Tag Archives: gardening

NEW

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new

/no͞o/

adjective

1.not existing before; made, introduced, or discovered recently or now for the first time. example: “new crop varieties”

2.already existing but seen, experienced, or acquired recently or now for the first time. example: “her new bike”

3.just beginning or beginning anew and regarded as better than what went before. example: “starting a new life”

    OXford Dictionary

    New. New outfit. New Beginning. New month, new season, new house, new experiences. Everyone knows what it is like to experience something new. Anticipation mixed with a little anxiety. Perhaps it’s a thing you’ve always waited for. A dream come true. Perhaps it’s a thing you wish wasn’t happening. A new life lived without someone special. A diagnoses or news you didn’t want to know about. “Already existing but seen for the first time.” The spring season is upon us and I am excited for all the “new” around here.

    Photo by PhotoMIX Company on Pexels.com

    I dug around in my flower garden for a bit yesterday. I have daffodils! We were not here last spring so I have no idea what may pop up. There is lots of new growth happening. I also cut back a bunch of old growth so a few new things can happen. It’s going to be work, work and more work. I think it will be worth it though. I’m excited about the possibilities (and much to the hubby’s chagrin, I have plans). A new couple has arrived in our cedar hedges: a pair of mourning doves. I am thrilled. I love their haunting cries! I hope they nest somewhere close by. Traditionally, spring is a time for “new life” and babies arrive! We’ll see what happens around here. Chicks have been ordered…. We celebrated Easter at the farm this year instead of in the city, with new traditions and family bonds. Things are different as we age. Kids grow up. Parents get older and new aches and pains arrive. Technology is ever creeping forward (sometimes quickly!) and everything seems new. We must adapt and change and keep up. Even if we don’t want to.

    I used to say I hated change. I wanted things to stay the same. I wanted things to stay within my comfort zone; in a place where I had control over them and I could feel safe about this or that. The familiar was a good thing and I didn’t want it to mutate away from what I knew. Now, however, as I grow older, I recognize that things must change. Without it there will be no progress. They say our brains get better as we go through new experiences. Our brain health improves when we learn new things and try and change and adapt. It makes our neurons fire and our brain matter grow. Just think about all those “littles” who soak up new information constantly: their brains develop at a crazy pace.

    Easter weekend had me musing about a few things, one of which was this idea of a new way of life… especially for the disciples. We got talking about Jewish traditions and the new movement of “Christianity” among the early church. Can you imagine the scene where the world as you know it gets turned upside down because of some radical who was crucified and now has been raised from the dead? Can you imagine if they had social media back then? Taylor Swift or Kate Middleton wouldn’t even be on the radar. Jesus would be all the talk.

    Photo by Thirdman on Pexels.com

    Yet, Christ followers would have to adapt to a whole new way of life after the events of Easter. Three years of radical existence climaxes into political upheaval, arrests, scattering and thoughts of “what now?!” Do you default to what you know? Go back to the old way of life? Do you trudge forward, taking on the risks that may lie ahead? Do you hide and wait it out, hoping things will settle down and go away? I suppose all the options were available and each one did, as we would, their own thing.

    I’m not sure there is a “right or wrong” outcome to all things new. There is no real way to approach it. Time brings change and there is nothing we can do to avoid it. Let’s embrace it, together, shall we? Join us each week here and keep up with all the crazies of our new country abode and all the changes we take on! I’m on all the social media, too, because it is important to learn new things. Like blogging, and reels, and writing, and social media. Blessings, beloveds.

    Want to see how my writing has changed? Take a journey back to the early days of mittonmusings. Here is a good one about new things!

    Seasons of Change

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    As many of you know, our little urban garden is up and running again. Thanks to lockdown and Covid-19, we were ahead of our game and started seeds indoors this year. As always, there are learning curves with such things and we’ve had various degrees of success. Traditionally, the long weekend in May is a fairly “safe” time to transition seedlings to outside. So, last week we did just that… off our little seed babies went into the ground with high hopes of bountiful growth. And then it snowed.

    Frost damage on Corn crop (photo from agriculture.com)

    I see my neighbour (who has a beautiful garden) promptly shielded her tomatoes with warming pots. A seasoned farmer I follow on Instagram threw tarps over her raised beds in a last ditched effort to protect her asparagus that finally will be big enough to harvest after waiting for three long years. We did not. Our second attempt at scraggly corn shoots look very shriveled. The others may survive with a little prayer and a lot of hope.

    “Farming” is a risky business. I recently searched out what our “growing zone” is, as this seems to be a fact I should know. The website starts out with “…To determine zone number, Canada uses a formula that consists of 7 climate variables. Canada’s hardiness map is divided into 9 zones…” and continues on for about 9 paragraphs and ends with “…website includes several links intended to clarify the hardiness zones, but which seem instead to be very complicated and confusing.” 1 Ya think?? Hats off to the men and women who make their livelihood on the whims of the weather and their wage on the likelihood of storms and forest fires. They say that in Canada, we can have all four seasons in one week… and it is true. Weather is unpredictable. Life is unpredictable too.

