How Does Your Garden Grow?

One of the joys of having our own garden is that we can be green-fingered again. It's a fairly small garden, mostly old brick paving and gravel, with a raised flowerbed running along one side, and a low one on the opposite side. There were already plenty of plants growing when we moved in, most notably the camellia climbing up the side of the old privy (now the "shed" and home to the washing machine!).

We decided to add to what was already here by attempting to grow some of our own fruit and veg. So gamely we planted seeds and saplings - tomatoes, courgettes, aubergine, peas, lettuce, butternut squash, summer squash, sweet peppers and chilli peppers. The squash and peppers had to be started off indoors but we have good sized windowsills and the house gets a lot of sun during the day (when it is shining of course!) There were also strawberry and raspberry plants already in the garden, much to our delight!

Well, we've had a few problems. Slugs and snails took a real liking to the courgettes. We tried the humane methods - putting orange slices down because they love citrus so would eat those instead - sadly they're greedy little monsters - they'd nom at the orange and then gulp down some courgette leaves for afters! Then we tried the beer trap. This merely became a woodlice graveyard. So, it was to the inevitable pellets we had to turn. Thankfully we found an organic and animal-friendly (except to slugs and snails) brand in Oxfam, and it is working a treat. The courgette plant has sprung back to life, and it is with much excitement that we can see them growing - looks like we're in for a good crop all being well, and the zucchini flowers have been popping up too (not sure our current healthy eating phase will allow us to eat these fried with cheese Italian-style though...) We've also got tomatoes appearing now, and the lettuce is blooming like crazy! Sadly the aubergines and peas didn't make it - first slimy predators, then windy weather proved too much.

Indoors, the squashes are generally flourishing - the butternut better than the summer - but we're giving them time. Hopefully it won't be too long before they can be moved outside. Our chilli pepper is fighting valiantly on after multiple aphid attacks and a nasty virus. We hope it'll make it!

In the garden already we've had the joy of seeing different flowers throughout spring, and now there are many blooming into summer too. In April there was a whole blanket of bluebells across the lower flowerbed, which were a real joy to see, especially as we didn't have a chance to go walking in the woods during bluebell season this year - instead we could admire them at home whilst enjoying a cup of tea and cake! Now we have stunning roses - an ancient red rose bush is clambering up the side of the house, and a pretty pink one is now covering the patch where where most of the bluebells were.

We also have a grapevine! It's pretty small and had been very much cut back when we moved in. We bought a willow trellis for it to climb up, and it's been flourishing ever since. We very much doubt we'll get reasonable grapes, so our wine-making dreams are currently on hold, but it's nice to see, and we're thoroughly enjoying all of these different wonders in our own back yard.

Oh, and one last thing- we live in quite a community-spirited neighbourhood. All of the houses open straight out onto the street so there are no front gardens, but everyone is encouraged to join in beautifying our street with flowerpots outside. Ours is full of purple and yellow violas which compliment our yellow front door (even when it comes to flowers I have to colour coordinate!), and there were enough left over to put in little pots by our growing fruits which are encouraging the bees and keeping things looking cheerful.

Will keep you updated on how our fruit and veg develops!

Photos my own.

The Welcome Back Party

Last night our house group (Bible study group) travelled up to the airport to welcome two of our members back to the UK. They have just returned from mission overseas for the past five months, and we decided to surprise them as they came through the arrivals gate.

They were expecting only our house group leaders to meet them, so the rest of us hid behind a (hardly sufficient) pillar and awaited a signal from our leaders. It was so funny - as soon as their flight number displayed 'Baggage in Hall' we ran into position. Having chosen a rather tall and narrow object to hide behind we formed a long line - it looked like we were all being very British about queueing to order coffee or something from the pillar, and seemed to offer much amusement to other people waiting for loved ones. We stood giggling there for about 15 minutes, and almost got into a fight with a member of staff driving a buggy through who complained about the way we were all standing... But there was no time to argue because our leaders had run forward to greet our friends and that was the cue for the rest of us to jump out and run to them as well. They looked bewildered and very, very happy as we all hugged them until they could hardly breathe!

