windowboxes.

home decorating. le boy is wondering what he's gotten himself into i believe! and yet, while i'm sure the rooms will take priority once we're inside and able to think about paint and wall decor, mirrors and bookcases, at the moment, my attention has been diverted to the 'curb appeal.' we're fortunate to have a ground floor flat, with a very traditional london edwardian construction. basically, we have a front bay window with deep windowsills - perfect for windowboxes. i'm imagining lavender. and fuchsia cyclamen. maybe white cyclamen for winter? a bonus of the slightly more temperate british climate is the hope for flowers year-long. when i first moved here and saw flowers being planted in november, i thought it ridiculous, but those flowers lasted all winter! i cannot wait.

i'm also dreaming of this:

portable garden from: not on the high street

 i'm really curious about square foot gardening. and while this is a little pricey (gasp) perhaps a great birthday gift??? (hint, hint) it does take all the guess work out of building/creating.

and while i checked this out of the library years ago, i cannot wait to get a copy for myself...

home decor is about so much more than just the inside right?

home-making.

well, we've found a flat! it is without a doubt, the biggest stressor that was on the pre-wedding list...getting married, eh - a piece of cake. finding a suitable flat, in the right area, for the right price, in a renter's city like london? the potential for tears was enormous.

the process actually began months ago - what was our vision for how we'd use the space? and then what kind of space would we need to achieve that? ultimately le boy and i wanted a place where we could be hospitable - dinners and lunches (breakfasts even?), a place large enough to host a bible study group and parties - gotta be able to throw a party - a place with the space to host overnight guests or short term visitors.

and then we asked - if we hope to do all of this, what will we need to feel able to do this? two bedrooms, a large dining area, a lounge, a functional kitchen, a garden with space for a dining table and some gardening (!?). and then for being really picky - a particular part of the city, close to our good friends, near a park, within 10 minutes of public transport, easy on the street parking, a dishwasher, a washer (AND DRYER), a ground floor flat, a place we could see ourselves renting for the longer-ish term, a terraced house. yep, we were PICKY. but the picky-ness was initially driven by our desire to be hospitable. and so we took these requests in prayer to god - and we've been praying for a flat with our 'dream' list for months. and wouldn't you know - we found a place with  every. last. thing. !!!

so what we'd anticipated to be a nightmare, was actually, a very simple, very blessed process (did i mention that we only looked at ONE flat?).

in our excitement we scheduled a trip to IKEA for a scouting mission. we sat on couches, laid on beds, discussed bookcases and shelving and decided that 930 pm is too late for a family of six with four children under four to be traipsing through the kitchen section (i think it's reasonable to say that babies might be a ways off...). but we've made some decisions about what we'd like to start off with and we've passed the all important IKEA test: can you make it through without fighting? apparently yes - which is basically enough confirmation that i've found my lobster...


for the first time ever i left ikea without actually buying a thing - which must be some kind of record! this is what the sky looked like as we left. we are very blessed indeed.

sprung.

spring has made its way to london! i could not be happier. i haven't worn my winter coat since last week - i'm a canadian girl at heart you know, and once the temps ease into double digits i pull out the spring wardrobe! that being said, i'm dressed in black today...haha.but it's a spring black?

evidence of spring: 

i ate lunch outside today - listening to a radiolab podcast and reading my newest how-to - organised simplicity...i'm liking it. mainly i'm liking dreaming about setting up a home with le boy.

and a taste of the wedding extravagnza pictures i've got waiting for upload...

me in a facinator:

yes, that's me in my bathroom mirror. the thingy on my head is a fascinator. wikipedia defines them as: a delicate, slightly-to-very frivolous head decoration...i just think they're fascinating! it was a hats and morning suits wedding...yes, we do things like that in england!

preserved.

there is little else that makes me simply happy than being industrious. and today i was industrious. managing to make and cook and create and experience loads of life today. however, i'm most proud of the preserving. the tomatoes just aren't ripening very fast on the vine, mainly because the sun seems to have stopped shining here in london-town. but this doesn't mean there aren't incredibly delicious things to be had. today i experienced the joy of green tomato chutney! it's a little sweet, but it finishes with an incredible kick at the end - and your taste buds tingle when it's all over, begging for just a little more.

this was my first foray into canning. and while i was standing over the large pot of onions and tomatoes and vinegar, i felt connected to the women (because honestly, it's mainly women who will stand over a hot stove, in the dog days of summer, preserving food for the future...) who have kept this tradition alive. a quick search of how to preserve food, turns up dozens of resources, but most are homemade websites, blogs and noticeboards. a little bit of science mixed in with a lot of what the sociological crowd would call 'indigenous knowledge' - those things we know because someone took the time to teach us how to do them, and i'm not talking about spelling...things such as gardening, and making a roast dinner, and cleaning a house, and painting, and writing thank you notes. and we return to our sources of indigenous knowledge to clarify and discuss - i should probably call grandma and have her clarify things, grandma put away half the summer every year, and pulled it back out in february. canned peaches and applesauce. heaven in a bowl. a small promise that the deep canadian winter would end eventually.

here's the recipe for the chutney.

and here are my basic instructions:

