Shifting

So, yes . . . I am tinkering with the look of my blog.  I've been contemplating doing it for awhile, but never had much in the way of time or inspiration.  The blip-bloop green top had been my template since I started my blog 6 years ago, but finally, this weekend, I decided that it was time.  Time for change.

Tinkering commenced after I started thinking about my blog title, Rain Garden.  I chose that name when I finally decided to start my own after enjoying others' blogs so much.  We were still in Minneapolis at the time and interested in actual rain gardens for the urban landscape.  I thought it was clever enough of a title and always envisioned "percolating" as my blog description.  Ha.  Ha.  Like . . . I'm thinking about all this various runoff in the form of information and ideas, absorbing and sorting through it, and there you have it: me.

But, meh.  I never did get too fancy.  And I don't intend this blog as a public forum or showcasing myself.  I cherish it as a way to sort through ideas and life, to connect with people who mean a lot to me, and enjoy the process of writing and re-writing.  Through time, I've realized that it is also a very important tool in helping me to remember my own history "as it was".  I often look back and find that my memory is kick-started with events and emotion I might have otherwise forgotten.  And I do keep a journal.

But back to the point.  My blog's name.  Though I do think it is pretty, I don't feel like it suites me much anymore.  I've shifted a bit.  I've been thinking about it and feel like I want to change it while staying within the "garden" theme.  It seems to run in the family: Rock Garden, my SIL, and Fire Garden, my dad.

The pictures I've chosen as part of my new "look" are significant to me for several reasons.

1. Diego took them.
2. This owl belonged to Blaine's great-grandma, Mammy.
3. I love the clouds and the sun and blue sky.
4. The boys in the background in the first one make me happy.
5. It gives a fuzzy representation of our rural surroundings.

This cute little guy sits atop our water meter.  I screwed it into the wooden post when we first moved here, always a little unsure what to do with it before that, but never wanting to part with it because of its charm and that it was Mammy's (and I think I might have a thing for owls).

Living rurally, it is our responsibility to check the water meter every month.  In the city we got our water bill in the mail, but not with "rural water".  We do everything, from remembering to check the meter to filling out the coupon and mailing in the bill.  It definitely took a little getting used to at first.

But I remember that first month, in the dead of summer, checking the water meter.  It was mid-afternoon.  I was pregnant and two year old Diego was napping.  Walking to the meter was almost surreal in the thought that I had essentially just walked to the end of our Minneapolis block, and I wasn't even halfway up our driveway.  Or another time near the beginning, when I was in the quonset (the curved building in the background of the first picture) and realized, "Our entire house and yard could fit inside this building."  Literally.

It is interesting how things change.

How about the name "Prairie Garden"?