Little by Little

I have to tell you I really, truly think our church yard is ugly!   The church sits so far back from the road and the field of grass is sparse and interspersed with weeds and cactus!  The first couple of years we lived here I worked on the yard and planted bushes and flowers and trees, raked and cleaned and tried to make things look better but no matter what I have done everything still dies!  The last couple of years I have not worked very hard on the yard at all because it doesn't seem to matter what I do, it still looks ugly!

 

As I walked outside last week to see how everything had survived the snow and winds of winter I found that the antelope had eaten all my lilacs, cherry trees and rose bushes!  Thankfully they still have little living stubs growing out of the ground that I can nourish back to health but I feel like there is will be no new progress as we go into summertime!

 

As I was walking the ground surrounding the church and parsonage,

I prayed and asked God what to do to help make the church look more appealing.  As I walked and prayed, God brought to my mind Jennie Butchart and the beautiful Butchart gardens in Victoria, Canada.

 

Most people would never guess that theses beautiful gardens actually started out as a limestone quarry.  The limestone in the quarry ran out leaving a horrendous and ugly pit near the Butcharts house. 

 In an attempt to hide the ugly excavation, Jennie Butchart came up with the concept of a sunken garden.  Little by little she planted ivy and other plants and flowers into every nook and cranny, covering every bit of the ugliness of the limestone pit and transformed it into a place of beauty

 that millions of people have enjoyed today. 

 

 

The church property is not an ugly pit but I can use the same thought process and work to transform the ugliness into something beautiful

little by little.  My sweet husband has been working tirelessly on the inside of the new sanctuary that the church is building and is more than happy

 to leave the outside to me, so when I asked him for some fill dirt he immediately called and had it delivered.

 

 

 

We had a beautiful day yesterday with temps in the 60's! 

 It truly felt like a heat wave and we took advantage of it before it starts snowing again later this week.  For the first step my husband helped me measure out 25 feet from the sidewalk and sectioned it off.  We then took the fill dirt and thickly spread it over the area.  It took us the full day to do the area south of the driveway so we will wait for the snow to come and melt and then do the front of the yard on the north side of the driveway.

 

We have decided to go with a desert landscape as there is no water supply that far from the church and I am so excited to see the progress so far and excited to see what we will be able to get done in the next couple of months! 

 

Our property may never look as green and luxurious as the Butchart gardens but little by little we will make it look more inviting and welcoming

to those who are passing by.