Dear friends,
Look, I know you are all busy right now. So am I. Different kinds of things may keep us hopping, and always beautiful spring-time brings all of us more things
to do, and warm, fragrant air entices us outside to relax or have fun whenever
we find a little time.
You may wonder what a woman with eight grandchildren finds to be so busy about.
Well, I'll tell you a little bit about it. To start with, there are eight grandchild birthdays and eight parental birthdays. Then there are various friends'
birthdays. Not to mention the odd wedding anniversary or other celebration. Birthday keep a person scrambling!
Now winter's over and spring allergy season's passing I can finally go out among
people again without catching some infection that will take too long to heal.
So now I'm free to go out I've been invited here and there, to lunches, to Baha
'i Nineteen Day Feasts, to a home devotional service and pot-luck supper. We've
had guests twice. And that's just the beginning, because there will be out of
town guests here again in July. Probably at least two batches. There are babies being born in the family. All these birthdays and babies make me feel guilty
when I don't get to them with congratulations or gifts. Well, I do what I can,
but what about when it's in the family and people will know if one gets attention and the other doesn't? I always fear some tense family politics may arise.
Then there's our 11 room house. It used to house four children but now it houses Ben and I. Yet we still use all of it and hope to live here as long as possible. Ben's parents lived in their home until they were ninety years old or more.
That's my dream. A house needs continual care and development. There is also
a half acre of land on which it stands. Most of the land is on steep hillsides
. Ben is still up against the 15th of June deadline and has lots of work lined
up for July. He hasn't had any time this spring to work around the house or grounds yet, which has left it to me. We lost our former gardener helpers, so last
fall and this spring very little has been done besides what I can do myself.
It has been sunny and raining both together, most days. That means that plants
are joyfully and riotously growing. Bushes are growing into giants. Young trees are springing up everywhere and need to be removed. Old trees need pruning.
Cultivated roses are flowering bountifully and need dead-heading. Wild roses are setting up bramble heaps everywhere and also blooming beautifully, but for such a short time. Hanging baskets of flowers must be watered and fertilized often so they remain beautiful and the investment they represent isn't lost, and houseplants need care, as always.
English Ivy is trying to grow over our Periwinkle groundcover, and also under the wooden siding of the house as it grows up the rock chimney. That needs to be
cut away so it won't loosen the siding. Windows need cleaning. Washing and ironing need doing. Mending needs doing. Shopping needs doing. So many things I
need to do, everywhere I look right now. And I don't want to neglect my brain so I still read and keep track of world events. (And write on the forum.) At last Ben found a woman gardener who can help me and I expect to show her the grounds on Thursday. Whew!
Our land is not cared for in the usual way. We never use pesticides or herbicides. It isn't a lot of grass that needs to be cut short every week.
There are wild plants here that need to seed before cutting. I lost an historical Okanagan grass because somebody cut it down before it seeded. I can't have that happen to other plants. Then there was the man who cut some of the heads off the sprinkler system as he thought of other things as he used a "weed-eater" on some grass and wild-flowers.
We like a very natural looking garden. Something that looks artistic and almost
as though it just happened. We like it too look glorious and welcoming from our windows, and it still does. Most of our neighbours like a clipped, more formal garden. We have to be careful not to push our lovely wilderness look too far
so that they get annoyed with us. We love the creatures, from tiny ants and spiders to as large as raccoons (and who knows what else that is much bigger,) that
wander over our property as it suits them and find their food among our non-toxic seeds and worms and slugs and fruits. At least this little bit of paradise is healthy for them.
So you see, that's why I can say to you that I'm also a very busy woman. And I
haven't told you the half of it. So why don't you just dash down a few things about your own lives. Make them root articles so my name isn't always the one that has to hit everybody in the eye when they open the forum. OK???? I can't stand seeing mostly my name there.
Love to all, Mary
