My Love Affair with Compost.

This week Jonah has been at an insect based arts camp in the area.  He's been having an amazing time and coming home dirtier every day (I love it!).

Maeryn and I have been home and run down.

The heat index in our area is around 109 F today and expected to be 111 or higher tomorrow.  We are inside our air conditioned house and still feel groggy. 

One thing I've been doing, working on, and enjoying is our back yard.

It's small and overgrown, but it's one thing about living here I have grown to love - and really, it feels a bit like my very own space.

That's not to say the rest of the family doesn't spend their fair share of time there, but I feel I have a big hand in the development of the little eco-system that is our backyard, and it fills me up in the best of ways.

Today I watered our vegetable garden, stirred the compost, added more to the pile and moistened it, filled the bird bath, watered the marigolds and sunflowers and basked in the super-heat.  It felt good after a full night of air conditioning. 

I love to watch the birds singing on the fence-posts and eating seeds from our sunflowers and splashing in the bath. 

 

I love having the kiddie pool and using the water after the kids are finished playing to water the plants until it's gone and the sandbox for the kids to dig and build and get gritty.

I'll miss that great back yard when we're gone.

I know there are better things in the future.

I know that someday we'll have a bigger garden with more luscious plants and no HOA and an awesome clothesline and rows of sunflowers and bigger and more expensive composting tools... but until then, it is my pleasure each morning to dig my toes into the grassy mud, to pour life-giving water over plants we'll use for sustenance, and breathe in the fresh smell of the compost and watch it change our trash, scraps, and garbage into rich, fertile earth.