- My husband! Who needs a teddy bear when you have 6′ of snuggliness? When he is there I sleep like a baby; when he’s not I toss and turn!
- Fresh cucumbers from the garden
- Being able to giggle over my own stupidity
- Reading a good book
- Garlic. (Alas, maybe you all won’t love me after the garlic, but yum!)
- Wind. Wind is Nature’s music!
- Doing something well and looking at the finished product with pride
- Jars of things I’ve canned, lined up like little soldiers!
- Warm sheets straight out of the dryer. (I’m sorry, but you just can’t line dry them because they get all stiff!)
- Having a few minutes to just listen to silence.
I left work yesterday in a torrential downpour. I got home to patches of blue sky. So, missing the boy-o, I did what I always do when I’m lonely – went up to the farm to work in the garden. The plants tend to make me feel less lonesome, for some reason. Weed by weed, pluck and pull, I feel better when caring for my little green friends. Beside, I hadn’t been able to play in the dirt for most of the week due to rain, and I knew there was an army of weeds to conquer.
From time to time I could hear a rumble of thunder in the distance but I didn’t let it deter me. There was still blue sky above my head, even if there were dark clouds almost completely surrounding the farm. I lost myself in the work.
Then I noticed that the worms were rising to the surface without me even disturbing the soil. I realized that the temperature had made a sudden change and the wind had picked up from gentle gusts, to something more persistent. The trees swayed – I could hear them calling to me – “Child, a storm is coming! Get your fragile, human self to safety!”
It’s hard for me to obey that kind of advice. Despite the fact that the hairs on my arms were standing up with the electricity in the air and the light was fading fast, blocked by the coming storm, I just had to just finish the row I was working on. I hate to leave things half finished…
There is nothing more exhilarating than knowing you are moments from being in the epicenter of severe weather. I suppose it is humbling to truly feel the actual violent, chaotic power of Nature, especially since so often society equates “natural” with “benign.”
Needless to say, I made my silent prayer to the storm and apparently Air thought that it was logical to allow me a few moments to “just finish this row.” I put the tractor away (without dumping the weeds on the compost pile) and hopped in my car. The drive home afforded me a moment to look at the storm cloud from a different angle. Perhaps if I had seen it that way before, sinister and threatening, I would have heeded the advice of the trees earlier…
I just barely broke the front porch when darkness fell and an ocean fell out of the sky. Not even one drop fell on me – apparently I was in favor yesterday…
Not everyone in the Lakes Region was so lucky. There was at least one death due to flash flooding, a barn struck by lightening and burned, and countless roads are still closed due to washouts and mudslides.
I for one have stopped today to count my blessings - my family, my friends, my home are all safe. In reality, that’s all I need…
Today’s feel-good moment brought to you by: Oh My Gods!
Ten Things I Love…
- My husband! He’s knows me so well that he left me a note yesterday to remind me to eat supper, knowing that I am likely to get distracted and forget…
- Guilty Pleasure – Ice Cold Coca-Cola Classic. It gives me heartburn and the twitches, but every once in while it’s worth it.
- A tomato, a tomato, a tomato is red! And perfectly shaped and blemish free! It’s so satisfying that the very first tomato of the season is “perfect”
- The fact that despite the sterile environment, there is a spider living in my shower and he’s survived for weeks!
- That a book can make me laugh out loud much more readily than TV
- That I still have enough literary responsibility to write “laugh out loud” instead of LOL
- That one of my dearest friends actually thanked me for doing something that was an expression of my true self, something that I never expected thanks for because it’s “just what you do”…
- The sight and sound of the treetops whirling hither & thither in the wind just before a storm
- Worms, squishing & squirming through my garden. Ok, so it’s not really very “girly” of me, but I LIKE bugs and snakes and worms and spiders!
- Antici……………………………………………………pation!
Beans and squash, squash and beans…. there were almost twice as many beans, but I left some with my mother-in-law because the Roma’s are her favorite-est!
Impatience got the best of me and I picked the first tomato. It could have waited another day, but I couldn’t stand another second. I left it on the window sill and it should be ready to nibble tomorrow!
Aside from the few things I picked, there are about a dozen cucumbers at about 6-8 inches long (full grown they should be 18-20″) and about 3 dozen more coming, plus tons of flowers. I’m going to be a pickling fool! Even though the tomatoes are all green, there are hundreds of them. I’m not kidding - if each plant averages 20-25 fruit, I’m going to have over a thousand….
