It feels like a long, long time ago since I last wrote some words down. Even more so when I did so in English. I cannot explain it right but somehow writing down words in English always feels like another part of me is able to open up. It feels like it brings along a certain extension of me.
The past month has been exciting and tiring. In the middle of May Tom and I moved our little home from the previous place we stayed at to our new, temporarily one; in my parents’ garden. It has felt like we have been moving step by step. Little by little. Day by day. That has been the reason why I found it, and still find it, quite tiring. But we are really getting closer to being finished now!
Our move was split into several days. The first days we were busy packing and after that was done, we could move all our stuff to my parents’ place where we stored it in my studio and my old bedroom as well as in my father’s garage. When our little home was empty we were, finally, able to tear it down!
Thanks to friends and family that helped us tear down our home, we were done in a couple of hours! Luckily my parents’ home is about a five minute drive to where we previously lived so taking everything over there didn’t take much time!
And then the waiting game started! The other half of May was really rainy. There were many days filled with rain and at some point it felt like more sunny and drier days were never going to come. We needed dry days to be able to build up our home again so the waiting game had me annoyed, irritated, appreciative and impatient all at once. We weren’t able to start until the beginning of June when the weather got better. In my recent videos I talk about our move and how I have been feeling. If you want to watch them, they are in Dutch but I always add English subtitles!
The three weeks or so, that we weren’t able to sleep in our home we slept in my old bedroom in between our boxes. Which at times was totally fine and other times I got a bit impatient with the weather because I longed for some more space! Luckily our cat Eik got used to my parents’ place pretty quickly! She still doesn’t go outside due to a more busy road that’s now closer to us but she seems to enjoy herself 🙂
In May I also wrote about these feelings I had in a post on instagram. You can see the post down below! What I wrote was: ‘Before we moved last week I thought about a documentary I had seen a little while back, where Juliette de Baïracli Levy talked about having had ten gardens in her life. For the first time in my life, I, myself, felt a sadness in knowing we were going to leave behind our little garden. I already miss the Elder, Hazel tree and the Hawthorn. I hope I won’t have to leave behind ten gardens. Even though I feel it is all alright. I recently found a tiny branch of the Elder on the ground in our garden, after we had some strong winds. Which has taken root after I had put it in some water! Also the IJssel is still nearby, around me I still see so many blooming Hawthorn bushes and the stunning Hazel tree I still find in the woods close by!’
One thing I really love about the rain during Spring is how it just brings the Earth alive again so, so, so strongly! Thanks to having to wait for drier days, we were able to relax and go on walks in between some odd jobs we still had to do for our home. Around this time of year the magic in the air is almost touchable if you ask me! There’s really some magic in the air when the earth wakes up again and comes back to life!
In my next blog post I will write about the process of building up our little home again. This one has gotten quite long already I think.
It really feels like a new start of some sort. I now live closer, kinda next to, my studio and to my pottery wheel! I feel like a new chapter is starting and that is making me feel very excited! Endings always entail new beginnings!
Thank you for reading!
Lisa (Gerdina)
IJsselvrouw 