The Garden Grows, and 2 Weeks to Go!

Look! A red(ish) tomato! After several weeks grumping about my tomato plants being loaded with green fruits, one of them is finally turning color! The green ones I picked and brought inside a few weeks ago just stubbornly stayed green on the windowsill for two weeks. But, here's a lovely Oxheart:

And Matt discovered that a few of the Black Cherries are finally getting some color!

As usual, the nasturtiums seem intent on taking over the whole garden. But aren't they pretty?

I'm also very excited, because we'll actually get to eat some cabbage from the garden before we leave!

Unfortunately, my summer squash plants seem to have come down with powdery mildew. I'm not too sad, as we already got a couple nice sweet squashes from them, and since we're leaving in two weeks, I don't feel a whole lot of attachment at this point.

Two weeks! We leave for New Zealand two weeks from tomorrow. Now that it's so close, it's actually starting to feel real- just barely. The first few boxes have been taken to our storage unit, and now the living room is full again from all the packing I did this evening. I pack at night, and Matt transports everything to the unit during the day, and is spending the rest of his time finishing up his latest wooden surfboard (I will do a post about his work soon), and getting ready to take down the shaping bay he built at his dad's house. Tonight I boxed up all my sewing and knitting supplies, which was quite sad, as well as a bunch of linens and blankets, and a box of heirlooms and things to go to Mom & Dad's for the duration. They are driving to Portland tomorrow, so we will get to have them for a visit all the long weekend (Monday is the Labor Day holiday in the U.S.). We will be spending a night camping at the coast, and tomorrow night they will meet Matt's parents for the first time. (!!).

It is still slightly surreal that we will be leaving so soon. There's so much happening between now and then: my parents visiting, training my replacement (who I very much approve of) starting Tuesday, a going-away party on Wednesday night, the wedding of one of my closest friends next Saturday, my final day at work, and then the last mad rush of packing and moving. This last week has been a little hectic and emotionally turbulent, but it seems to all be coming together, and I am starting to get really excited. Transitioning out of work is starting to become more real to me, sad as it is. The fact that we're leaving Oregon and home is not real yet. Currently I'm mostly struggling with the balance of not buying too much in the way of groceries, while not keeping supplies so low that we end up running short and feeling inclined to go out to eat. It's been hard to keep up with my frugal living goals while everything is in turmoil, and that has been frustrating and has made this all a greater challenge. I cannot say that we've been doing perfectly, but I am feeling good knowing that once we board that plane on the 18th, we will be living on what we can carry for most of a year, and learning to make do while traveling and getting to know a new land.