IF looking, you know where to find me this fall - over the canner!
Trollspotting - How To Keep Your Coven From Being Destroyed
For those of you that do not feel like reading lots of pages, don’t have the time, or are saying to yourself, aw, come on, just give us the Cliff Notes version:
The essay describes people that are deliberately and habitually destructive in a group setting. More specifically, it illustrates individuals who display socially unacceptable behaviors, thriving on dissent and conflict, explicitly in a Pagan Spiritual setting (be it Coven, Grove, Circle, etc.).
Sardonically, the article labels these people “Trolls,” in reference to the legendary beast – which were not evil, per say, but is still capable of significant damage; destructive by nature. The author proposes that these persons are also not necessarily “wicked” (as suggested in writings of similar kind) but that the negative behaviors are simply part of who they are, a fundamental character flaw and in some cases can’t be helped.
Regardless, this doesn’t change the fact that the attitudes are hazardous to group cohesiveness.
The writer goes on to list various ways to spot someone who exhibits these “Troll” attributes as well as details an assortment of ways to deal with them. All in all, it is an interesting read and unfortunately I expect many of us have known a “Troll” or two in our lifetimes.
The thing I find troublesome is the same thing I have repeated time and time again. The point to my Spirituality is to bring peace and joy into my life; to connect me, in a centered, balanced, meaningful way, to the world around me. Regrettably, with ever increasing frequency, I see Spiritual Groups of all kinds filled with conflict and I wonder why the members bother…
Twice in the past week I have bit my tongue when confronted by a Troll… Methinks I have too many of them in my life. (Why do hubby & I attract them?) I’m letting it all go; it’s not worth it!
Instead – BREATHE JOY!
So my friend at Howling Hill wrote a post about 10 Things I Love. She made a good point – in a world were we are consistently complaining about things, it might be refreshing to list the things that make us happy. Howling Hill plans to write a new list every week on Saturdays filled with the things from that week that she loves. I just do not have time on the weekends to blog, so Tuesdays are going to be my day!
If I can’t come up with 10 things each week that I love… well, that will be a pretty depressing week indeed!
- I love my husband. (I expect that will be the same every week…. *grin*) He’s the risk taker to my planner, and combined it just might work out to our benefit.
- I love “working” (read: playing) in my garden; especially when I get to weed next to the dill. The plants tower over me and the fronds are so soft when they brush against me that I feel safe and watched over. That and they smell so utterly delightful that it always takes me so long to putter through that row that I could be accused of loitering!
- I love having in depth, intelligent conversations about Spirituality; especially with people who have a similar path, but different ideas to share.
- I love seeing my friend glow when talking about her new relationship
- I love watching the giant dragonflies at the farm – their wings are black and white, and make an eye-catching pattern when in motion.
- I love the way my new dress feels – light and airy and cool!
- I love that even though someone else brought banana bread to work on the same day that I did, everyone likes the one that my husband made 10 times more
- I love that Duff (the cat) always comes running out to meet us when we come home, even if we’ve only been gone ten minutes
- I love that the chickens are so protective over their chicks, despite they are no longer cute little balls of fluff and have become gangly, disheveled adolescents
- I love that the frogs and toads have so much to say. When I am near the pond there is a concert going on that I could listen to for hours…
I read recently that late summer/fall to a gardener is like childbirth. If the reality of the pain stayed with you, no one would have any siblings. It the same respect, if one remembered the hot, tedious work of canning/preserving/blanching/freezing garden produce accurately no one would plant a thing…
However, one looks at their beautiful (wrinkly, red and bald) baby with pride and absolute tenderness, obsessively counting fingers and toes. In retrospect, the same sense of pride can be applied when one counts bags of veggies in the freezer and lines of canning jars like little soldiers, carefully turned label front…
This weekend we began the process – we blanched and froze 20 quarts of broccoli. I did not grow any of my own this year (oops! Knew we were forgetting something!) I purchased a bushel from Earl & Alice of Red Manse Farm. They are not only certified organic, but also local, as well as very nice people.
