Putting down roots

May 17, 2015

in An American in Europe,Living abroad,Stockholm

balcony garden Both the hanging boxes of daisies have grown a lot in the last week. Click on the photo to see it without the blog roll on top of it. All photos copyright Sandra Carpenter.

 

balcony garden Basil, chives, lettuce, mint.

 

Last weekend, we bought all sorts of flowers, tomatoes, lettuce, basil, cucumber, chili pepper, capsicum, mint, chives, strawberries and planted them in containers on our balcony. This weekend, we bought an IKEA table and chairs for the space. Then Robert spent hours assembling all the pieces from the flat packs. Now we are waiting for it to stop raining so that we can move all of it outside.

Maybe it doesn’t sound like much, but it’s been such a “right” thing to do. We lived in limbo for so long, moving from one temporary apartment to another. Over and over again. Somehow, incongruously, we spent four years moving from one second-hand rental to the next. We lived in way too many temporary places. (You can read about one of the move stories here.)

It wore us down in every way possible: emotionally, financially and more. We knew that we needed to buy a place.  But it got to the point where even looking for an apartment to buy became a chore. After we finally bought and moved into our own place in October, it took awhile for us to settle down. Looking back, I think we just needed time to recover. So we moved stuff in, but didn’t do any decorating for the most part. I mean, things were arranged, but we only hung a picture or two on hooks that were already there. We didn’t add our own touches. Until now.

That’s why planting made me so darn happy. Dare I say it? It felt like we are putting down roots. At last.

 

rain delay As we wait for a break in the rain, the newly built balcony chairs are scattered around the apartment.

 

balcony garden Cherry tomatoes and peppers.

 

balcony garden Tomatoes and cucumbers.

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The best of 2015 or 6 things that made me happy this year | 59 North
December 31, 2015 at 16:54

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