Abundance

How I love our veggie garden. Years ago I would never have raved on about the garden, so what has changed? I am not sure. Is it an age thing? I don't think so. I do remember the first success I had in the garden of our first home. When the children were very small, I gardened...landscaped you could say because it was a brand new house with no established garden. I took pride in that garden and rejoiced in its improvements. Then we began our travels...returning between each posting away and attempting to re-establish the garden. The children got older and in between school runs and afternoon activities the garden became neglected. I lost interest. I never imagined I could find that joy again.

When we bought this property about 17 years ago there was much work to be done. Constant mowing and planting the odd tree here or there on our fleeting visits. Now we have finally settled down here...the house is built and the grounds need landscaping. With thirty acres the task is huge but we are slowly starting to make headway. The main task so far has been to establish the veggie garden. Its come a long way in the past twelve months. There has been a lot of hard work (with more to come) but the results are there.

Most days I am here I go over there and potter around. Watering, fertilizing, planting, cropping and of course the never ending weeding! I sit to rest on the bench that the Gorgeous Boy has made for me and admire our handiwork. The birds have begun to visit the gardens now and the bees buzz around the flowering peas and the broadbeans. The chickens have settled in and I can here them scratching around and "chattering" amongst themselves, Tiggy lays nearby basking in the sun and there is an incredible peace. Oh how I love the veggie garden :-)

Before I headed down to the city earlier in the week I took my basket and cropped a few things to take down with me,

it is all so fresh and tasty. What more could you ask for? The rewards are so much more than just a basket of goods. I'm not sure I can put my finger on it....but crickey....life sure is good :-)

I took the time to photograph the jams that I made last weekend. They are all packed away in the pantry now.

but that little jonquil in the vase is still on the bench. I have my laptop on the kitchen bench tonight. Its warm in here with the fire . The perfume is so strong, the garden has come inside with me :-)

I only just had enough jars for all of the jam. While down in the city I found a glass jar supplier and managed to buy a few more trays of jars. There's no holding me down now LOL. I have been preserving tonight but that's a whole other post.

Time for bed now.