I finished moving my raised beds yesterday.

The frames had been hauled out over the weekend. With the help of my daughter, we hoisted them onto the roof of the car and took them up to my storage unit. I put the soil from one into the front garden bed. It was close and could use some extra sustenance. I moved some perennials in there for the new tenants. I hope they like them. The other bed of dirt went half to my son-in-law and thankfully half to my neighbor. Without a truck I had to shovel the dirt into my wheel barrow and a trash can and then load them into the back of my car, and then lift them out to dump them, a harried task for an old lady with a bad back. Today I am paying the price of loading my workbench onto the roof rack. I had to park on a slope to get it back down, which meant carrying it a bit to get it into the storage unit. My neck and shoulders are not amused.

The idea of borrowed ground came to me as I trundled loads of dirt to my neighbor’s front bed. I have literally been growing on borrowed ground for the past several years as I relied on the good graces of my landlord to garden here. Actually all our growing is done on borrowed ground with borrowed time as we are not here permanently. Well – not in this form anyway. I don’t know who or what we are borrowing from, and my move is partly in defiance of the fear of my lending period running out. I will make good use of whatever borrowed time I have left on ground that is not borrowed against.

I have always taken an odd comfort from the idea that we came from dust and shall return to dust. The actual term is soil. We were created from the soil, the humus and will return to it. Dust has a barren, dead connotation. Soil is alive and teeming with nutrients. Somewhere in the Adirondacks my parents are feeding the pines. Someday my ex, if he still wishes it, will be returned to his farm pastures of CNY.

Perhaps one day, I will be nurturing a small orchard from within the soil I hope to plant them.

I can’t imagine that new adventure,so for now,

I will simply prepare for and anticipate this one.