I'm enjoying experimenting with gardening. I'm trying my hand at growing carrot seedlings, kale and radishes. I bought a number of herbs yesterday - parsley, rosemary, chives, mint, coriander and...something else. I have capsicum seeds from a capsicum I bought drying on the kitchen windowsill and will try planting them to see what we get. My friend Joscelyn sent me some stevia seeds that she harvested from her plants so I'll plant those too. The cauliflower, broccoli, leek, silver beet and onions I planted a few months back are growing beautifully and the compost heap is becoming all kinds of juicy. I find it kind of exciting really; watching all this grow and knowing it will one day nourish our bodies. I'd like to get some seed potatoes in the ground one day and I'm seriously toying with the idea of getting an enclosed chicken run and getting some chooks. Lets bring the country to the suburbs!
Add to that the knitting I'm doing and I'm starting to feel as though returning to a simple life and working on becoming self-sustainable is an achievable goal. It will be a lifetime journey that will be ever developing and never ending but fills me with a sense of purpose. Ideas fill my head about making things with my hands and giving them as gifts or selling them and this fills me with excitement, realising that this is possible - maybe not to the grand scale I would like it to be, but to some level at least.
Doing things for myself also fills me with a sense of satisfaction. Getting out in my yard and cutting the grass with a push mower (you know - like those old fashioned ones. No motor.) makes me feel independent. Sure, it's not as "finished" as a mower would do it & the edges could do with whipper-snippering but it looks a darn sight neater after I do it than before. Not only that, but it's great exercise!
I'm feeling very solitary, but I don't seem to mind it. Life is just full of simple pleasures and I feel as though I've slowed down, opened my eyes and seen how rich a simple life can be. Yes there are things I am wrestling with spiritually but I feel these too are part of the journey and will resolve if I just give them time and patience.
Inhabiting a really good place. Now, off to do some baking!
