Letters from the Homestead | April Journal | Letter 2
“While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” Genesis 8:22
Hello friend,
April has arrived and with it the spring rains. The grass has begun to turn a vibrant green. The honey bees are already buzzing through my perennial beds. The garden centers have begun to fill up with plants. I get giddy at the mass scale of green and would easily spend more than my budget would allow on plants. So many plans twirl around in my mind for our homestead this time of year.
The kittens continue to provide us with entertainment as they chase eachother around the room. The eggs in the incubator I was telling you about last month have hatched! The fuzzy chicks cheep away and provide much entertainment for the kids. I thought children grow fast- but baby chicks definitely grow faster!
The siberian squill are at their finest, blanketing the perennial gardens with their sea of blue. Gently the daffodils blow in the warm spring breeze as the rhubarb and raspberries shoot up their new growth. The haskap, or honeyberries that I planted into my raised beds last fall are covered with buds. The kitchen garden patiently waits for me to complete the project I began almost two years ago. Where does the time go?
The other day I passed by some climber roses at the garden center. Heirloom roses growing up arbors- surely this would be a welcome edition to the kitchen garden? I’ve also been keeping my eye out for some espaliered fruit trees with multiple grafts on one tree. I think I may have to settle with training my own espalier, but how fun with that be?
Our kitchen renovation is getting there slowly but surely. We look forward to the day when we have no major project underway and can have routine again. Or is this routine, just in another form? This afternoon I hope to do some gardening. I would like to create a room of sorts in the backyard with an emerald cedar hedge.
Inside our home we have one more month of lessons before we break until August. Now that the weather has turned we have become more intentional about going for weekly nature walks again. A few years back we all started a nature journal and it has since become something that I hope to continue until I’m old and gray. I never realized how observing God’s beautiful creation and documenting it in journal could be so inspiring. Thanks to Charlotte Mason, not only have my children have caught the joy of life long learning but so have I.
As much as I’d love to sit and chat. Gone are the days of candles, warm blankets and steaming cups of tea. The sun is out and I can’t possibly keep myself inside any longer. There’s a robust clump of daffodils blooming just outside my door that I think I’m going to place in a vase on my night stand. Well, off I go.
Sincerely, Meagan
I leave you with a quote from one of my favourite children’s literature books: Frog and Toad
” What you see is the clear warm light of April. And it means that we can begin a whole new year together, Toad. Think of it, ” said Frog. “We will skip through the meadows and run through the woods and swim in the river. In the evenings we will sit right here on this front porch and count the stars.” – Arnold Lobel
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