The Garden in My Life

Living on a lake lot with many lovely shade-producing trees made it hard to find a spot to plant a sun-loving garden.  Luckily, since we are on a private lane in a neighborhood where concern for the rules has long since vanished, the garden was easy to add in the front yard!

Not so easy was how to place it to avoid the gas and phone lines coming right through the center of the yard. Enter my friend, the Landscape Architect who developed a beautiful front yard plan, complete with raised bed garden. The garden wall is about 3 feet tall and curves in a semi-circular fashion.  Two ground level perennial flower beds, placed a few feet away, complete the concept of a mouth with two eyes. In fact, many visitors comment that they see a smiling face in our front yard!

Now gardening has typically been my husband's hobby. At our last house, he did all the work and I just helped harvest and eat. Even when we added the garden at this location, he did the lion's share of work.

However, since I retired and he is still slugging it out at a very demanding job, the garden has beckoned and convinced me to dig in the dirt. There's something about digging and planting and pulling weeds that is relaxing. Every time I walk past to get the mail or take out the garbage, I find myself stopping to admire the fruits of our labor... and to pluck some weeds.

This week was exciting as I picked the first zucchini, cherry tomato and snow peas!  And since a deer accidentally picked a beet as she was chomping on the greens, I brought that inside as well.

Seriously, it is amazing how exciting it is to have helped mother nature produce these beauties!

So what all do we plant? Well, there's really not that much room and essentially it's all about the tomatoes. We adore fresh, home-grown, vine-ripened tomatoes and it is impossible to buy them at the store. Honestly, finding juicy, sweet tomatoes can even be dicey at the farmer's market. 

We garden organically as well so we are never concerned about chemicals when eating our own goods. Since an entire garden of tomatoes would be way too much for us to keep up with, we only put in about a dozen plants. 

Zucchini and green beans are pretty much mainstays in our garden and this year I added the peas and beets - which I L-O-V-E! Unfortunately so do the deer. This year they've munched on the beet greens and pea flowers with delighted vigor and we have had to take measures to change their habits.

Look for our deer deterrent strategies in a future blog post!

What do you grow in your garden?

Happy growing,

Miriam
 

Why I keep my camera handy

One morning last week as I was enjoying my coffee, looking out my window, I was thrilled to see a cardinal perched inquisitively on the deck railing. He was beautiful with the sun hitting his bright reddish-orange feathers.

He appeared to be watching something on the ground (Fledglings? A cat? An insect?), but I didn’t want to move enough to follow his gaze. I wanted to keep him in my line of vision as long as possible.  And then I reached for my camera so I could share his beauty with you … but it wasn’t by my chair! It wasn’t even in the room.

I waited for Mr. Cardinal extraordinaire to fly away, and then I marched around the house until I managed to find the camera. I sat back down and waited, waited, waited and then finally gave up on his return.

The good news is that since most days I start my day looking out my kitchen window, I didn’t have to wait too many days for him to pop into view again, this time even closer. And yes, I had my camera right there, waiting to capture his glory.

The sun was not participating in this event in quite the same way as the first time I watched him.   

God light notwithstanding, I think you’ll agree he is magnificent. 

Do you keep your camera handy? What is your favorite 'capture'?

Have an inspired day,

Miriam

You Want a Piece of Me?

The thing I’ve noticed in retirement is that everyone wants a piece of you.  The general assumption is that you have lots of time on your hands and those still working or in school or needing extra assistance or volunteers ask you to do stuff for them.

It’s almost like folks think I’m just sitting here looking out my window ALL DAY waiting for marching orders.

This is good and bad. Since my husband is still working at a very stressful job, I am happy that I can take care of some of the chores that were his domain – like taking out the garbage and recycle and making sure we have something to eat for dinner.

It’s also good that I have time to help my elderly mother do her shopping and that we can spend time together. 

Doing more volunteer work for my church gives me a feeling of accomplishment, which I have missed since no longer at work completing big product launches (for instance) on deadline.

Being able to jump online and find a hostel in Hong Kong on a moments notice for my traveling adult son makes me feel needed. Looking up my Netflix password for my daughter in college doesn’t take long.

But when you add all these small things together, suddenly I find myself doing what I did when I worked; Running around at the beck and call of others and not having time to pursue things that are meaningful to me.

It wasn’t like this from day 1 of retirement. In fact, right after I retired, I discovered the Artist’s Way, A Spiritual Path to HigherCreativity and made my way through the 12-week program. As I explored my creative side, I was reminded that I DID HAVE HOBBIES and interests outside of family, work and church.

For instance, at one point in my life I was a photography major and my desire was to work for National Geographic traveling to wild places to photograph, you guessed it… nature.  At some point, I became convinced that my talent was not enough and the competition too much to continue on this career path so I chose to go into marketing.

This was by all measures a good decision as I enjoyed my career and had the pleasure of working with lots of creative people which allowed me to think creatively as well.

But now, I would like to explore my creativity on an even more personal level with this camera I purchased. Alas, I find my time being parsed up so much that I rarely take the time to just go shoot photos.

Granted I can’t blame all of this on requests from others. I do have a desire to stay connected to folks via email, social media, lunch dates and outings. I do make it a priority to workout at the local Y several times a week and I have started the Couch to 5K running program about 6 times since I retired. 

It's just that between the big and little things I want to do and the demands on my time from others, I find it hard to get to the BIG, creative, fun things on my list.

So… maybe I haven’t’ got this retirement thing quite all figured out yet.  

Do you have some advice on how to make the best of retirement?  

Or maybe you're sitting there playing the world's smallest violin for me and your desire is to tell me to stop whining.

Then by all means, toss me a comment in the space below.

Ciao for now!

Miriam