Place of Refuge: Our Nest

I read. I learn from my reading. I'm motivated to see what I've read. So I travel. I learn from my travels. But when all is said and done, I prefer the sanctuary and solace of home. 5 nights out of 7 I'm found in our backyard patio soaking while reading in the hot tub. Looking up thru the lattice ceiling of the patio I often track the movement of flights. I've come to know which are Phoenix bou vs. Los Angeles and, which are en route to Salt Lake, as well as those going to Kansas City. Their flight altitude differs, lower, from those going to the West and East coasts. With binoculars nearby, I sometimes see the flames from their engines, whose sound I also enjoy. But other than that, the nights are silent. No sirens. Stars are easily seen. With mini-lights, a yellow bulb glow of a white Cape Code lantern lamp, and two oil-fuel torch lights ablaze, and an iced drink in the summers and hot cocoa in the winters, I'm insulated from the chaos of the world.

So too, a wooden stork I carved and painted, Jord, guards a Potager garden below from atop a white garden trellis in a nest of blooming petunias. A Danish Vimpel (ship's tall mast banner) waves in the wind from atop a flag pole at the opposite end. This garden, flanked on one side by a hedge of lilac bushes, gathered from the 4 homes of all our Maternal and Paternal grandparents, is a reminder of our heritage and a touch of Denmark. Rhubarb, along with Raspberry and strawberry fruit, twice-bearing,early summer as well as late fall, and fruit trees, some who have never yet born fruit, and those that have born aplenty, add to this area of repose.

15 large terra cotta pots along the north yard fence line once was home to brillant color from a variety of planned color scheme flowers, serves now as a water-conserving garden bed for what Atlantic Coast Native Americans called The Three Sister: Beans growing up stalks of Corn amid the sun-sheltering, weed-inhibiting, and moisture conservation large leaves of Squash.

A front yard with window boxes of ever blooming annuals and 3 circular floral beds amass in color and manicured grass carpet welcomes us warmly when driving home. Ours is not a home of the affluent, but one of our means, yet well-kept and maintained; we are appreciative of it, and of our location on this mostly quiet cul de sac, where we raised our children, and where now another generation of young children's voices can be heard and bikes can see seen on neighboring front yards.

This is home. A nest we've built with our children. These 3 fine kids of ours are now grown and live afar. To remind us of them however, our back yard's West fence line features 3 flowering crab apple trees. Each grow and produce colorful fruit, pleasing not only because of their spring color and aroma, coupled with their ample fall harvest, but more especially because they remind me of each unique, amazing person our kids have become and are becoming.

Be Well. Do Good.