Thursday, January 28, 2016

Some things change, some things stay the same



2015 brought a lot of change into our lives, but these lilies have been with us a number of years and they consistently bear flowers as the plants continue to thrive in spite of being repotted and relocated a number of times.

One of the big changes in our lives this year was welcoming WWOOFERS (wwoofinternational.org) into our lives.  Our property is what we call a double section and requires a fair amount of maintenance. By hosting volunteer workers from different parts of the world and getting them to help maintain our property in exchange for accommodation and meals a whole new world of interest and friendship has opened up for us.

So far we have hosted young people from Switzerland, England, France, Sweden, USA, Japan, Germany and Austria.  It has been a truly delightful cultural exchange for us as we have shared our lives with people from all these different nationalities. You could say this is a permanent change in our lives as we continue to receive requests to come and help.

2015 was they year of our big trip overseas, still much talked about with so many happy memories for us to reflect on, the people we saw and the places we visited.  We would like to think we could do it all over again but that remains to be seen.

Another unexpected and very welcome change in our lives in 2015 was that our sister and her husband have come to live as close neighbors.
Their house sits directly opposite the entrance to our driveway so there is a lot of interaction between the two households. It is working well for all of us.

The things that stay the same and anchor us are all good but we welcome the changes that make our lives more interesting and different as well.

4 comments:

margaret said...

How lovely to have your sister so near, mine lives in Australia but she is coming to the UK in august, have not seen her since 2002 so so looking forward to it.I know she will never come back here to live as she has been out there 60 years.
What a good way to get help with your property and meeting people from so many different walks of life and countries too

Tired Teacher said...

Wonderful to see your post today. You and Linda have been on my mind a lot lately and I hoped that all was well.

Mystic Quilter said...

Good to hear from you Peggy!

Nancy J said...

Lovely words, Peggy. Here, things changed at the end of 2012, and after some recovery, they changed again in 2013, and became better last year.The one constant is the love and care from family and friends, both near and far away. Lovely golden Calla.