We have arrived in a whole new land! We are beginning our sixth month in our new home. With this comes the changing of seasons. Life here started as theFall was coming to an end. The days were warm and the nights quite cold. I remember laughing with Wayne's mother as we were preparing to leave because we were moving to a desert and for the first time I would have a fireplace. Now this is something I had always wanted in my home at some point but I did not see the need of one when moving to a land of warmth! How little we knew! The days may be warm but the evenings we spent cheering on our football team found us wrapped in many layers including wool and heavy winter coats! What was wrong with this picture? Could this really be! Soon, those days passed and we were full swing into winter! I had not moved to California to be once again surrounded by the cold of winter! I thought I had left this behind me. Was I surprised! Winter here is a mixture of rain and fog. I complained a bit but soon found that life goes on as normal in this setting. The dogs get walked, the children's outdoor school is still outdoors, and the joggers continue through rain and fog. Life goes on and as my time here continued, I began to enjoy the freshness of rain, the calming of the fog, and the warmth of the winter sun as it peeked through about noon each day. The evenings began to take on their own romantic feel as we would bring wood in to set under the covered patio to replenish that wood which was burning inside to keep us warm. We are now entering spring and the rain is subsiding. The days are warm and the sun is neverending. The rain will not return to us again until November they say. By then I will be one of those who love walking in the rain! I will long for the smell of rain and the coolness as it touches my face. I will be ready for the refreshing feeling of the moisture wrapped around us by the fog. For now, though I will cherish the sun and all the new treats this season has to offer! I have been spending much of my days trying to acquaint myself with the plants of this region. This is important to me because gardening has always been such a major part of my life! I would spend endless hours side by side with my husband and children working the soil to prepare for flowergardens, trees, and veggies! Many of those days were spent with "Lucy" as we prepared our trench gardens the men had worked so hard to dig for us on Mother's day so many years ago! This was the period when our boys could never stop their own digging. They even spent one Mother's Day digging their own meditation garden to present to us as a gift with plants they had dug up from our gardens! This was not their usual digging as that usually involved digging straight to the center of the Earth! These were the years we spent sharing our homes with each others children and pulling out fresh produce from the gardens to add to whatever leftovers we could find in our refrigerators. We filled the table with the bounty of both homes in the evenings and sat talking late into the night as the children fell asleep at our feet to the music of choice that night. Often times we had guitars going along with the beautiful sound of the violin shared with us by our dearest friendJohn. With these evenings came the wisdom Frances would share with us as well as with our children! What a blessing to have her grace our children's lives! I bring to this new land those memories as well as those from so many years of living in the Midwest! Having grown up in Illinois and having lived there off and on most of my life, I can tell you that this part of the year would always bring out the best of the canned foods. With it would come the memories of long days picking and prepping the corn with my grandparents when I was young or in later years with my children and Bonnie. It would bring back making the veg. beef stew and canning it for days with my mother and her mother. Or as my mother fondly remembers the hours of turning the apples to sauce. This is the time of year I learned to make egg noodles with my grandmother before the Alzheimer's took the recipe from her memory. These are the days you can remember the baby chicks as they arrived in boxes with little holes for air. All of summer comes back to you as you open that beautiful can of goods from the pantry. These are the cold, grey days of winter for Illinois when the candles are lit, the bread sits rising by the radiator and the stew simmers on the stove. If you watch closely, the watercress will soon be ready and the signs of spring will be all around you. This is the time to pull out the seed catalogs and dream. These are the memories that travel with me to this new land! We are warming quickly now that the rain has passed and we will not see another double rainbow for many months. We spent this weekend outside enjoying the sun and the warmth. we walked the community trying to see what fun plants we could bring to our new home. There are so many plants I have never seen before and am so excited to plant! We want to begin the process of landscaping and making this place our home. I look in complete wonder at the trees and plants all around us! I spent a day last week in a local garden center and had so much fun looking and asking questions. I have planted a few things since we have arrived. My very first purchase after our move was a lemon tree thanks to Mary's wise prompting before we moved! I have added to this a rosemary bush and lavendar, all of these I recognize! I have now begun to venture outside of my area of knowledge in the plant world. Last week I was tickled to find the above African Daisy. I knew I would not leave the center without it as soon as I saw it! I added to my garden a beautiful white Calla Lily as well as a pink Jasmine vine to cover my fence! It is amazing now to walk out my back door and smell the jasmine! I hope to never take this smell for granted! I have also added a couple Sweet Brooms which smell of lemons and are just beautiful! Of course I have planted the ever beautiful poppies which I have loved for years thanks to an old dear neighbor who has since passed! Many days were spent listening to the wisdom of this dear friend as she explained life's secrets through her garden and her sauces she shared with us! It was a favorite ritual for Brittany to cross the alley between our properties and go within their home to tuck these to old friends into bed at naptime. She would then curl up at the foot of their bed and sleep a few hours. I smile as we begin to meet our new neighbors and wonder what memories we will all create. Wayne and I spent a bit of time yesterday listening and trying to remember as much as we could with a kind neighbor who was trying to pass to us the knowledge of growing palnts in this new space. We plan to share many pitchers of tea with this new found friend as she has said this will be her price for our education! I guess it is good to know there is wisdom lying in all lands as well as memories just waiting to be made!