    Which had me musing about the seasons of life this week. Psychology tells us there are “stages” we go through in our average life span — seasons of growth and development, seasons of change. Many of you have eluded to these in your comments as we muse along together. That’s the beauty of exploring and sharing our faith journeys, too… we encourage each other as we go. The scriptures are scattered with references, not only to the physical four seasons we see throughout the year, but also in our “spiritual seasons” as well. God reminds us through nature how our world is in constant change… and He designed it that way.

    I often question: why? Why did He design it that way? Why do things have to change? Why do we have to grown old? Why has He allowed the corona virus to infect the world at this moment? Why did He choose to come to earth at the moment He did? What will the future hold for us? Seasons of bitter cold, and seasons of preparation, growth and warmth. Each season holds something to offer, but none of them are ever perfect. Weeds grow just as rapidly in summer as the sunflowers do. Yet, the constant through it all is God alone. James 1:17 tells us there is no variation or shadow of change in the Father. We can take courage in this thought. Even in the midst of life’s seasonal changes.

    My zinnias (a first time plant for me!) have sprouted cute little dichotomous leaves all tucked up in a row. I’m not sure how the frost will affect them. I’m also not sure what life will hold for us in the next year, or the next month, or even this week ahead… but we move forward through the season, and grow and adapt just as God designed it to be. As will you. Blessings fellow seedlings!

    1. (2020, https://www.torontomastergardeners.ca/askagardener/plant-hardiness-zones/)

    Celebrating Freedom

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    Happy Victoria day! Happy Belated Mother’s day! Happy Beginning of Summer! Happy who-knows-how-many day of Lockdown! I don’t know about you, but I am feeling the need to wish you a happy something. To celebrate. To move forward. To move on. Things are slowly, slowly starting to open up around us, but we are still being cautious, and many of our “normal” summer events have already been cancelled. Covid-19 and the pandemic of 2020 will cause us to question how we do things for sometime. Life will go on, but we need to be prepared for changes going forward. We usually spend this first long weekend of summer at our trailer, opening up, dusting off the winter, and looking forward to sunny days and slower times. Instead, we are still home. We’ve been doing slower days for three months already! Home — but still keeping ourselves busy. We are ahead of schedule this year with our little urban garden, and the youngest has been itching to get our seedlings in the ground. This weekend was spent in preparation!

    We expanded our growing space this year by purchasing two raised beds… and 3 cubic yards of soil! (which is a whack load of dirt, lemme tell ya!) I guess if I can’t have the farm, we are going to bring it to me, by golly! Now, let me premise the rest of the story by saying we are not great at building projects. We have limited experience and even more limited tools. But where there is a will, there is a way, right? And, so, we spent the entire day building, levelling, shovelling and soon — planting! I thought, great — I will blog about the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5. Seemed like a gardening-type verse to focus on. Yet, as I read the passage over this week and meditated on it, the context, and what I might muse about, I was convicted by the following verse:

    “Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”

    Galatians 5:26 (NIV)

    So much of my isolation has been spent scrolling through news feeds, searching for ideas, plans, gathering information. This is not inherently wrong, of course, and it has become part of our lives — especially now, when everything has “moved online”. And so I muse: How much have I envied others as I scrolled? Have I become conceited in my own posts as I “brag” about what I am doing at home? I’ve found myself looking at the newscaster’s artwork on the walls as I listen to the news. I wonder about the kitchen gadgets and the furniture and lack of dirty dishes as I look up new recipes. I see the actors and actresses without their camera crews and wonder how they pull off their great looks without help. What about those Zoom Meetings? Perhaps you’ve been seeking out worship and devotions and watched churches who can put on heavenly displays. Or maybe you’ve been like me — totally jealous of the Instagram stories of vast acres in the hills, with perfect rows of green growth… and chickens.

    photo credit: silvertulipgifts (Etsy)

    The Mitton crew has had a good weekend. Our garden beds turned out great, and we worked together as a family. We spent time outdoors and got a lot accomplished. I am proud and feel good about the things we did. We have reason to celebrate those things. Still, I am reminded to be humble and remember that God has blessed us with the means and the abilities. As He has blessed those I see online. I must remember not to listen to the voices that remind me of the doubts and insecurities I have. The ones that tell me what I have is “not good enough” . The envious thoughts of “if only…”

    Oh my friends, I hope and pray that as I post each week and share my pictures and muses with you, that you understand that we are on the journey together. Our lives are far from perfect, and those on the screens are far from perfect too. We all need a Saviour and the fruit of the Spirit. It’s hard to balance dreams and reality, isn’t it? To curb our envy, and still pursue lofty goals. Galatians 5 reminds us that we were called to be free as we walk in the Spirit, and not be burdened by the desires of the flesh. It is my prayer for us on this long weekend. Here’s to celebrating that kind of freedom!