Back to the Garden

With the house in chaos from our flood, I have found some much needed solace in the garden.  I look at our family room--the carpet half cut out, and a wall cut down to the studs--and I don't really know what to do or where to start.  But I go out to the garden, and I know just what to do.

The storm ravished the trees and shrubs in the garden.  A mid-November snow makes a mess of a Northwest garden since our plants hadn't quite gone into full dormancy yet.  But this early wind and snow cleaned the trees of their last leaves and laid waste to the remaining perennials.

I've tended to all of the gardens I work in, and coming into a storm tossed garden doesn't even begin to stress me.  In fact, I love the work.  There is something deeply soothing to me about tidying up a garden and it's been just what I've needed.  Even though it was an act of nature that caused our trouble, it is nature that now comforts me.

That and chocolate.  (Oh, and maybe just a little gin!)  Tonight I am baking a batch of espresso brownies, and just the smell of melted chocolate mixed with butter and sugar is deeply peaceful.  A little peppermint schnapps, some Christmas music, a warm fire, my kids all doing their homework--my soul feels restored amidst the destruction.