A few weeks ago when I was beginning to step into the garden and start planning (and planting! at least the peas got in before the cracked ribs happened!), Ani and I had a chat about her little Garden House. Adelaide had built it for her sister's 4th birthday, and that little pallet-built structure has surely seen some time pass! I wondered, with Ani being so much bigger and older, if she'd really still want to hang out so much in the garden with me as she has in the past. I wondered aloud if perhaps it was time to let the Garden House go the way it seemed to be going - that is, falling over and fading. The immediate outrage from her was a clear indication that I was very much wrong, and so I dropped that subject. Mentioning this later to her older sister she said, with a slight eye-roll that I've come to think of as understandable and almost charming from eleven and twelve year olds, "Mom, all it needs is a makeover." And so that was Adelaide's gift to Annabel - a fresh coat of paint on the garden house, a new rug inside, some curtains, flowers and a pinwheel. Tickled pink, they both are. And I as well, for it means I have her hanging out with me in the garden for yet another year.
That is, when I get back out in the garden. It is taking everything in my willpower to not push past what my body can do right now and starting working the soil. It's so late in the season! But then again, it isn't too late. It just so happens that this week I've got a whole lot of extra hands on the farm, as a trip we agreed to host last fall is now upon us. A crew of Waldorf students is here for the week, for their third grade farm stay. Oh the energy! It's exciting. And a young friend of ours is here for her high school senior internship project. And it just might be that with all those extra hands, filling up one five gallon buck of compost or mulch at a time, we get this garden closer to ready.
Oh and, the porta potty? Our little septic system can't quite handle the number of people here at the moment, so it was in order. And as I said on Instagram, if you must have a porta potty in your backyard, it seems only necessary that you add some pom poms and fresh flowers, right? I may not be able to turn over soil as I'd like, but I can hang fresh lilacs upside down from a porta potty. Hooray for the little things!