• sterilise jars (i used old spaghetti and mustard jars which seem to have mixed reviews for 'safety', but my lids have sealed and are concave, so i'm praying it's worked!) by putting them through the dishwasher cycle on the hottest setting, removing from the dishwasher while still extremely hot - wear gloves!
• make chutney per recipe 
• ladle chutney into jars, wipe rims and twist on lids
• watch for lids to 'suck' in - the popping sound the lid of an open jar makes should not be present
• admire your handiwork. 
• take pictures. this deserves to be recorded for posterity! 
• eat. with cheese. on fresh bread. 
• congratulate yourself on your truly incredible accomplishment and consider the next task ahead - consuming this vast amount of preserved garden goodness.

rooting.

maybe i should call it nesting. whatever it is, it's pretty clear that i'm taking a cue from the autumnal weather and making pockets of nested-ness. in my life. in my home.

i've rearranged cupboards - realising how space could be freed up for other things, that we don't need to fight to fit the drying racks and ironing board and cleaning supplies all in one narrow cupboard clearly designed for only brooms, it really is 'broom closet.'

and i'm listing projects, fall plantings for the balcony garden, finally repainting a piece of furniture i bought last year with just such an intention, re-doing the coffee table, a new cover for the ironing board and oh, oh, canning! i have a glut of green tomatoes that are begging to be used but probably won't all ripen on the vine, sun where did you go?












i'm feeling creative, and whether that's just me, or the turn in season, or this sense of peacefulness that's pervading my life, despite all the busy-ness, who knows? regardless, i'm seeing a weekend of creating in the offing, including a long-distance bus ride to IKEA, which I'm secretly excited about as it will give me some serious time with my current reading love affair: Let the Great World Spin by Colm McCann. best quote so far:









There are rocks deep enough in this earth that no matter what the rupture, they will never see the surface. 
There is, I think, a fear of love.
There is a fear of love.

greenhouses.

I spent the better part of most of my university summers working with plants. I kind of fell into it at first. I needed something to bridge the gap between school and summer camp. Someone in my dorm suggested garden centres, and so the next time I was in the fertile land of Southwestern Ontario, I made my way to Bekendam Greenhouses. While I may have 'fallen' into the green land, looking back, it's pretty clear that I was led to the hoop houses and flats and flats of pansies and marigolds and geraniums and alysum.

Oh the alysum, hoop house 9 always smelled so amazing. A sea of white and purple and pinkish-purple. I loved that hoop house, until of course the end of the season when your scrambling along precariously placed boards, over 8 inches of standing, mucky water, and it smells to high heaven, but not like it did in the early days when the plants were just growing. It was amongst these flowers that I met one of the greatest girls. And I met my match for talking. We became fast friends and could, I kid you not, talk for the entire day, 12 hours worth of talking. We talked about everything - boys and flowers and politics and books and Jesus. We talked a lot about Jesus. H famously asked a customer, one night as the sun was setting and we were working late, if the customer believed in the headship principle. This woman look at us like we were completely mad, I believe that the owner might have reprimanded us for bugging the customers. But we worked hard while we talked about Jesus, so we couldn't really get in trouble. Never mind that the owners were devout Christians, so much so that we never worked on Sunday, so they really couldn't get too upset about us Evangelising, however roundabout it may have been!

But there, amongst the flowers, with rickety carts piled high with wholesale orders, we worked out our theology. We challenged each other, and we fought. We looked at each other disbelieving as one said something that seemed preposterous. And sometimes it was. And sometimes one of us probably helped to shape the other, bending her a little more to the way of Christ, and a little less to her own nature. (strong though each of ours may be!) I am blessed to call her friend.



I planted geraniums and violas this weekend, and some osterosprumum - also known as African Daisy - and I thought of my times in the greenhouse. And I was grateful for being led to summers in overheated, humid, plastic enclosures, because apparently, I can grow a decent garden all these years later, and those seeds that were planted deep in us while chatting and laughing, they fell on fertile soil and a harvest has been produced beyond either of our wildest dreams.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary...

I have a list. A pretty long one. A list of everything I want to do in my life. The list includes predictable items like get married, have kids, travel. It also includes a list of things I'd like to learn how to do - row, for example, or things like sewing and photography both of which I've recently taken up. The list hits on the super-serious, such as growing with God, and loving earnestly. But it also includes things that I know *how* to do, and keep on my list of things to do and learn because, well, I want to remember to do them always, always. These are things that centre me, knitting, praying, running, and gardening. Actually, I've written 'grow an enormous and sustaining garden.'

We live on the third floor of an apartment building, not exactly a backyard or garden with endless space to fill with plants and flowers and trees. But it's a start. And this weekend heralded the beginning of the outdoor season! The little seedlings that were carefully planted and watered and loved on the windowsills for the past month were planted out. We're out of the woods for frost and the sun is a-shining on the balcony, so things have been set out and plants are a-growing! 

So how does this Mary's garden grow? With salad leaves and tomatoes and courgettes (zucchini for you North Americans) and lavender and french beans. I'm adding peppers soon. It's a good lesson in economizing space and being inventive and making do with what you've got. It might not be enormous and (fully) sustaining, but I absolutely cannot wait for the first fruits (make that the first vegetables, unless we want to get into the fruit/vegetable debate regarding the tomatoes) of the season!!!!