the seed of hope

In a frivolous act of optimism I planted tulip bulbs for spring. To cover a seed with soil is to demonstrate faith in the future. Tearing out weeds,watering,and nurturing the sleeping seeds are acts of trust in nature. When a green shoot appears the gardener experiences a similar rush to one who has given birth. Gardening is the closest some people get to feeling like a god. To watch a seedling spout and unfurl into a flower or a vegetable is to take part in a miracle. The gardener also learns acceptance of decay and death. To almost welcome a season of withdrawal as part of the cycle."

A quote from "Cleo" by Helen Brown.

" Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see."

Hebrews 11:1 NIV

I have been thinking about hope. It seems crazy to have hope sometimes. I wonder where it comes from. The hope I, sometimes, have is in spite of all rational thought. It is at odds with the world around me.

This earth lost a dear soul last month. My passionate friend TJ passed from this life to the next while giving birth to her beautiful baby boy.  I am so very sad about the loss of TJ. She is greatly missed by so many. It makes no sense. There are no answers to the why questions. My heart breaks.
And yet, at times in the misdt of it all I find Hope. A hand reaching out with a gift of faith for hope in the future. Hope that TJ is in a better place. Hope that someday I will see her again.

And so I plant bulbs in honor of TJ. I plant them randomly all over. So when the winter is over and spring comes there will be blooms of hope scattered all around me. I will remember TJ. I will remember her love for the Church, her passion for Truth, and her amazing laugh.

the reason I live in a bus

People often ask me why I live in a bus or what I like about living in a bus. I am a slow processor so 8 years of bus living and I have a bit of an answer. 8 years! Where has the time gone?!

A picture tells a thousand words. So I could just let these photos do my blogging for me. I mean look at that view! I can lay in bed and watch the seals play around. Yes, seals. We are parked up at Cape Palliser where there is a wonderful seal colony.

I guess to get the full picture of how I ended up in a bus we better go back to my childhood. I loved dressing up as a gyspy for halloween. Mom let me wear all her old costume beads. It was great. And then later it morphed into dressing up as a hippie. I was also in love with the Boxcar Children.So when I married a man who owned a bus I was more than happy to move right in.

I love that we can pack up the bus and get a new view. I love not having to pack for holidays. I love that I can get a dish out of the cupboard with out getting up from the couch. I love being creative and organizing in a small space.

 Don't worry mom we walked the road before we drove on it. I guess we are not a long vehicle because we made it there and back! To be honest I was more scared on the national park road in N. Carolina! Those were some narrow roads.
I love the adventure of driving in a bus. This last year has been the most stationary we have ever been. One whole year in the same place. It has changed how we vacation in the bus. When we were traveling full time we would get away by ourselves sometimes. The plan was to park somewhere, anywhere really and not move for a few days. Just be, no driving, no packing up.
We have taken 3 little trips in the bus so far this year and we move everyday. I think our sense of adventure is back. We spent so much time in one place here that when the bus in moving we want to see it all.

Can you see the bus in this photo?  It is there in the middle point by the beach. This is the view from the lighthouse at Cape Palliser.

I love that living in a bus means I get to stay at place like this. I get to be surrounded by beauty. I love that there is no cell phone reception when we are in a place like this and that we dont have enough battery power to run the computer. I like that we get to step back and get a different perspective.

At least when we are in New Zealand. If we were in the USA we would be parked up at Wally World! Ha!

the things we learned

We learn from our mistakes right? Here are a few of our lessons from this growing season. 

 Our thumbs our getting greener every day.

We learned that we despise the white butterfly. It lays tiny eggs on our plants. Then the eggs turn into caterpillars and eat our veggies.

Luckily they were mostly into the Nasturtiums. I spent a lot of time picking the little green caterpillars off. It was actually strangely therapeutic. We equally dislike the aphids and white fly!

We learned that the tomatoes should probably be planted behind the Zucchini.

We learned our Hyacinth needs more soil to florish. And probably more light. We planted them in the middle of our circle of peas. The idea was that when the peas died off we would pull them down and have a beautiful purple hyacinth vine to look at. No such luck.

We learned that peppers,

eggplants

and watermelon need to be started much sooner.

 There is always something to learn in the garden.

the little tomatoes

I will admit I do feel a little guilty writing about the tomato glut in our garden while my some of friends and family are experiencing yet another snow storm!
I guess I will get over it. You do all live in Minnesota. And it is only March. Winter is only half over!
So back to the cute little tomatoes.
We planted 10 different varieties of tomatoes this year. 6 small ones and 4 big ones. 2 of the smaller ones were late getting started, so we have yet to meet  Green Grape and  Red Figs.

I would like to introduce you to Yellow Pear,  Isis Candy Cherry, Riesentrauble, and Currant.
They all taste like, well, tomatoes!

