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I found raspberries in our backyard today that I didn’t know were there. It felt like an “everyday miracle” because I’ve been talking about how I want to grow raspberries in our backyard, and lo and behold, there’s actually a raspberry bush already growing there. They were behind our shed.
I bought a flowers of Newfoundland book and I was identifying some of the wildflowers growing in my yard when I found the raspberries. hee hee!
This is our first summer in this home and I am loving getting to know our neighbours. I have met at least one member of each of the houses on our cul-de-sac. I love feeling part of a community. There are many retirees on our street, many couples who have been on the street for 30+ years. Some younger families have also started to move onto the street, including one couple who is expecting a child at the end of August (a potential playmate for Alex in a couple year’s time!). There are also some older boys (ages 8 to 11) who Alex enjoys chasing on his tricycle.
Alex loves meeting the neighbours as well. If anyone is outside of their home when we are outside, Alex makes a point to go over to talk to them. Everyone on the street knows Alex’s name. One of the neighbours has a swing set in their backyard for their grandkids and Alex has a standing invitation to use their swing set.
I love our street!
We saw the movie “One Week” last night, and I loved it.
The movie synopsis:
When confronted with his mortality, Ben Tyler (Joshua Jackson) impulsively buys a vintage motorcycle and sets off on a road trip that starts in Toronto and ends up on Vancouver Island in the town of Tofino. Humourous, profound and extremely moving, One Week uses the great Canadian landscape as the backdrop to the story of a man and his life’s journey. In the search for himself, he finds out what makes this country, and his life, so beautiful.
It was a beautiful tribute to Canada and to life itself.
The movie asks the question, ”What would you do if you only had one week to live”, or “What would you do if you had one week to change your life?”
I’ve gone through many metamorphases in my life, and I’m happy to say that currently I wouldn’t change much in my life if I knew that I only had one more week to live.
It feels as though there’s no unfinished business to attend to.
All of the important people in my life know that they are loved.
I have been forgiven and have forgiven.
I would probably spend a lot of time with loved ones and in nature.
I wouldn’t need to go on a road trip, or fly anywhere.
I’d be content to just be here.
This is the first time that we’ve had our very own garden and I am loving spending time in it.
Digging around in the dirt.
Breathing in the fresh air.
Talking to the trees.
Mixing up our compost.
Admiring all of the snails.
Picking the dandelions.
It feels like our own bit of heaven in our backyard.
Slowly we are putting in our touches — we have two bird feeders so far, a finch feeder and a millet/black sunflowerseed feeder. We’ve had American goldfinches, black-capped chickadees and dark-eyed juncos visit so far. Eventually I’ll put out a suet-feeder too.
We had some perennials come up in our front garden, and we’ve planted some more perennial seeds. The nice thing about gardening in Newfoundland is that it rains so often that you don’t need to water the garden at all.
We eventually would like to landscape the entire front yard and transform it into a xeriphytic / naturescaped area. No more lawn. But, we’re going to take our time to do it. In the meantime, the front lawn has been completely overtaken by dandelions. There were so many dandelions that going around with the dandelion-picker was pretty futile. I tried to go around and pick all of the yellow flowers before it went to seed, but again the dandelions won. I kind of feel like dandelions are so hardy and good at growing, they deserve to take over the world. (Though I also admit that I also feel a bit like a bad neighbour with all of our dandelion seeds spreading across the neighbourhood). I picked a few of dandelion leaves tonight and will try eating them as a green — I hear that they are very nutritrious for you. If you have any tips on how to “control” dandelions in an easy and non-chemical, let me know!
In our backyard, there was a very small vegetable garden that was started by the previous owner. Very small. As in a wild onion plant and another plant that we haven’t been able to identify yet. We’re slowly extending the vegetable garden and planted a couple of tomato plants, sage, thyme, peas, tomato seeds, and pepper seeds. I’ll let you know how it goes. I’m pretty excited about it. I don’t know anything about gardening and I’m also pretty lazy about it — I want to see what will grow with minimal effort and will grow more of whatever grows well over the years.
Eventually I’d love to turn most of our lawn into a vegetable garden. But, again we’re starting small and will slowly build. It’s pretty exciting…
Alex enjoys his time in the backyard as well — digging in the dirt — he calls it “his dirt”, pushing his toy lawnmower and riding his tricycle around.
We purchased an old-fashioned push lawnmower — the non-gas / non-electric type. Mel’s been doing the mowing and he says that it works pretty well. You need to exert a bit more force than with the electric/gas type, but it’s non-polluting and quiet and does the job! We highly recommend it.
Something is shifting… On Friday, Alex got retested for allergies (pricktest) and EVERYTHING that they tested for came back negative (i.e., no allergies) — including many things that he had previously tested for as positive. They didn’t test for a few things for which his blood work (RAST test) had came back strongly positive (milk, cats, fish and wheat), but everything else came back negative (and they tested him for about 15 things, including mixed nuts and eggs — things that he was reactive to in the past)… I’m still in shock about it! We’re slowly going to reintroduce some of the foods that came back negative in a systematic way to see how he reacts when he ingests the food.
It’s a bit odd because 8 weeks ago, they did blood work and all of the things that they tested for came back strongly positive, but now everything is coming back negative. (Maybe the blood was showing the historic signs of allergies and the prick test is showing that currently, his system is no longer as sensitive?)
In any case, I am still in a state of shock, and also complete awe.
They are actually going to get him to do an oral challenge of peanuts in the hospital next month. The truth is that I have a lot of calm about it, so I feel as though everything is going to be okay.
We are now going to be working closely with a dietician to start to systematically reintroduce other foods back into his diet. We’re starting with rice this week.
I am in utter awe about it all. It feels like a big HUGE MIRACLE. I am utterly thankful.
When I was opening up my mother’s day card from Alex, which had his little scribbles all over it, he excitedly took the card away from me and “read” it to me:
“Dear God, please bless my mom”.
He then opened up Mel’s card to me and “read”:
“Dear God, please bless my mom again. In the whole wide world. The end.”
I had a bit of a stressful day today and he asked me, “You’re feeling sad?…. I know, I’ll give you cuddles”. And he ran to grab his blankie and ran back to me to give me the biggest cuddles in the world.
Happy Mother’s Day to all of the mommas in the “whole wide world”.
