gardening

It’s More Than Just a Door to the Garden…

Posted by Barbara Techel
Our three year raised bed garden plan and project came to completion over the weekend with the final addition of the door!

Three years in the making.

One raised garden bed, then two.

Last fall a third.

The anticipation during the cold winter months grew.

For the final phase of the project

still just a dream in our imagination.

And then after all that waiting,

Just like that,

The door was added

And it was complete!

And now I sit

in complete admiration

Starring at this sweet door

made by the skilled and well-worn hands

Of my dear husband.

It’s more than just a door to the garden

It’s an opening to another portal

That came together via a labor of love

And a passion for creativity and nature

and an adventure of gardening

that will provide new lessons from Mother Nature

and help us grow and learn more about ourselves too.

XO

Barb

    

Nurturing Inside and Out. My Soon to Be Raised Bed Garden.

Posted by Barbara Techel

Kind words are the gardens, kind words are the roots, kind words are the flowers, kind deeds are the fruits, take care of your garden and keep out the weeds, Fill it with sunshine, kind words, and kind deeds. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Nurturing seems to be a topic on my mind lately. From my post on Sunday sharing about my nurturing Gidget’s memorial marker where she lays resting outside Joyful Pause Cottage to now thinking about it in terms of gardening.

I also just finished recording an excerpt from each chapter of my memoir, I’m Fine Just the Way I Am, and I’ll be releasing one a day beginning on May 11th – the two-year mark since Gidget has been gone. As I write this post my YouTube channel is busy at work uploading all the chapter excerpts. It was quite the task, but I felt strongly called to do this creative project in honor of Gidget. Another way in which I continue to nurture her many gifts to me and sharing them with others in the hope they will be beneficial for the healing journey of others. 

Gidget was my mirror to listen to the little girl within me that had been in pain for many, many years, but stuffed it down for fear of not being heard, understood, or believed. But as I’d come to realize it was the now-adult version of me that had to listen. From that listening, I learned how to nurture that small child within me. To hold her, soothe her, and let her know it was all going to be okay.

Yesterday I recorded an excerpt from the chapter titled No Place Like Home. This chapter is when I realize all the inner work I’d done as I healed the pain from a childhood trauma was now reflecting in my home. John and I were remodeling the kitchen and living room. We took out a partial wall from between the kitchen and living room, painted the walls a light gray, and changed to soft tones of beige, blue and green colors for the living room furniture from the dark teal, green and maroon they were.

When we take care of our inner world the outside world of our existence takes care of itself.

Sunday as I perused a home decor magazine which is one of my favorite things to do, I came across the quote by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

In between my project of recording the book excerpts I’ve been planning for a raised bed garden — a first for me. Years and years ago we had a garden plot in our yard dug by rototiller, but then it fell to the wayside — as the busyness of life can sometimes steal right from under you.

But this new way of gardening with raised beds really appealed to me. If I start small, I thought, I can manage it more easily and add more the following year if I wish. Scouring the internet I found this 4 x 4 raised bed plan I fell in love with. I especially love the bench on each side. Nice for sitting to plant seeds, weed, and pick the crops when ready, while appealing to the eye. But I’m also envisioning it as a lovely place to just sit and relax sometimes.

I purchased organic seeds from Everwilde Farms and after receiving them realized I’d forgotten to order spinach and swiss chard. In the back of my mind, I worried I wouldn’t have enough room for everything I want to plant thinking I’d just have to plant some things in containers.

It was a few hours later when John mentioned that we should perhaps make the garden 4 x 8 instead. He had calculated out the cost for additional cedar and it didn’t add too much more to the total. I had my confirmation that the plans I had for the additional seeds I needed to get were a go-ahead!

Today as I dream more about this new experience of having a raised bed garden the thought of nurturing trickled through my mind again. As I continue to nurture my relationship with Gidget even though she is no longer here physically, I’m reminded of her potent teaching to continue to nurture my inner world.

