Beauty in the midst of chaos

This is my home.

Sometimes I need to stop for a few minutes and remind myself that in the midst of the chaos that is my new house, there is still much beauty in my new home.  The house is a work in progress, and will be for years, but the surrounding land, the area I live in, the nature that is all around me - that is my home.  For today's blog, instead of showing you more of my chaos, I thought I'd share some beauty that I find nearby.  The above photograph is a view taken just down the road from where I live, and it's breathtaking, even on a somewhat grey and hazy day.

Here's what you'd see on the highway as you approached my region.  Vast tracts of forest punctuated by blueberry land - that's the "bare" patches you can see.  They aren't really bare - just kept mowed down to allow the native lowbush blueberry plants to thrive.

As you enter the Wentworth Valley, you would see signs warning you to keep an eye out for moose, not to mention black bears and maybe a lynx or bobcat, and of course the ubiquitous white-tailed deer.

Then you would see my driveway, a verdant green passage at this time of year.

You would see my house, and perhaps notice that the garden beds are a bit chaotic at the moment, but I've been working quite hard on this one you see below.  After I yanked out great swaths of bishop's weed (and that battle won't be over for years either, since that weed is a tough one to eradicate), along with boatloads of mulleins, goldenrod, and other things I didn't want, I was surprised to find two healthy looking daylily plants and a nice hosta.  These could not even be seen before I started working on renewing the garden bed.  One must search for beauty sometimes!  There are lots of other former flower beds that need my attention all around the property.

This view shows you the carpet of buttercup that is presently making a lot of honeybees very happy.  You can also see one of two large Viburnum opulus (snowball bush) shrubs which have been covered in blossoms, as well as clouds of Hesperis matronalis (sweet rocket) in lilac and pink, which smell heavenly and also are a bee feasting ground!  You can see a lot of the mulleins in the foreground, yet to be removed!

Here's another picture from closer to the porch (shown roughly centrally in the picture above).  The porch itself is unfinished, so there isn't much floor to it, but the beams are in place to install the floor, so it's just another job to be done.  There is a beautiful magenta coloured rose as you can see in the middle of the picture, with an incredibly strong "old rose" scent that fills the air in the evenings.  It desperately needs pruning, but it pours out beautiful blossoms anyway.  It bloomed extremely early.  I wish I knew what rose it is.  It has probably been there for decades.

Another rose has just started to bloom and this is the first blossom I found - a captivating pale pink with heavy fragrance.  You can see some of that darned Virginia creeper in the foreground....it will take me decades to get rid of that too!

Here's the view as you turn away from the house to look back towards the driveway.  It's a wonder I just don't sit out there and stare all day, but I'd be eaten alive by the bugs right now.  The mosquitoes and black flies are very active at the moment.

As I mentioned, the porch isn't complete, but here's the view that the porch will have eventually.  Unfortunately, the property has been so poorly tended that a tree has grown up right in front of the porch where the steps need to go.  But, time will take care of this too.

So there you have it - some of the beauty that surrounds me on a daily basis.  I need to focus on that sometimes, and remember that one must take delight in the journey, perhaps even more than the destination.  I brought in some roses to brighten the kitchen, so I'll leave you with those for now.  Breathe deeply and take time to enjoy your surroundings!