Giving Thanks

The following entry was supposed to be posted on September 1st ... so much has been happening I hadn't have the time to sit in front of the computer :s
Is it already a year since we moved into our little paradise in the country?
In the past 12 months I have made memories and experiences that have been both exhilarating and annoying, truly wonderful and deeply hurtful. But we persevere. We all do and with each little life that comes and goes, we strive on.
This slowness, this de-accelaration, it works for us. Especially for me as I have never been happier than on our little smallhold here.
September ... a year from now I wonder what will have happe4ned. Will I be busy doing all the things that I had already scheduled for this year and didn't get around doing because of the continued attack of the vicious chickens? Will my garden strive and be full of plentiful harvest or will it wither like it did this year because of the chickens?
The past year has offered many great experiences. We have become richer and wiser, but also a bit more lonely (in the winter) and much more secluded. Friends come and go, my great grandfather used to say, good friends stay. Well, I haven't had any good friends, or so it seems. During winter most of my so-called friends turned away because of little petty schemes from someone I had never thought would be so ruthless. But where doors close, windows open and since spring, as with the first blossoms on our apple trees, friendship has sprung and abounded. This village and it villagers are not so strange, so utterly different anymore. I know a lot of ppl now, and friendship slowly blossoming.
Over the past few weeks, ever since our anniversary of the move from D to B occurred, I've been thinking about all the things I've been and should have been grateful about. The garden ... our delicious potatoes even though they are quite small, the courgettes and tomatoes fresh from the garden. Did you know that lettuce freshly picked and eaten is actually SWEET????
Nothing to compare with the lettuce you get from the supermarket. The vitamins turn bitter once lettuce is picked. The wonder of eating freshly picked strawberries and tomatoes still warm from the sun is something I wish a lot more ppl can experience. Of course, it's more work. You need to find the time to tend, to grow, to weed.