My Happy Place

I have a happy place...but over the years I had forgotten where it was...it's a strange thing because when I am in a stressful situation and I need help I go to this happy place...when my girlies were growing up we were in this happy place a lot...and I even went to college to learn more about this happy place.

Here are my girlies in the happy place many years ago!

The Garden!!! I love it and as you can see by this picture I always have a hard time deciding between vegetables and flowers!

When she was bitty I let Madison plant her own garden - that was one of my first lessons as a Mom in "let the girlie do it herself!'

I just saw the rocking horse!  Boy there were some wild rides on that!

One year my mom found some plans and we made a sunflower house!  It was so fun...

and for many years along side the garden we had our little swimming pool...when it got hot I would water the garden - dunk in the pool - water the garden - dunk in the pool - you get the idea!

If I think about it there are probably many reasons I forgot where my happy place was... It gets so hot here...the girlies got big and there were other things to do...it is hot here... my wonderful neighbor and gardening partner Jessie could no longer garden...did I mention the heat!?...and then one time when I was lifting many many concrete pieces to make some planters I hurt my back and that scared me right out of the garden for good.

Now our yard needs lot of TLC...but I AM BACK...I have Brian and I have created a small piece of my happy spot again and I am not going to stop (with with the help of Brian and the girlies, of course!) until I have reclaimed my happy place!

And here is the beginning of the come back...

Gardening with a dog does add some challenges!

it's just a start...things are just beginning to grow...and we have more to add...but it makes me so happy to be back in the garden!

Madison's car is the back drop for my garden...and it is fun because while I work in the garden she and Brian are right there working on the car! (or Brian is doing some difficult gardening chore for me!) I am hoping that when food related things start growing Lane will be enticed out in to the garden as well!

I have the beginnings of some quirky fun things - like this path that I want to make into something pretty...

some funky flower plantings...

a cool old lunchbox for my gardening tools....

and I made myself a little place to sit and ponder, take notes, possibly start sketching again...or just look at my happy place and smile real big!

I am sharing these pics of a barely started happy place so that I can stun you in future posts with just how wonderful this garden is going to look!  Fingers crossed and a lot of work to come - but I am determined.

I am even trying something (at Brian's urging) that I have never done before...usually I just throw the seeds in the ground and let them go...this time we are trying some fancy indoor seed starting...

this crazy contraption...

along with our seeds is going to give us lots of little starts in just a week or two.

I just added water, then scraped the netting away to reveal the peat underneath.

Then I added various seeds...a few in each peat bundle, covered them with a tiny bit of the peat...and put a special plastic top over the whole thing - and this is the hard part - now I wait....I am not so good with the waiting!

I made a chart because there are quite a few peat bundles in this contraption - 72 to be exact - and I do want to know what they are once they start to sprout.  And....yes I do know that 72 little plants is going to be about 52 too many - any one want to share?

I am thrilled to be back in my Happy Place!!!

xoxo       Elizabeth