Bringing It Back to Life

I was browsing thru our photos from years past and I noticed that one thing about summer was being sorely missed.  We used to enjoy our backyard garden and spent a lot of time there. It was usually well kept as you can see from these pictures taken 2 years ago and the whole family use to hang out there a lot working on projects, tending to our little garden, playing, imagining and just enjoying the our little world outside.  

 

Well, this year started out quite rocky.  As you know, it's been emotionally traumatic after my young sister-in-law passed away from gastric cancer.  Then there's the strange weather we're having that's causing havoc to our vegetables...the little that my husband decided to put on the ground this year.  As for the girls, well....they still want to be outside but since it's not exactly kept these days, they're not really excited to be out there at all.

So today, I look back out there and knew what I had to do.  I did some tidying up, enough to bring our backyard some of it's life back.  I'm hoping to give it more attention in the days to come since I'm planning on improving some of our planters for Mer's Hydrangea and to add more room for strawberries next year.  I'm also planning on more play spaces for the girls but I'm still figuring out what to do since there's no budget for anything new so I have to figure out a more resourceful way of utilizing our space. I'm also trying to extend our backyard vegetable garden to the very back side of our lot.  There's a few pockets of space out there that could probably hold about 3 planter boxes.  It's too late for any plantings this year but I will have it ready for next year....perhaps even for some cold season plantings. 

Yes....life continues and getting back into the earth and enjoying these simple things are definitely signs that our family is looking onward with optimism.  The backyard was buzzing with activity again today.  One thing different is that I'm not the only one busy cleaning and caring for our little space but my girls are now with me showing signs of appreciation not apparent before in their early toddler years. This time around they want to participate in making it our space again.  Unfortunately, I was so involved that I forgot to snap some before and after photos but rest assure as the work progresses, I'll be posting them here.

For now, I'm relieved and very pleased that we reclaimed our little outdoor space at home.  This year it will be a part of our summer memories again....thankfully, as it should.