freely potter and take our time with the List Of Things We Need To Do Over The Forseeable Future. It's been about six to eight weeks of high stress with mortgage business, packing, shifting our lives, yada yada yada, and the calm after the storm has been happening over the past few weeks.
Some people have a gentle fall to earth when the adrenaline subsides, I've had more of an ungraceful, messy clunk. Moving is the gift that just keeps on giving, no?
In the interests of bringing myself back to basics, today has been a beautiful exercise in being gentle with myself and doing lovely things.
The morning involved watching some Highway to Heaven on DVD while mainlining chocolate for breakfast, and once I'd had enough of that (two episodes and about half a block) I did a great tidy up around the place. Trace and the boys and I went for a stroll down to the water and back, all rugged up and moving slowly, then pored over the Diggers Club catalogue, circling our wishlist of things to grow in the garden.
I planted lavender, magenta brachyscome, whisper white diascia and some yellow daisies in the earth that we've had in pots for awhile. Digging little holes uncovered all these root systems I had nothing to do with establishing, and crumbly sandy soil that I'm not familiar with, and I must say I felt a wee bit triumphant to be putting a stamp of my own on our garden. It was one of the first steps in spreading out like a vine, becoming a part of every space that is ours. I feel a bit shy about it at first, and jumping in like this was good for the confidence.
I also chopped up a tamarillo tree because I don't like them, it was taking up a lot of space and was uggo. There's amazing power wielded in these here parts, that's for sure.
We've both had a good potter around inside and outside, wandered over and met one of our neighbours (Col, a sweet elderly gentleman who enjoys listening to the radio at great volumes), and Tracey ventured out and got us some goldfish for the pond in the front yard. There are now nineteen of us living here including all the pets, which bodes well for good times.
I'm starting to feel a bit more like myself again, helped mightily by an overnight stay in town the other day and lots of lunches, morning teas, dinners and general hanging out with people who know me well. It's good to see friends and shoot the breeze indeed.
Here's a list of things I'd like to be good at now I'm laying my hat in this neck of the woods:
- Digital SLR Photography (I've had a fancy camera for years, purchased with the K Rudd financial stimulus dollars, unexplored and intimidating)
- Making pizza dough from scratch (for the pizza oven Trace and her dad put together for us the other day)
- creating a fun rambly garden with lots of edible components and vibrant colours
- stretching every day even if I feel reluctant
- fishing
- feng shui
- bird watching
- being an exclusively handmade gift-giver (cool stuff not lame stuff, obviously)
- figuring out how to find like-minded pals around here to hang out with. I'd like popping over for cups of tea kind of friends in the vicinity.
For now I'm going to keep poking around in the garden and work out where to plant things, try to sleep a bit more and keep plodding along. Winter isn't my friend at the best of times, but there's great light and warmth to be found in the familiar and the new.
