I have to say that the hardest part of moving here is that we’ve essentially moved from winter to winter, which means we’ve also been in darkness starting at about 5-6pm since last October. Since we had a relatively cold spring in NJ, we’ve also been in the same wardrobe since October too. It’s been good that the kids got really good wear out of the winter season’s clothing! But, I’m over it.

The winter weather isn’t really that cold here, even though the Aussies think it is. I’d say it’s sort of like weather in March in PA/NJ. It’s in the 40s overnight and then in the 50s during the day, but with the wind and rain, it feels colder. If the sun comes out, it does usually get to the high 50s to low 60s. I like those days!

As I see people post pictures of summer, it’s such a reminder that you’ve moved to the other side of the world as we are putting on our coats for the beach walks. All of the food websites and blogs that I follow are presenting their summer foods, and I’m cooking with pumpkin, beets, carrots and all other winter vegetables that are in season here.

With all of this, I miss having our garden.  As I was writing a letter to my Grandma the other week and telling her to not work too hard in her garden (she’s 85 and still puts out a huge garden), I was thinking how much I was missing good summer tomatoes from the garden.

When we moved back from Paris, I was eager to have space for a garden and chickens. So, last summer, we put in a few raised bed gardens. Brent wanted to learn how to build something, so he decided he would build a chicken coup. The garden did really well. I was even harvesting wild blackberries from vacant lot next door and was still growing carrots in January. The coup was much, much larger than anticipated, but Brent really enjoyed building it with his father.

My how the kids have changed in a year’s time, especially little “Bro”.

Unfortunately, Pfeif Pfarmstead is on hold until we return. We didn’t get our chickens this past spring because of the move, and we had to cover over the garden with landscape fabric to keep down the weeds while away. By the time we get back, the coup will probably serve as a really nice princess castle or something! 🙂

But, low and behold, we grew a crop of tomatoes anyhow. My parents were out to check on our place a few weeks ago, and just as I was missing my summer crop of tomatoes, here I was still growing them in NJ. So, Myra and Cori, stop by and harvest them!

We are starting to see signs of spring here. I just noticed some of the buds on the trees starting to form and a daffodil coming up in the flower bed. I’m looking forward to at least have a herb garden in some of the planters that I moved with us. And to make up the difference, I’ve signed up for a farm box to be delivered once a week {and it helps to have one less trip to the grocery store with kids too!}.

We are doing our best to “bloom where you are planted”, but I’m still missing summer and garden tomatoes…