Rhubarb A-La-Carte

R.J. and I have been in our new home for about three and a half months now. In many ways, it seems a lot longer. That may be because we spent a lot of time staying home and shoveling snow over those three and a half months. What a winter! Let’s hope that winter is finally over, now that we have achieved the all-time largest snowfall for the season (86.8”) here in Rochester, most of which fell after we moved. It’s so nice to have warmer days!

I updated about some of the projects we have done around the house in my last blog. We have a couple more small projects to do, but so many things have been checked off the list. Yay! The biggest projects are yet to come, and we don’t have the skills to do them ourselves. We are getting ready to begin adding the kitchen in our lower level. That project requires a plumber to break up the cement to add a drain, as well as quite a bit of other plumbing and electrical work. This part is going to cost way more than I thought, but I guess that’s the way it goes. Then we will add cabinets, countertops, flooring, and appliances. Hopefully, most of the lower-level projects will be done in the coming month or so, and then Em and Eric can begin the moving-in process.

So that’s the update for what has been happening indoors. Now that the snow has finally melted here in our corner of Minnesota, I have been pacing around the yard regularly to see what is coming up in my gardens and to figure out what kind of trees we have in the yard. It is hard when you have only seen a yard in its dormant state. I really had very little idea what was here in terms of plant life. I am delighted to discover so many of my favorites! We have lilacs and lilies of the valley. We have both day lilies and Asiatic lilies. We have irises like crazy. I love irises. We have a few spring bulbs, including tulips and alliums. I was hoping for spring bulbs! We have rose bushes and columbines. We have hostas and sedum and even some peonies! We have several plants I don’t recognize as well, so that should be a fun surprise. Hopefully! I always worry that the ones I don’t recognize area actually weeds. I get so excited every time I see something new coming up, especially when I recognize it!

The yard itself is kind of a mess. It has a base layer of moss, followed by hundreds of little maple trees trying to grow up to be a forest. I keep plucking them but there are always more. Those helicopter seeds are very effective! There are creeping everythings and plenty of dandelions in the yard. It is green, though, and there are no big patches of dirt anywhere! Perhaps my favorite feature of the yard is our massive flag pole. My brother Steve saw that when he helped us move in and told us he had a flag for us. Apparently, Dad had given away flags at some time and there were a couple of leftovers. We got one and steadfastly refused to fly it until we could reach the flagpole without wading through snow. Our flagpole is lit at night, and we figured out the mechanism for making the light come on. It’s pretty spectacular, if I do say so myself, and it’s extra nice to have that housewarming gift from Dad. He would like this house, I think. It’s a little sad to live in a place he never saw. I miss him.

There flies our flag!

There are a few things that I haven’t seen yet and will want to get for our new yard. I will need some bleeding hearts, of course.  They are so beautiful and remind me of my childhood days (plus they are fun to photograph). I also want a rhododendron bush. We have a lot of family history associated with the rhododendron bush, and I absolutely want one here.  I will add more spring bulbs come fall as well, but most of the other flowers I wanted are already here. The one final exception is rhubarb. I was looking all over the yard for it, thinking this house was owned by the type of gardener who would surely have a rhubarb patch. No luck. Then on Easter, we went out as a family to look at the yard. OK, we went out to take pictures but then decided to look around the yard before going in, since Laura commented that she hadn’t seen the back yard without snow. As we walked around, someone asked, “What’s with the clump of rhubarb under the pine tree?”

The Easter Family Picture

What?!? Sure enough, there under the pine tree was a formed clump of dirt that I had seen many times. It obviously had been dumped out of a pot, like people do if they want the pot but not the dirt when moving. I understandably expected that it was just the dirt. I had not seen anything growing in it previously, but clearly, there it was: rhubarb! What a sweet blessing! How it came to be there, I’m not sure. My favorite guess came from David, who said, “Maybe your backyard neighbor is shy and just threw a housewarming gift over the fence.” Ha! I love it! At any rate, I now need to figure out the perfect spot for my rhubarb plant. (I can do that!)

My rhubarb!

This new home of ours is just right for the next phase in our lives. I continue to be amazed that God is interested in the details of my life, down to the rhubarb plant that was, perhaps unintentionally, left behind.  I feel like King David as he marveled, “When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?” (Psalm 8:3-4 NLT) And yet…He does care. Whether we see the rhubarb in the clump of dirt or not, it’s there, waiting for us – as is God. I pray that I will open my eyes and be able to see Him in the chaos of the world around me. May you feel the joy of our risen Savior and the promise of spring, my friend!