In the past few weeks, construction started behind our house. More specifically they started blasting rocks to prepare for putting in various infrastructure. I have been really frustrated with how random the explosions are and seeing trees be cut down. For the first few weeks I became really negative and upset. I didn’t even want to look outside. That being said, I’m working on gaining a new perspective on it. While I’m upset to see habitat destroyed, we do live within the village, and this will provide the opportunity for new families to come. They’ll also be making a new park and once the construction is done I hope our new neighbours will make gardens of their own.

I also noticed something funny as construction has continued in our village. Many people go to collect some of the blasted rocks for their gardens, since they will be disposed of anyway. It’s led to a lot of creativity, with someone near us building their own stone wall and others planning on making a flagstone driveway. It’s a good way to reuse the stones. Our village is also a few hundreds of years old, so there is a lot of beautiful stone houses, buildings and walls.

As someone from Newfoundland, rocks have always been a big part of my life. Many of our beaches are rocky, and when I was a child, gravel was placed underneath playgrounds. We have to go to look at rocks for elementary school trips and admire rocks for their beauty. We have to respect rocks as well for their sharpness. When walking on cliffs near the ocean or swimming at rocky beaches we always need to be careful. It’s interesting to think that beneath all of the earth, flowers and buildings there lies another world made of stones and rocks.

We went on a walk the other day to avoid the blasting and came across a stonemason we know in the village. We told him about the blasting and he said we could come to his house if things became too noisy. We came over the next day and admired all of the stone work around his house. On the front there are walls made of disregarded limestone and bricks arranged in spirals. In the back there are piles of stones and two walls that he is building. We watched him cutting stone for a garden wall. Listening to him talk about the stones and their beauty gave me a new appreciation. Even though it is incredibly loud around our house these days, we can salvage some of the limestone for our garden.

When I told him I was from Newfoundland he gave me some beautiful slate from Nova Scotia and Kentucky. I admired how different the stone appeared when wet and dry. I’m thankful to live in a place where my family and I can experience the kindness of those around us. We hope to return the favour.

Due to construction, I haven’t had the opportunity to get into my garden much this week. However, I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see bursts of green around us. The lilies are starting to come up, our blackcurrant bush has full leaves and our basket willow is budding. Next week we’ll receive a shipment of trees and bushes that we’re excited to get planting.

In our naivety we made a bit of a mistake last year, deciding that we wanted to make a hedgerow for our garden instead of a hedge to focus on biodiversity. So behind our house we planted bushes and deciduous trees rather than conifers. This is good in the summer and autumn because there is berries for both us and pollinators. However it leaves little in the way of privacy. Birds also enjoy having a place to hide from predators, which we are sadly missing. Next weekend we will go to a tree sale at a conservation area in the hopes of picking up some spruce and cedar trees. We’ll see how it goes.

I suppose life is full of little compromises. We may have to deal with construction for the unforeseeable future, but we are very lucky to live in such a lovely village and to have the opportunity to grow a garden.