Friday, May 23, 2014

Rhubarb!


 A very good thing happened to me today. I went to a friend's house, and when I got there I noticed a large and abundant rhubarb patch near the driveway. I complimented my friend on her rhubarb and she said, "take what you want!". Wow!

In Port Robinson we had a fantastic across-the-road neighbour who had a very large rhubarb patch. Every year he would coax us to come and pick rhubarb. But we didn't need much coaxing! We got spoiled with his rhubarb and had many tasty desserts with it in the spring, and then in the winter we enjoyed pulling it out of the freezer. In fact, last year, as a parting gift he brought a box of rhubarb over as we were loading the moving van. I froze it (because in the chaos of the move I had no time to deal with it!) and we enjoyed Mr. Ryan's Rhubarb through the winter, always with nostalgic feelings.

This spring I was resigned - no rhubarb. I did see some in Sobeys, and had some sticker-shock. No way was I paying that for rhubarb! Grandma has planted some at their new house, but it's the first year so you can't harvest it yet.

So what a joy to find another source! My friend's daughter even picked it for me and loaded it into the car. I came home and told Tim I had a surprise in the trunk. He was delighted to see the stalks and immediately asked, "rhubarb crisp?". While I made the supper, he made a rhubarb crisp - and let me tell you, it was pretty tasty!

It's a taste that says spring - whether you're eating it in the midst of verdant green or just remembering. It's little things like finding a rhubarb patch to raid that let me know we're really settling in here!

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Happy Anniversary!

Well it's been a year since we moved here! It was Victoria Day weekend last year that we "moved in", and it's neat to look around the house and see what's been accomplished, and think over the year and see how far we've come.

There are a lot fewer boxes, and those that are still around are generally out of public view, like in the crawl space! A fair bit of painting has been done. Those of you who visited early in our year here may remember a lot of pink, well the quest to "de-pink" the house continues, but there's a lot less of it!

We've made friends, and found a church home, and joined a lot of activities to discover where we fit.

David is opening a new Mr. Transmission franchise in London (ON) and right now the family is all-systems-go on getting the shop physically ready to open. He is still working on staffing and a myriad of administrative details that need to fall into place.

So it feels like we've come a long way from a year ago when we first arrived. Back then I didn't know where things were in the kitchen, or even if they were in the kitchen yet. I could get to the Zehrs at the end of the street, but my world didn't extend much past that. We attended church on the Sunday and didn't know who to talk to, or where to sit. We weren't sure what David would do for employment. I couldn't go anywhere in town without my GPS and a full address of where I was going. I could call my in-laws, but didn't know anyone else here.

The Lord has been good to us this year; there's been a lot we've been able to sort out and figure out. He's taken very good care of us while we transplanted and enabled us to start putting down roots.

There's still settling in to be done. Those last few boxes! (Although I have some friends who have boxes far older than mine - you've inspired me to get ours finished with before the 10 year anniversary of moving in!) Transforming the house into our home. Turning acquaintances into good friends. I'm excited to see how the second year goes!