I love my garden

I love my garden. I love my garden. Oh goodness, I love my garden. This is the fourth year I've planted a vegie garden and I can't believe how far I've come. I say "I" because I'm the chief enthusiast for the vegies. Paul loves to eat them. And he certainly contributes huge amounts of time (about which more in a moment). But the impetus and decisions are mostly mine. He is the tree and bush man and overall imaginer of great projects - like the incredible irrigation system he put in over the winter. I keep telling him how happy I am that I married a man who is ept.

This year it seemed that raised beds would be a good idea - Maggi suggested it actually, as a way to clear some of the wood lying around on the ground. Well, it turned out to be a lot more than that. Of course. And the result is a thing of beauty. In fact, such a thing of beauty that Paul has moved my "wedding" bench (the wrought iron bench he gave me as a wedding present) into the middle of the garden so that I (or we) can sit and just drink in the beauty of it when we have finished our day's chores.

But the main reason for writing the blog today is this: we were tying cross pieces to the tomato stakes the other night (to make a sort of trellis), both of us efficiently and correctly tying the particular hitch that ties two pieces of perpendicular wood together. I can't remember the name of the hitch. But I do remember my Dad (great Eagle Scout, he) teaching us how to tie that, and other, knots when we were kids. He would take us out to the woods after Sunday lunch had been cleared away, leaving Ma to some peace and quiet, and delighting us 6 kids with games and projects. And one of our projects was to build a "fort" out of found pieces of wood. I remember it as if it were yesterday. And I think that's where my love of knots and cordage were born.

The other reason for writing is so that the last sad post about John should not be at the top of my blog any more. Maggi was here for Christmas (5 weeks!) and it was the beginning of a healing time for her, as well as wonderful for us to have her here. She is back in England these days and has just recently moved from the house she had lived in with John. Still in the same area, she now lives in an old Police Station!

More about the garden (and of course the chooks and guineas) later.