Mid-August at the farmette means the flowers are in full bloom and the veggie garden is starting to look a bit past its prime. It’s also my birthday - 52 this year. Yikes. Birthdays make me think of other milestones, so I started counting some of them up:
It’s been two years - nearly exactly - since I leapt from my comfortable job in the public service and plunged into the sometimes-murky depths of my own freelance business. It’s been a bit of a trial, but like anything you really want, it’s worth the effort. My friend Jane says that diamonds only come from tonnes of pressure - and she’s right. I still get the collywobbles that keep me up at night, especially when I don’t know where the next job will come from. But now at least I have some people who like my writing and are willing to pay for it.
Three years. The amount of time we’ve lived at the farmette. Buying this place was one of the best decisions we ever made. It’s not always the easiest place to live, mind you - mosquitoes are horrid in the summer sometimes, and the snow gets pretty thick in the winter. But there’s space and there’s a lot of beauty…some of which was already here (big old trees, lovely house, gigantic yard), and some we added ourselves (new flowers, lots of fruits and veggies, more trees).
Twelve years. The age of our eldest two cats Nick and Nora Charles. Named after characters in the Thin Man movies of the ’40s, they totally reflect their film personalities. Nora’s calm, cool and collected most of the time, smart as a whip, and fiesty when she needs to be. Nick is the suave and debonair tuxedo whose laid back air makes it seem like he really should be holding a dry vodka martini in his paw while solving a complex murder case.
150 years. The age of our house this year. It’s a bit of an odd building. One of our early visitors said the main floor actuallly looks like the second story of a home, with the ornate brickwork all around the front windows. I think the people who built it must have wanted to show off a bit with the big windows that were actually in pretty short supply in those days. And we’ve added our own touches as well, with the many new windows in the brand new sunroom.
We’ve hit some pretty nice anniversaries lately and we’ll have many, many more as we continue making memories here at the farmette.