As I plant vegetable seeds I nurture my connection to the earth and nature. As I harvest the crops I help to nurture the insides of our bodies with good food, which helps nurture our minds and spirit. This brings me full circle back to the quote above — and how when we take care of our inner world, the outside world by default reflects this back in the most beautiful way.

XO,

Barb

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Mourning Miss Marie’s Garden

Posted by Barbara Techel

In the late fall when I move my geranium plants indoors I think of my friend, Miss Marie. It was from her that I learned to do this. Soon I’ll have to cut them back, but for now, I’m enjoying the last of their blooms.

It will be two years ago in February, at the age of 72 that Marie passed away. Her white two-story house on the corner in the hub of our quaint downtown was sold to a gentleman who buys up homes in the area and rents them out to tenants.

It’s been sad to watch the changes to the property since then. Many of the shrubs have disappeared. Then this summer the black ornate wrought iron gate to the entrance of her house was taken down. Before I became friends with Marie, I’d often think of that gate as the entrance to a secret garden, and behind it, I was curious about the mysterious woman who lived inside.

Walking by what was once Marrie’s house is part of my morning route. Today as I rounded the corner I sensed something different once again. As I walked a little further I saw that the garden off to the side of the house was completely gone. Tears sprang to my eyes. It’s now covered over with gravel and has been made into a large parking area. Even the sidewalk that led from her back porch out to her art studio is gone.

The garden, with raspberry plants that leaned over the walkway, and how I’d often sneak a berry or two as I sauntered up the sidewalk to the back porch when I’d visited Marie were now gone too.

Tears filled my eyes and my heart ached for how Marie loved birds and the many that hung out in her garden (and stole the berries too!) who no longer have this special place to dwell. The stories we’d share of critters that often appeared at her home or mine — the toads, frogs, and the dragonflies, oh my (!) — and how we both took such great delight in these sightings.

It all felt so harsh. I could barely contain my sadness as I continued on my path home. Marie loved nature, flowers, books, and animals and was an artist that collaged fabric into the most exquisite designs – she had quite the eye for combining colors and patterns together!

I realized once again why my attraction to her all those years ago when I’d catch glimpses of her downtown or at the post office – and her eccentric style always fascinated me. She lived simply but also loved to indulge now and then in a few of the finer things of life, which she was able to do so with a depth of joy because of her frugalness. Somehow it just made those indulgences all the sweeter. I loved how her eyes lit up and her whole body came alive in excitement when she’d share with me the experience of something she had saved up to do.

For a moment I wanted to just stuff it all down and not feel the heaviness of it all. For a moment I wondered why I feel these things at this depth. I thought to myself that it was silly to be mourning a garden. For a moment I didn’t want to be the person who feels so deeply.

But it is who I am. I realized once again that just as I feel something like this so deeply I’m also able to experience great joy in things others may think seemingly ‘small.’ 

I realized also it’s the essence of Marie that is a part of who I am too and that I continue to strive to be. Nature, animals, art, books, and indulgences in the finer things now and then is what brings me joy too — and what makes me deeply appreciate life.

While I can’t bring back Marie’s garden, I can continue to carry on that very spirit of who she was and who I am too. In many ways, the steps I walk through this life, Marie walks with me and the mourning I experienced with the loss of her garden today was in fact my missing her here in this life.

But it strengthened my determination once again to live the principles that are in alignment with my heart — and the sorrow that had enveloped my heart for a time during my walk this morning is a beautiful thing. And before I knew it I found myself smiling at all the sweet and fun memories.

And this box that contains some gelato crayons that sits on my art table in my Joyful Pause Cottage. It was a box Marie gave to me one day that contained some chocolates inside.  I was just as excited about the box, as Marie was mid-sentence that she said to return it when the chocolates were gone, that she changed her mind and with a smile said to keep the box because she saw how happy it made me.

And I realized now looking at this box how it is a nudge from Marie to continue to experiment with the collage pieces I’ve been making and to continue to make art more a part of my life.

A moment of sadness that turned to sweet memories that turned to inspiration…

xo,

Barbara

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