Are you looking forward to spring as much as I am?
Most years, March is a bit of a blah month here and we're more than ready for winter to be over! The official date for spring falls on March 19st, but some years it seems that winter didn't get the memo. The odd year, spring comes early, but more often than not, the snow lingers or winter gives us one more snowstorm. There have been years I felt like we were living in Narnia where it's "Always winter, but never Christmas!"
But no matter how barren our surroundings, new life is waiting to appear.
During one particular March, surrounded by bare trees, brown grass and melting snow, I experienced that new life for myself. So, in the midst of this never-ending, drab month, there is one day that shines a little brighter for me. I'll be sharing my story later this month.
There is one other thing I like about this time of year...
March is the perfect time to plan for the coming seasons.
In years past, this meant drawing up landscaping plans, deciding what trees or flowers we might want to plant, or making garden plans.
Over the years, we've lived on several acreages, so there was always lots of work to be done. Because we started with empty lots each time, all of the landscaping and planting was up to us.
One of my favourite jobs has always been the planning stage; figuring out what we wanted to do and drawing up diagrams on graph paper.
One of our first homes was a five-acre lot with nothing but prairie grass; not one tree was growing on the property. That was probably one of our most labour intensive endeavours. Besides the hundreds of trees we planted then watered throughout the summer, we also created, patios, ponds, streams, waterfalls and rock gardens filled with perennials! This was a family affair, with our four kids working alongside us over the years to create a beautiful home.
We took a tour there a few years ago when it came up for sale. Most of our landscaping from 25 years ago was gone but the trees were beautiful!
One of my favourite jobs has always been the planning stage; figuring out what we wanted to do and drawing up diagrams on graph paper.
One of our first homes was a five-acre lot with nothing but prairie grass; not one tree was growing on the property. That was probably one of our most labour intensive endeavours. Besides the hundreds of trees we planted then watered throughout the summer, we also created, patios, ponds, streams, waterfalls and rock gardens filled with perennials! This was a family affair, with our four kids working alongside us over the years to create a beautiful home.
We took a tour there a few years ago when it came up for sale. Most of our landscaping from 25 years ago was gone but the trees were beautiful!
The picture below is of our last home. This shows some of the first landscaping we did on the yard. You can watch a slide show of that house here: Our House Tour. There's also a slide show of the yard. I may be a little biased, but I think it turned out beautiful!
But those days are over. Now that we're living in town our yard is too small for a garden, and I'm ready to be done with that and move on to the next stage of life.
This year we're making plans for our 1960s house we bought last June.
We'll have a few planters for annuals and possibly some tomato plants on the deck, but that is the extent of our 'gardening'. We're surrounded by beautiful, mature oaks, maples and spruce so there's no need to plant trees here! Our plans this year are to do some renovations on the inside of our house; changing a couple of windows and adding some insulation. So much for downsizing to a move-in ready home! I'm really not complaining. Brian would go crazy if he didn't have some projects to work on!
Next week I'll be sharing the work we completed last year; building a fence, a dog kennel and a deck. Later in the month, I'll post before pictures of the inside of the house, along with some of the plans we have for renos. I hope you'll join us on this latest journey, making this 1960s house our retirement home.
Upcoming Posts:
Upcoming Posts:
- New House Tour; Exterior Improvements
- Spring Brings New Life: My Testimony
- Our 1962 House; Planned Renovations and Tour
Check out this series:
Check out this series:
For women who would like some encouragement or accountability for your own journey, we have a support group:
the Christian Ladies Network
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for visiting Living Our Lives Well (LOL WELL)
We hope we've been a help and encouragement to you.