I do have a bilungual blog and that is sometimes a challenge. I totally forgot to translate this one, (from October) but I do not want to keep it away from you. And do you know why? Somebody offered me to help edit everything about the garden and make a……book! We keep all sorts of options open. But here a peek into the garden that is now asleep, but was wonderful a few weeks ago.
Read about a rat family and a future full of hope.
I brought the pumpkins from the vegetable garden to the garden behind the house so that we can look at them from our kitchen window. We made pumpkinpie, roasted the seed and I made a spicy soup. Wonderful!
After being away for a few days, I found this abundance of tomatoes that were quietly turning red in my absence.
The pears on the kitchen table that my friend gave me create such a wonderful October atmosphere in the house.
This photo is from the end of September. Boy, what a batch of red cherry tomatoes came out of the greenhouse! Outside, everything had finished, but for weeks, the greenhouse produced 200-300 grams every few days.
While I am standing between the tomato plants, my right foot suddenly sinks down twenty centimeters. I am startled and think: Whose home have I disturbed? And at that moment, a large rat runs past me to the outside. I scream, and that must have been heard a mile away.
A moment later, four small rats came out. This leaves me standing there, bewildered, wondering: How far does my hospitality go, which I value so much on quiet days? This is my garden, but it is also the home of this family.
Why do we love hamsters and even take care of them in cages? This month, we even rose to care for ours at four o’clock in the morning (!) when someone had forgotten to give him water and he made a loud noise. We no longer have small children to disturb our nights, but we have a small hamster. Our love for him is boundless – but our love for rats is of a different nature.
Without knowing the answer to those questions about limited hospitality, I stayed the next hour in another part of the garden. Do you see that the light is different? It really is getting darker.
But there is still plenty in bloom, if you just pay attention.
A large bunch of autumn aster decorates the garden. We now have them permanently on a large vase in the living room. It’s nice to give them away. And so the outdoor life slowly changes into a life inside in our part of the world.
The autumn table. Inside, it is a colourful mess of fresh herbal tea, the last tomatoes, tangerines for the extra vitamins and walnuts as a healthy snack. And of course there are seeds in abundance.
Beans, papyrus seeds. So small and so beautiful. I hang the empty shells on the wall.
Here is a bit of organized chaos – colors, smells, shapes. What a feast! It is hard to describe the calm feeling that comes over me as I sort the seeds. I am filled with gratitude. The grace and goodness of the Lord are palpable as the seeds slip through my fingers. Serenity is the word that comes to mind. Peace.
I think of all the fruits of the garden that I have received in my hands this season – all the friends and family that came and how we marvelled together. We shared life, love and so much beauty but also brokenness, sadness.
The circle is complete. How wonderful that from that dark earth came so much beauty and goodness. Now I sit around my kitchen table again, arranging the little seeds: the promises of new life for the new season.
But wait! Listen and stand still. Take a winter rest. Sit in your chair and be still; drink in the winter as a time to recharge and restore. A season of reflection and turning inward lies ahead of us. Be attentive and think slowly ahead to what is yet to come without being too anxious.
With kind regards,
from my garden to yours,
Janneke