We have been eating lots of salads, we have dried some in the dehydrator, made some chutney. And given oh so many away.

The Currant ones in the second photo are slightly insane. The plant itself is all over the place. It is impossible to keep it contained. And the amount of sweet little fruit on it is amazing.No matter how many we eat or give away or preserve I always have 2 or 3 mug fulls in the fridge.

Sadly Riesentrauble got too heavy for its own good. The bottom photo is of the tomatoes I found on the ground today when a branch broke off the Riesentrauble plant. The branch had 87 tomatoes on it! Yes I counted.

I am in the middle of a batch of green tomato chutney.

the radish trees come full circle

Let me tell you a story about the radishes that went to seed.

They turned into tall and pretty radish trees.

Then they turned into a mess.

 

I chopped them all down. And spent the next three days taking the 5 or 6 seeds out of each pod. The barrow of pods never got any smaller. There must be a better way.

We took all the pods off the plants.

We put the pods into the cooler. I got in with my new blue shoes and started to smoosh the pods hoping to release the seeds. A radish pod poked through my shoe and hurt my toe.

Nigel got his bare feet in the cooler and carried on where I left off.

We put the smooshed pods though the colander. Hoping to end up with seeds on the other end.

We ended up with more than we bargained for.

Blow Dryer to the rescue!

And we have seeds.

Lots of radish seeds.

the cats may be smarter than the humans

 The other day I was watching my cats eat their evening meal. When Mama Luna was done she started scratching all around her food dish. Apparently this is an instinct. In the wild the cat would cover its food to hide it and save it for later. I thought, Oh silly cat, she is trying to hide her food, doesn't she know there will be more food later. I feed her twice a day!

Then I thought, hmmm maybe I am the silly one. She is showing her little kittens how to survive if they are ever left on their own. She is passing on ancient cat wisdom from the beginning of cat time!

We humans seem to be the one creature on this earth who doesn't learn from our ancestors! With every new generation we start over, thinking we know it all. I mean there are people today that think vegetables somehow magically appear in the supermarket. All washed and ready to eat even!

Then yesterday we noticed Mama Luna was hissing at the two remaining kittens. Whats that about?

Google to the rescue!

Mama cats will "encourage" their kittens to live their own life when they are old enough. She will do this by hissing and nipping and kicking of course. She is basically saying," Look here child, I have taught you all you need to know. It is time for Mama to be her own cat again and time for you to  go out into the big wide world and fend for yourself." She knows they are ready for it even if they dont.

Bet some parents wish they could do this with their kids!

Cloud and Townsend would be impressed with cat boundaries.

the news from the garden 4

Brandywine and currant tomatoes. We have enjoyed one brandy wine so far, another is ripening in the green house. And we collect a small handful of currant tomatoes each day. Can you believe how cute they are?!  There are hundreds on the plant.

Quite a few Zucchini coming. Not overwhelming yet. The round ones are fun. Scallopinis! All the onions are harvested. Peas are almost done, it is getting a bit hot for them. Beans are just starting. Gherkins are coming along nicely. I will try to pickle some soon, unfortunately all my dill has died!

Marigolds are having a party in the garden. We started them from seed and they are doing great!

Stripey beetroot! Nigel found this somewhere. It says heirloom so we might let the rest go to seed and see if we can get some more of them.

This Yellow Sunsine Pumpkin was the size of a plum when we left for parachute. 10 days later and it is bigger than my head. It is the only on on the vine so far and we are not sure if we should leave it or cut it off and more will grow. Any pumpkin experts out there?

Eggplants are not happening. We had three lil ones on this plant before parachute. When we got home lil worms had made homes in them! So we cut them off to try again. Lots of flowers, but no eggplants yet.

the pallet party

 We went to a 21st party the other evening. Now, for the non new zealanders. A 21st is a kiwi tradition. It seems to be to fall somewhere in between the american high school graduation party and a wedding reception! It is celebrating the individuals entry into adulthood and is often a very formal affair. At least the ones I have been to. There is always lots of good food and speeches. The one we went to the other night was for Nigels 3rd cousin. Her grandparents own a wood recycling place and the party was held there. It was decorated all with old pallets! The walls, the table, the planters, the bar. Very cool idea! I was pallet inspired.

the travel bug

We have now been in one place for just over a year! If you don't count the 3 weeks flying visit to the states. On one hand I have been dreaming of bus travel and craving a bit of a change. On the other I am quite content at the moment with our little space in Woodville and our gardens that are growing everyday.
We put the bus in the shop last week to get the brakes fixed. We were "homeless" for a few days. It was great! We moved into the little flat next to where the bus is parked. Our "spare room." We slept on air mattresses and I set up a little makeshift kitchen. We ate our meals outside.It almost felt like I was in the woods again. It really felt like a little holiday. We even stayed an extra night in the flat when we got out bus back!

the truth from the garden