The Evolution of our Abode

We’ve been living in our abode for nine months now. It’s been a process of fine-tuning our surroundings to feel at home, while trying to maximize the use of what’s around.

One place of satisfying evolution has been the garage. With the door open, an incredible breeze blows through from the distant ocean. When we moved in, the space was storage for rusting barbecues, trash cans, and old five-gallon buckets of paint. Everything was covered in a film of red dirt.

I dug out the gravel in the bordering beds and planted some succulents. We moved out the massive barbecue.

We gave the zone a good sweeping, and positioned a few chairs by the fresh starts. Recently, we filled an old bathtub and added a water garden. Some rickety, but beautiful, carved panels had been tucked in storage in a far corner. The Bohemian and I hauled them out of hiding, deciding that if they need to be stored, they might as well be seen and appreciated.

The transformation is still in process, but it’s fascinating to observe how it’s evolving.

Here’s a post from April, when I was in the initial stages of change.

2014-04-16_garage big

 

Though there’s further to go, it’s come a long way.

2014-10-30_abode overview

2014-10-30_panel close

2014-10-30_two lilies

Art in the Vegetative State

These last weeks have been a blur of AYSO soccer playoff games, fifth-grade current event projects, book report dioramas, and Hurricane Ana preparations. Each event has passed with relative ease (the hurricane nearly swirled to a stop 85 miles off the coast of Kauai, but then picked up the pace and moved along, causing little damage to our island). Hurdling deadlines and buffering for natural disasters takes work.

As we pull the plywood from the windows, and Jeb turns in his latest school project, I sigh and take stock. My internal meter reading suggests that resources are on the wane.

If my artistic expression were vegetative, I think I’d be right there with the cucumbers.

2014-10-22_dried cuk leaf

Now, passed their prime, crinkled, dry leaves hang lifeless on the fence line. A few stunted cucumbers dangle mid-mission, never fully having matured. Potential, unrealized. Pickles anyone?

However, I will not sour. Despite its fading glory, I see the beauty in the brown of lacy leaves hanging in sunlight. Their precious transparency whispers of readiness to return to soil. It’s time pull the roots on this once-prolific plant. Complete the circle of life. Compost.

In this garden, all aspects of the Cycle are represented. Just beyond the dying vine, zinnias and marigolds bloom in gold and fuchsia. And around the corner, in the water garden, our first lily flower is just about to break the liquid surface with a bud.

2014-10-22_lily bud

Tomato Time

Being the parent of an only child, I don’t know what it’s like to try to spread my mothering between siblings. Jeb gets 100% of my mama mana.

But beyond the parenting sphere, I tend to a multitude of other projects. Whether its my note cards, the succulent garden, or the family meal menu, I observe that each requires my attention, some needing more love than others, depending on the timing.

In the artistic realm, I may not be crafting volumes of words as of late, but the time is Now for the garden, as it prolifically produces art forms of its own. My job is to harvest the masterpieces.

A first attempt at growing tomatoes has proven fruitful.

Loving the creative process in all of its forms.

 

2014-10-16_tomatoes close

 

2014-10-16_tomatoes overview