Hello, it’s been too long. I hope you are all doing well after all this time I’ve been away. I’m sorry for disappearing. I never meant to go for so long and wanted to say I’d be back, but wasn’t sure when. Quite simply, I’ve just been living life and not having time or space to write about it. But it’s time again. I’ve missed you guys.
The last time I posted Anthéor, our son, was five months old; next week he will be turning 4! And I will be turning 37 and this past Friday Garden Gallivanter, this blog, turned 14! Sweet Roua, our daughter, turned 5 this past Summer. I am grateful to write that our family is well and the bees are well for the most part.
So much has changed since my last post, it’s hard to know where to start to share, but like my great 8th grade English teacher Mrs. Huntzinger said, one of the traits of a good story is that it starts in medias res…right in the middle of it so here I go.
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| Roua stopping to draw and we found the pine cones. |
As we went on our nature walk this morning, I realized just how much I am going to miss living on our little mountain. We set out on our walk, magnifying glasses, colored pencils, nature journal and basket in hand. Our main mission today was to collect pine cones and acorns to make “nature people”. Of course if we saw something interesting we’d stop and draw. The morning was promising as we finally stepped out the door, breakfast eaten, teeth brushed, jackets on. The sun was shining brightly, the air fresh.
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| My wild babes running through the fields of our home. |
I felt so grateful to be walking with my children with not one car in sight, well, one did pass by, but only one. We are quite free here in our little mountain home. How lucky we are to step out and be right in nature. People have to drive great distances to find peace and quiet these days, and here, we get to live that. How lucky we are, I thought to myself as I took in a breath of fresh air, following the excitement of my children.
“Mama, pine cones!!!” exclaimed Roua. “Oh yes, Roua!” I replied equally excited. Just at the turn a few yards from our front door stood a giant pine tree. It’s funny that there are indeed 2 giant pine trees near home, but since it’s mostly oak forest surrounding us we don’t really notice them, ironically. Roua began picking some and putting them in her basket. I bent over to grab a few with relief that we wouldn’t have to drive up to the pine forest outside of the village. It’s amazing what we can discover just outside our front door if we just slow down to look. Sparked by a memory of a recipe of pine needle soda which I have always wanted to try, I asked the tree permission and broke a little tip off the branch covered with pine needles for my experiment.
The piste (dirtroad) in Fall.
I find myself falling in love with Fall more and more each year. The changing color of the leaves, bright yellows and reds speckling the mountain side. Life slows down. Nature’s harvest is bountiful. As I have written here before, all the greatest events in my life have happened to me during the Fall season, meeting great loves, getting married, moving to another country, getting pregnant for the first time, and now, this Fall, buying a new house, and not just any house!
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| Jorris and I with Sydney, our agent, at the notary. |
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| Despite all the papers, we signed electronically, lol. |
It's official. We have signed the final papers and received the keys—all of them—Jorris and I are homeowners and landowners, for the first time. It's amazing how far we've come from the first set of keys we were so happy to have open up our first apartment here in France. The multiplication of them is symbolic in and of itself. Ok, now back to the house. It is an enormously magnificent house, an old aristocratic house of the late 19th century, or so I deduct from one of the old stone steps engraved with 1883. It is three stories with many rooms. It’s more than we would have ever dreamed of and fate just brought us in line with this house. It’s a handsome house with a gorgeous terrace, movie-like in it’s charm. Though she has good bones and standing strong, there is much renovation ahead of us inside. We plan to live in part of it and make part of it a bed and breakfast (chambre d’hôtes or gîte). And, of course, build a brand new honey room from scratch on the land, to do our work, extracting honey, transformation (honey bread anyone?), honey tastings and farm tours.
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| Our new house. |
This time last year our colleague mentioned this house and we had never thought of it because what would we ever do with all that space? We were more interested in the land, and as farmers, we had the right to make an offer, since the house is built on agricultural land which is protected here in France. A big company tried to buy it but since it is agricultural land, the sale was stopped by this agency which protects agricultural land. Someone else was interested in the house, so we thought we could buy the land and them the house. We were on vacation at the time, it was around this time last year; there was one more week left before the opportunity to buy would be closed. We no longer heard from the person interested in the house. We were traveling in Morocco at the time and after a few sleepless nights, Jorris said we should just get the house too.
Last year in Chefchaouen, Morocco.
It took me some days to agree with the crazy plan, but actually why not? We can renovate and make something beautiful of this space, something lasting and meaningful. This would be a lifelong project, one we could grow old into and pass down to our children. And the big plus, we would be closer to all our friends. Did we dare? Yes we did. After all the what ifs crept in and we squashed them like little gross bugs, we said yes and jumped in. We didn’t squish all the what-if bugs, I don’t think you ever can, but we did make a decision to go for it—and keep squishing them as they arise.
It will be a while before we actually move, so we can still enjoy our little mountain top house and all the nature walks still to be had. But I'm looking forward so much to sharing the process of creating this new homestead, bed and breakfast and honeyhouse with you all. With Thanksgiving approaching also next week, mingled in with our birthdays, I am feeling extra grateful to our families and friends for their support, along this journey.
Being back here is surreal, something I’ve missed so deeply. Thank you for reading wherever you are. I have so much more to share with you here and will try to post regularly. Until then, stay warm!
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