Welcome Home

 Sometimes it is more restful for my soul to simply stay home than go out to church. 

To sweep the floor and tidy the kitchen thoroughly helps me get back into my own skin and think straight.

I’ve just been away on a road trip for more than two weeks. 

Toodling around back roads en route to visiting family and friends, wandering open gardens and out-of-the-way nurseries that stock unusual treasures I discover to bring back.

That’s the advantage of driving. You’d be surprised how many plants I can manage to cram into the back (and front seat) of my little red Mazda. I go away more than my husband these days. When our children were little, he would often have to travel for work. His agricultural consulting business still means long days of driving. A drive in the country now is not his idea of a good time and his work is as busy as ever. So if I don’t go on my own – I wouldn’t go anywhere. Solo adventures can be fun. I’m used to it. I enjoyed the children’s company before, so it is strange venturing out on my ownsome with their recommendations for podcasts and music. Our eldest daughter is all the way down in Canberra with her husband and three children, so it was nice to visit and slot into their busy household during term time in contrast to being in holiday mode. To see their new home and the grandchildren living their daily lives.

It was a long drive home. My hubby and I missed each other, and I was keen to get back to my own garden after more than 50mm of much needed rain.

It is delicious to wake up in my own bed and look out the window at the beautiful jacaranda tree in full flower. Jacarandas are such a unique purple. It is a tricky colour to mix in a watercolour painting.

It’s been a two-cups-of-tea kind of morning. Slowing time to ponder and write. To be back in my own space where I seem to hear the Lord’s whispers more clearly and think more deeply.

I’ve wandered the garden in my pyjamas, savouring the scent of mock orange and the sweet surprise of my favourite little crabapple still flowering. Appreciating all the changes in only 16 days. The Dias and Cape Chestnut trees frothy with pink petals and the Oak Leaf Hydrangea covered in an abundance of creamy blooms which were barely budding when I left. 

It feels more spiritual to walk outside to worship and appreciate the peace of this place I get to call home. 

I never take safe travel for granted. I am humbly grateful to be back safely after driving almost 3000kms.

To reap the blessing of a sweet welcome home note on the blackboard after a daughter popped in to collect flowers from the garden for her own home. My heart is full. Thank – full.

 

  

The Secret Garden beckons me to explore

The lush view from my bedroom window

Pink bracts of Cape Chestnut

The lovely old rose Mrs Reynolds Hole droopy with raindrops

Sweet scented Mock Orange blossoms still blooming

The Dias tree is covered in pink pompoms

The Dias at the cubby steps

My favourite Ionises Plena Crabapple still flowering