The Farmgirl Diaries

Last weekend, after being at my parents’ place for a week, I came home and began working in my garden..marking walkways, staking bamboo for morning glories and pole beans, planting flowers, hoeing trenches for thousands of vegetable seeds, planting seedlings..you name it. For a few days I worked from sun up to sun down {I had the burnt ears to show for it!} but when I was almost done, I stepped back and marvelled at what a few days work could do

I am so proud of the garden I built with my own two hands. Its a big deal for me and even if nothing grew this year, I would still be proud of the work I’ve done. The dirt I am working with this year is not ideal but this is a temporary garden until we are over in the farmhouse and so, for this year, it just simply had to do. I recently told my father in law that if I can get things to grow in here this year, I am definitely calling myself a gardener! Sure, I’ve been growing flowers for years and feel very comfortable amongst them..but I have yet to grow a tomato myself and cannot wait to pluck one from the vine and take in all the wonders of a home grown tomato that I grew with my own two hands..just thinking about it excites me!

So, things were looking good..I could just invision my garden in late July – greenery everywhere, vegetables and flowers growing in abundance….and then the storm hit…

We haven’t seen a hot, sunny day in almost a week. Rain has fallen constantly..then this weekend it turned in to snow and flooded most of my garden. My bamboo stakes for my morning glories blew over, marigolds are sitting in 2 inches of water, my walkway through my peas is one giant puddle..its devastating, actually!

But today we had a little break in the rain and I went out to my garden to investigate the damage. And while it is still too early to decide how much, if any, was lost – I walked up to my newly planted radishes and here they were, defying nature and growing anyways! Sure, the snow has slowed their progress, but they’re gonna grow anyways! Talk about a proud gardener 😉 So, whats the lesson here? Well – first of all, never try to guess what Mother Nature is bringing you because you’ll never win that game! And second – if you are willing to work hard and connect to nature through the use of your hands, then you just never know how you’ll be rewarded! Gardening teaches a person patience, loss, excitement, joy and disappointment…and who wouldn’t benefit from any of these lessons?!?

Happy Monday everyone and for all my American friends, Happy Memorial Day!!

The smell of lilacs waft by my nose..the scent automatically transports me back to the Spring of 1997, a woman I admired who loved lilacs, laid in her hospital room with her granddaughter..

She was frail but fighting. She would smile and deflect questions about herself by asking how “life” was going for me. She couldn’t speak due to the tubing in her throat so she pointed to the alphabet page to spell out her words. It was a time to bond. If only I realized then that those few hours I spent with her would be the most important I ever did. Why didn’t I ask her about her life? Why didn’t I ask what her childhood was like? Or if she had a wedding photo from the day she married my grandpa? Why? Why couldn’t I have just been older and wiser on that final day I spent with my grandma?? These are questions I ask myself often..
15 years ago today, my paternal grandma passed away after a long, hard battle with her own body. She was my first death, my first heartbreak. I was 13..
I don’t know who she really was, I don’t know what her daily thoughts were but I do know this:
A) she was an amazing woman
B) she was a wonderful wife and mother
C) she was a farm girl growing up
D) she lived for her family
E) she loved the lake
F) she loved lilacs and peonies
G) she used to dance the swing; and
H) she had polio in her early twenties and hater having her photo taken (thus making my record keeping of her very hard to do!)

My grandma was always there growing up and I wish every day that she was still here to learn from. My memories of her have faded but I can still remember her laugh, the way she held her head up while leaning against the kitchen table with a cigarette hanging from her lips and the hugs she used to give every time we said goodbye. She lived in a different time and I admired her so much! Life is hard and unfair but if there is one thing her loss has taught me is that family is everything and always will be to me.  It is hard without her here but I know she’s watching over all of us, every day.

And grandma, if you’re listening, I really miss you…