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

The Alarm Clock Conundrum

When I first retired, I turned off my alarm clock and buried it under some bedside reading. I was not about to fill my retired awakenings with the harsh buzz of an alarm clock - or even the tinkling of my Sleep Cycle App, I wanted to drift awake and have a relaxing start to my day – no rushing around!

I awoke daily, happily refreshed a tad after 7 a.m., headed to my window, drank my coffee and enjoyed the view. After all, I was used to leaving home a little after 7 five days a week (and at 8 am on Sundays) so my body clock was ready to rock ‘n roll at what now seems like an early hour. 

Amazingly, that went on for over a year. Every once in a while I would sleep in until 8 or so, but really that was still OK. I had plenty of time to be amazed at the wildlife outside my window, eat my breakfast, check all communications channels and get to my 10 a. m. workouts.

Then we went to Hawaii for a vacation. We enjoyed a week in the paradise of Kauai and returned home rested and refreshed. (OK, I was already pretty rested, but it was refreshing to be far away from those floors screaming, “sweep me!”)

The next week, I slept until 8 or 9 every morning! I had to rush around to get to my workout on time – in fact one day I slept right through it! It wasn’t like I was staying up half the night. I’ve never been a night owl and maybe a couple times I was pushing midnight, but mostly I was in bed by 11. 

This did not sit well with my midwestern heritage and upbringing as the daughter of a self-made man. For goodness sake I was sleeping my life away! (Dad used to make my favorite puff pancakes on Saturday mornings just to get me out of bed.)

I told myself, I must need the sleep. I told myself I had earned the right to sleep as much as I wanted. I told myself I was giving hubby dear his own space to get ready for work.

But the reality was I had all these fun, interesting things on my list I wanted to do (once I finished my chores of course, dad) and there were not enough hours in the day!

So I’m back to the alarm… at 7 a.m. Hubby is already out the door to work and honestly the window view is better. Like a camera with a softer focus, there might be a slice of fog on the water. The dew is still glistening on the lawn and flowers and the birds are singing in a powerful cacophony of song that says, “good morning, let’s embrace a new day.”

Until next time,

Miriam

The View From My Kitchen Window... Step One in my Retirement Routine

They say when you retire, you should create some kind of daily routine to keep boredom and depression at bay. Guess what? THEY are right!

After a couple years of tweaking my Retirement Routine, I still start my days the very same way… enjoying the view from my kitchen window.

What I haven’t yet put into my routine is sharing my view as the seasons change and the world turns. That’s been on my “could be cool” list of creative endeavors but I kept getting lost in silly little things like sweeping the kitchen floor and let’s Face it… Social Media.

Then I read a post written by John Richmond on the Storyline blog (also part of my daily routine) titled “Are you the Assassin of Your Own Ideas?“  The gist is to stop focusing on all the reasons to NOT do something (it takes time, I’m not that creative, will anyone really read it, really Who Cares what I have to say?) and put one foot in front of the other and just start.

Others have given me similar advice, including Anne Lamott and OK, I have to say it – Nike. (My career in marketing causes me to notice such things as the Just Do It campaign, which has some tremendous legs.)

Then as I was in the middle of my morning walk/run/pray I was thinking I could start by showing a photo of the robin nestlings just outside my window – which made me think “Of course spring is the perfect time to begin anew… or a blog.”

So after my outing, a shower and a bit of floor sweeping, I started to write! 

That evening as God-light embraced the nest, I snapped a couple photos.

I wish I would have taken photos of the nest building process. What started as a few twigs mysteriously stuck in the elbow of a downspout, soon blossomed into an amazingly secure and comfy robin nest. 

Over the course of 2 weeks, the robin couple carried dried fibers of grass, small twigs and mud, mouthful by mouthful to the nest, making several hundred trips. I could hear them tamping down the mud with their belly, wing and beak. Slowly, what was just a messy gathering of twigs, became a perfect nest. 

During the  process they had to fight off a couple of mourning doves who were mighty impressed with the nest. But Mr. and Mrs. Robin were not in the business of flipping homes. At least not until their brood was ready to move on.

Mrs. Robin laid their eggs and she and the proud papa-to-be took turns sitting on the nest. A couple weeks later the babies emerged! Mom kept them warm while dad hunted worms and bugs to keep them well fed.  

What God has programmed into these birds is amazing! After the first brood hatches and takes off on wings of flight... they are likely to start over again building an entirely new nest, and maybe a third. All within a few week's time in the short spring/summer of Michigan.

Wow.

This is my first View From My Kitchen Window post. I see lots of nature from my window and it inspires me in many ways. So my desire is to share my view and the perspective it provides, with anyone who happens upon these pages.

I'm interested in your perspective as well, so please feel free to comment as the spirit moves you. 

This IS my first consistent writing endeavor. So...

I’m going to try what Anne Lamott tweeted: "Leap up!  Find notebook. Scribble. Wow. You don't write to be remembered. You won't be; I won't be. Write bc it's on your heart."

I hope you enjoy this journey with me!

Miriam

P.S. My first child was born on a Friday the 13th. Since then, I have regarded every Friday the 13th as among my luckiest days. So then... what could possibly be a better day for my first blog post?