40 days and 40 nights

It has been 40 days since we moved to our current homeless situation.   Actually it has been 41 days, and it is raining.   About now old Noah would be getting off his ark and releasing the animals two by two!  But we are still here, adrift in our temporary caravan accommodation.  It isn’t too bad because we know it won’t be for much longer.

Our internet connection with the outside world has been installed and just needs tweaking.  This will make a huge difference to the waiting as it feels like we have truly been cut off from the outside world. Which is fine for a while, but when you want to do things like plan a new garden and research the heck out of it with great enthusiasm, you are left thwarted, twiddling your thumbs and dreaming really big ideas with no idea if they are possible or not.  I strongly believe where there is a will there is a way and no real harm can come from trying.

The house is scheduled to arrive on the 15^th of March, weather dependant.  Although this date seems quite fluid as originally the old owners needed it gone by early February.  The advert shouted out: “Must be gone.”  But it would seem they are happy for it to still be there.  I just want it to be here.  The council are currently checking all the details and then once they give the nod it will be all go and a flurry of activity.   The only thing that has made it feel like progress so far is we have a water tank.  Yay!  We’ll be getting two eventually, with separate pumps – one for the house and one for the garden.  It is really good to be able to put these things in place first than trying to retrospectively make the amenities bend to the needs of the garden.

In the meantime we wait, convincing ourselves we are camping on holiday with the best view in the world.  The view helps bring everything back into focus when things get a little fraught.  Because while it was easy in the beginning to convince ourselves it was a wonderful extended holiday, the kids weren’t back at school yet, the sun beat down with the intensity of mid-summer and it was like being in paradise.  However, now the kids are well and truly back at school, the weather is a bit rubbish, and the demands of ‘normal’ life are trying to overlay themselves on this unusual situation.

The need to garden has fortunately been addressed with my temporary container garden which I have found is a pretty needy creature.  Worse than a clingy toddler.  If it was a boyfriend I’d have dumped him long ago.  But it’s a garden so all is forgiven, even if it dries out at the drop of a hat and starts to sulk more often than not.  Oh bring on the real garden… plants that can stretch their roots are more like teenagers that only check in when they need something or are hungry.  The majority of the time they can cope perfectly well on their own.

And to top it all off it is no longer summer.  The calendar made the shift yesterday to that gentle season Autumn.  I normally like autumn, but you can feel the shift of the seasons more acutely when the walls of your home are paper thin and the chill of the mornings are much more noticeable than if we were in a house.  Only the keen and the crazy go camping in autumn!

But while there is still some warmth in the air I will satisfy myself with sowing seeds for the cool season crops in the hope that they will end their lives in a wonderful new garden with their roots going down deep!  Time to get those hands dirty again.

Come again soon – change is still afoot, it just takes a while.

Sarah the Gardener  : o)