11. More Weeding, Another Trip to Home Depot, Friends, and Plans for the Backyard's Future

One Saturday,I weeded and watched as storm clouds blew in. I heard the rumble of thunder. I put off mowing my front yard thinking that rain was imminent. An hour later, I pulled out the mower and THEN it began to mist. I never mowed the front yard so fast. When the rain came down harder, I assembled an IKEA chair for my daughter as a surprise. The momentum of the morning's work kept me cheerful and productive the entire day.

I shopped for more flowers and soil. I also bought seed packets, work gloves, and pruning shears. I am serious about this pastime now, and it made for a happy shopping trip.

What a difference three weekends can make! I now feel drawn to my backyard. When I’m working in my yard, it feels like play. I want to be out there all the time. My time outdoors feels like an adventure,particularly when the mowing is done for the week. My curiosity meter is turned on high. My body is tired and sore, but I don't want to be finished. It no longer feels like work.

It is fertile creative time too. There seem to be as many metaphors for life in this gardening as there are weeds to pluck. I have grown fond of and dependent on two tools: my hand ax and a pitchfork I am borrowing from neighbors next door. In this wild time, I think of naming the tools and writing a children’s story featuring them as main characters.  

Later that day, my dear friends Gus and Manda visited with plans to stay for dinner. I gave them a tour of the backyard. We sat down in the rock and talked and talked and mindlessly pulled weeds. The weeding definitely didn’t feel like work with them.

They plotted and dreamed with me about how to navigate rehabilitation of my hill. I've always thought of breaking the project into thirds going from left to right, but Gus suggested (with more know-how)of breaking the space into thirds from the bottom up. We staked out the plan for this summer with church friends' offers to come for a work day. I felt better about the progress than ever before. I saw a path clear now.

It’s so good to spend time with these friends. They helped me hang colored lights in the backyard and we built a fire in the fire pit, where we talked books and life.

I was tired and happy. I was amazed that the lonesome feeling I had a few weeks before had nearly faded away. I feel close to my grandparents when I'm outside and more happy memories of times spent with them rise to the surface.

I know that this work is good for my soul. It feels timely that I am making this discovery about gardening and what it can add to my life and my schedule at this significant three-year post-divorce mark.

Before

The pesky stuff I'm digging out

After 

Rainy day productivity

Members of my team with lights hanging in the trees and fire pit lit