Faith of the Heart

An experiment

I've been thinking about this a lot and I finally decided to give it a try. I'm going to intregate this blog and my dutch blog Which is scary, since my dutch blog is actually my look-I'm-a-writer-blog, but it didn't feel right until I started posting more personal stuff on it too. I strongly believe though that I need to learn to just be myself on the internet again.

I have been posting the same pictures here and overthere for a while now and I've been translating the "this week" posts back and forth. So I thought it wouldn't be too much of a hassle to add the English text after a break (that isn't visible when you read the full post, then it's just at the bottom). I also hope that Dutch readers don't mind, but I don't think so, since it's at the bottom.

For my readers here there will be more than just those weekly posts too. I found myself writing a 500 word post in English about an event I visited, because I didn't want my English speaking (reading) friends to feel left out. If it weren't for this experiment I would have just skipped posting it in English...

Hope to see you there!

Feel free to comment in English by the way, I will be answering in English too.

(Oh, and I'm sorry to do this again. If this works I promise to stay on that blog for the rest of my life ;-)   )

This week

:: I completely forgot to take any pictures because of the mess in our home (we took down the wall between our bedroom and my little work/sewingroom, I'm still cleaning and trying to work through all the things that need new places)
:: I'm bending my own rules and took some today to post
:: the corn bloomed
:: the zucchini had flowers and fruit at the same time
:: the first asters appeared (already? where did  summer go? oh, that's right, we didn't really have one)
:: we found out that insects found heaven in my garden (I didn't even take pictures of the caterpillars that ate all my kale)
:: the cat decided to stay on top of the news today (I'm okay with that, he has been spreading hairs, mud an drool all over my new chairs this week)

this week

:: we had home-grown vegetables (I'm excited about that every time)
:: we enjoyed beautiful sunrises, sunsets and blue skies
:: summer finally made it's appearance
:: so we could sit outside at the fire
:: I bought some new chairs
:: and found myself rearranging the whole living room
:: knowing that it will take some time to finish cleaning, straightening and decluttering
:: I'm loving the space this creates in our tiny, tiny home (and in my head)

in my garden

this is where I find peace. where my mind stops wandering and worrying, where my hart beats steadier and my breath slows down, where I can forget about the chaos of my right now, for just one tiny moment of bliss...

this week

:: I enjoyed the wonders of having stairs down to the garden (it's a meter below the level of our house, so getting there used to be a challenge)

:: we finally got some summery weather

:: so I got to dry laundry outside

:: the garden grew even harder in this great weather

:: although I had to water it every night, but I liked that chore, especially the first few days when I got to use water from our -too small- rain barrel

:: we ate salad and spinach from the garden

:: I knit a hat for KAS

:: and had a lucky find in the thrift store (real wool -I think- 8 big skeins for only 5 euro)

this week

:: we planted our very own corn field

:: I picked up a project that I started a long time ago

:: we ate lettuce from the garden (thinning out the crazy amount I sowed) - it's too little to make a salad, but we enjoy eating those small leaves on our sandwiches for lunch

:: and radishes too (added them to store bought lettuce)

:: I started rearranging the kitchen (I feel a need for less clutter and more space)

:: I finished one knitting project (a cuddle for knit-a-square) and started a new one (a hat, for KAS too)

this week

:: friday: rainbow

:: friday: clouds

:: monday: cooking my favorite soup (spicy tomato)

:: tuesday: a cute flower

:: wednesday: his new sleeping place (all week long)

:: thursday: another raised bed finished and filled up (90 bags of soil again)

Right now

Right now I am...

:: feeling disconnected. Things have been really off here lately

:: hoping to find my peace again soon

:: posting some random pictures that I took earlier (as in two weeks ago... oh my.. where did those days go?)

:: trying to remember to take some pictures today

garden progress

Some of you may remember that last year I started renovating our backyard. We'd removed our leaking swimming pool and were left with quite a mess. I got some inspiration online and started from the middle. The plan was to have a little room to sit and use the rest of the garden to grow vegetables.

This is where I left off last year:

That would be a fireplace and one raised bed. We had all these grand plans of building the rest of the raised beds and filling them up before March, to make sure I had the whole planting season to work with this year.

Well, life got in the way. So picture the garden like in the pictures above, but with lots and lots of weeds overgrowing it. That's where I started a few weeks ago.

But... I worked through it and by the end of last week I had this:

The plan was to raise that bed a bit higher (there's a concrete slab about 7 inches deep in the front half of it), but there's no way we're getting to that this year. So I'm just making do and putting in plants that don't need to root very deep.

Of course I couldn't wait to plant something in it. Since it was rather late in season I bought some plants to put in and searched for crops that could still be sown this late. (Oh! Isn't it wonderful that I was able to do this planting on the first day of Summer? It just felt so right to be digging in the soil on that very day.)

Doesn't that look wonderful?

We finished the bed we already built last Saturday (it just needed to be lined so the soil didn't fall out). It took just a few bagsof soil (ha! kidding, it needed 70 bags) to fill it up... (we need to buy the soil in bags, the backyard is over one metre below the level of our house and there is no way we can ride cars, trailers or even wheelbarrels of loose soil down there, we have to carry the bags in by hand).

I instantly moved the leeks to the deeper bed. I think they'll like it better there.

Now there is one more bed to be improvised (the rest of the garden and some stairs for easy coming and going will have to wait till next year), some more leeks (one of my favorite vegetables) to be bought, some seeds to grow (though if they all come up I have no idea where to put all the plants) and a lot of plants to be watched and pampered (or not - they seem to grow very well on their own).

G+E :: a week in photos :: sunset on sunday

This week my friend Elizabeth (who blogs at Bits of Sunshine) and I are doing a photo project together. We thought it would be fun to come up with a word for each day, take a photo that shows that word and post our pictures together.

E's picture:

Want to join us? Leave a link  to your picture in the comments here and/or on Elizabeth's blog.