Once we'd all had a chance to exchange greetings and let them get their breath back, some of the lads hauled their luggage off to one of the cars whilst we all made our way to one of the cafes for tea and a catch-up. They have had an awesome experience, and it was great to hear some of that and what God has been showing them and where He is leading them to next. It was also just brilliant to see them again - within minutes it felt like they'd been away for hardly any time at all.

Our leader joked that we better not let the church leadership team we were having a welcome party up at the airport instead of serious Bible study that night. But you know what, God revels in our joy too, and being there for each other is part of what being in Christian fellowship is all about. I have no doubt that He was laughing as much as we were while we hid behind that pillar and I have no doubt that His heart welled with joy as much as ours did when we saw them coming through the gate.

And what can I say - road trips on a school night rock!

Discipline

Discipline. A word I am not terribly keen on. A word that actually I don't ever really like to hear. It's a word that reminds me of my flaws. A word, that when shone onto my personality reveals what I prefer not to notice. What I would like to hide.

I am creative. I have a mind that wanders. I daydream. And one day, somehow, my creative genius will explode into full being and will make me become who I was designed to be. I will write novels as an uncontrollable flow of amazing stories spills forth from my brain, my house will be stunningly welcoming and tidy, my body will be slim and glowing with health, and I will be at peace with myself and all those around me. Discipline? Pah! That's just for people who operate that way. I wasn't designed that way. That's not how I work.

Why, then, does God keep challenging me about this? Why is it that last weekend in both sermons, morning and evening services, did He speak so clearly to me about this one word that I would pretend isn't even part of my language, let alone my comprehension? Because discipline, perhaps the one part of me that I know requires the most work, is what it will take to be who I was made to be. To produce those astounding stories, to have a house that is welcoming and manageable, and to be healthy, requires discipline. I have just managed to convince myself that I am a personality designed to operate without discipline.

At the evening service the curate gave the sermon on Genesis 1:26-2:3, focusing on God's plan. None of this world, none of us, not you nor me, was made by chance. God planned it all from the outset, and His creation was meticulous, His natural world works just how it was meant to. Yet look at it, so amazing, so stunningly beautiful - only the most amazing artist could create such beauty. What? More creative than any other and disciplined? And we were made in God's image, which means...?

To fulfil my potential as a creative writer, and all those other aspects of my life, I now recognise that I need to be disciplined. Our curate is an artist, which is what he trained in before he turned to theology, and he still produces stunning work. What helps me is that he struggles like I do, that he has realised over time that he needs to inject discipline into his life in order to make things run smoothly in his work. Admin is the task he finds hardest, but he's found that, rather than letting it slide because he's "creative" and it's ok to ignore the "boring" stuff, that if he takes control of that aspect of his life and works at it, his filing system and organisation has improved.

He described it to me in a way I hadn't thought of before. Organisation and precision is something that really irritates me about other people. And that's because it is an aspect of God that I have ignored, that I have tried to live without. In order for my creativeness to flourish I need to have that tempered more deliberate side to my life. And it takes work. It is difficult. But life isn't easy, and if it were, where would the great successes come from?

I'm not trying to say, and neither do I believe God is, or indeed our curate, that people aren't different. There will always be people who are naturally organised and keep things running down to the finest detail. There will always be people who lose themselves in their creativity and who seem to enter a different world of their own in the deepest throes of their work (I forget to eat when I'm writing fiction!) But it seems to me, as I get older, that one doesn't completely work without the other.

What was said to me on Sunday, and what God has been prompting me with recently in all the different ways He speaks to me, shows that this area of my life can't be ignored any more and seriously needs some work. But I don't have to do it alone. He's in this with me, guiding me, showing me how, continuing to shape me to fulfil my purpose for Him on this earth.

Discipline won't make my life perfect, but it does allow me to be free. I always thought it meant being a slave to the boring, the routine. Yet it will actually allow me to be who I'm meant to be.