It's taken me around six months to make a dent in this project, which I tackled in between life and filming my classes. My downtime was spent gardening. The joys of living in an old house is the garden has been neglected over the years and although we have been maintaining it, we certainly weren't having victory over it. We knew if we were going to have victory, we needed to do some major excavating. Twenty Five tons later our property was clear. Every 5 ton truck that pulled out of our drive filled with debris, was a giant step closer to where we were heading.

It was a long, slow and satisfying job. Gardening is like that for me. I am never afraid of hard labor and this was indeed hard labor. With the help of Michael our bi-weekly landscaper, we got there. Cutting down trees and pruning back left me with many cuts, scratches and painful hands, which made filming lessons challenging sometimes.

Seeing my garden like this though, has been worth it all. I know we still have a ways to go but the bulk of the work is done. Every morning and evening I get to sit on my verander and be embraced by the beautiful green and the visiting birds and butterflies.

I'm one happy girl.