I took these pictures before last weeks' big frost, knowing I would probably not get to enjoy them afterwards. BUT- while the frost did wreck havoc, it didn't wreck TOTAL RUIN and I have been able to enjoy plenty of lilacs in every room. Even a few PURPLE ones from friends! Happy, happy girl am I.
After the lilacs finish blooming, I have some serious trimming back to do. My bushes have been neglected for years and have grown so massive and so invasive. I hope to cut them back to two manageable bushes and trade with friends a few white baby plants for a few purple baby plants. Someday I hope to have the whole gamut of lilac colors here at Hopestead.
The apple trees looks SO wonderful too, which is laughable because Matt was SURE I killed them the last time I pruned them. I don't know how the apples will be, but the blossoms were GORGEOUS and lush.
My parsley over wintered, my perennials are looking lively, I just planted six rhubarb plants (oh yes I did- SIX of them!) and this very day I had a new plot dug for an asparagus bed. I planted two red raspberry bushes, a few blueberry bushes and a thornless blackberry back behind the tree house last month. I am trying to figure out a good place to put an orchard and grape arbor. All these things make me ridiculously happy.
One thing I love about Matt is that he has said (and truly MEANS) I can do WHATEVER I want to the place- and I am truly happy to making these little changes because I feel like I am making MY mark on the place. This place has been marked by Newmans for generations and had Newman blood running through it and so it can often feel like it belongs to THEM. I am an outsider, you know...married in. But with every perennial I plant, I feel as though it is becoming a place of my own, a place where I BELONG, a place that I have made.
I know how ridiculous this sounds. Planting asparagus and pruning apple trees shouldn't evoke such sentimentality, but it does for me. Call me crazy. I am.
But I think it is a good crazy.
I know EXACTLY what you mean! Moving into B.'s house after marriage was MUCH harder than I ever expected. His mom dumped her excess stuff here and decorated some, so every. single. time. I change/try to change something I feel guilty, that it's not really my house just his. But now, nearly 10 years later, I'm finally starting to feel like less of a house guest and more like it's my house too.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photos, as usual. You do not dissapoint. May is indeed beautiful. So glad you're more yourself and seem to be feeling better. Precious how you're making your home YOURS (and Matt's of course). Very important. Congrats on the planting and getting so much done!
ReplyDeleteThat is so NOT crazy! You are a woman after my own heart. :)
ReplyDeleteWe have rented our whole marriage and I long to be in my own place to do all those same things! We have a huge lilac outside our bedroom window. It is the most amazing thing to have a fan in the window and climb into my bed! The cool breeze and the wondrous smell....ah...I think my bed is calling my name! ;)
I don't think it's crazy that you so happy about those things.... after all it's part of the original call of mankind to conquer HIS creation and to take care of the garden.... :-) make it your own and enjoy all way!
ReplyDeleteI think God is smiling at you when you are full of joy about the beauty he created. To many times we don't even noticed....
I get it and your not crazy, but you are a Newman now too so I would leave that mark, your children will be glad you did.
ReplyDeleteWe are a lot alike, I LOVE growing things, I love Planting, and I love the fruits of my labor coming into full swing :) I also LOVE your beautiful photos you posted! So Very Pretty! :) I've always wished for flowering fruit trees. Someday I will splurge and get a few but in the meantime, thanks for sharing photos of yours :)
ReplyDeleteLovely pictures! I, too, was overjoyed that the frost didn't murder everything prematurely like last year's snow did. We're enjoying the lilacs enough now to make up for two years!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I totally understand the craziness. It's all part of moving into a family homestead and becoming "the next in a long line of." Just last week, I was talking a bit sheepishly to my Mom about how inordinately happy it makes me to walk outside and see the perennials I'VE transplanted over the last three years. it's deeply satisfying. We are home-makers, after all, and delighting in the home-parts we've shaped as uniquely ours is an appropriate response.
Just remember, your mother-in-law and her mother-in-law and all the other mothers-in-law before them weren't Newmans and were outsiders in the beginning, too. You consider them Newmans and I am sure they consider you one as well. Every home should include touches and changes from the current occupants to add to the history of the place. If not, it becomes stagnant and isn't really a home.
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