Out of our garden we have barely begun, however, we did blanch and freeze 6 quarts of rainbow chard as well. The nice thing about chard is that it continues to produce all summer and I can selectively harvest so we do not have to put up tons of it at once.
We picked the first of the green beans as well. I did a Roma variety, which cans very well. Unfortunately, we had some geese land in the pond shortly after planting. They nibbled the heads off of all the melons and scratched up almost half of the bush beans. So we only have about 8 plants, which do not produce enough to make it worth my while to haul out the pressure canner and can them. Thus far I froze a quart and left a quart to nibble on during the week. Next year I’ll plant more than 1 row.
So to sum up yesterday we blanch and froze 27 quarts of veg. I highly recommend getting a propane burner for blanching outside. We did most on the porch, which keeps the heat out of the house. Until the tank ran dry – hubby’s on a mission today. We had to finish the chard & beans on the stovetop, which is no fun at all…
I also started up the dehydrator for basil, both Genovese and Purple Opal. The herbs are so prolific that the dehydrator will be on constantly for the next month. Luckily it does not draw on my electricity very significantly; it has been just too humid to air dry herbs lately…
Opps – we also picked a pint of mixed berries to freeze for cereal, yogurt, etc. Wild raspberries, black caps, and blueberries. YUM! And we picked enough “baby” beets for supper last night. (Although some of them were 3 inches across, which some might not call “baby” beets!)
As for the coming weeks – tomatoes galore, squashes look promising, the few carrots that I’ve thinned are straight and sweet, there are several cucumbers that will probably be ready for picking this weekend, and some of the kohlrabi are just about there..
Sunday was a beautiful day to garden, despite (or possibly because of) a slight, misty drizzle. We got a lot done and I am in one of my favorite stages of the garden. It has been consistently harvestable for the past month – lettuces, radishes, beet greens, and peas have filled our table. More recently we have been harvesting Swiss chard, dill, cilantro and two kinds of basil.
However, the more substantial vegetables are just beginning to show promise. The cucumbers and squashes are speckled with brilliant splashes of gold and bronze. (The zucchini is more yellow than green due to the abundance of flowers.) The green beans are covered in delicate white clouds of blossoms, which happen to be my favorite bloom on a vegetable. My very first “real” winter squash of the season (where the blossom has fallen off) is displayed predominantly as a golf ball sized, green striped pumpkin. Baby carrots are sweet and growing straight and the purple kohlrabi is just starting to form its characteristic globe.
Ah, and the tomatoes – they are promising to overwhelm us this year. My mom laughed and told me that 46 plants were a bit ambitious for someone who doesn’t like tomatoes. She is partially right. I hate hot house tomatoes, tasting like soggy cardboard so growing up I never ate them. Now that I grow my own that actually taste like something, now that is another story. I’ll can sauce and salsa, freeze and dehydrate some as well. (Let me tell you, there is nothing tastier than dried tomatoes and cream cheese sprinkled with a little smoked salt on a bagel. MMMMmmmm!) The Brandywines are as tall as I am, the Better Big Boys are fair quality, and the Romas are plentiful. There are a bunch that are going to be a surprise as well, since I took a large quantity of homeless, unidentified plants in the spring…
Hubby tilled under the lettuce, since it has bolted and where the radishes were. The last of the Chinese Redmeat are in my fridge and going fast. I need the space to put in my “fall” crops – more radishes, another crop of lettuce, and fall peas. It was amazing the number of baby tree frogs we had to relocate to avoid being tilled under. If anyone was watching we would have been an amusing sight, leaping and scampering after tiny inch long specks of green (on a matching emerald background of 3 foot tall lettuce!)
I’ll have to remember to take some pictures this week – I keep telling myself I’ll post pictures when everything is tidy enough for my taste. I think that I’ve finally come to the conclusion that it will never be tidy “enough” so to just get over it and do it!
I had the opportunity over the holiday weekend to share an evening with a particularly diverse group of people. In indisputable amity and camaraderie, joined at the table were a retired Lutheran Minister, a burgeoning Episcopalian deacon and the ordained Pagan clergyman that is the hubby (as well as all three wives.)
I found myself extraordinarily appreciative of the company I was in, not just for the friendship but also for the acceptance. All three couples know that we have extensively divergent, yet stanch spiritual beliefs and all the while the mood remained relaxed and agreeable. The Lutheran wife said grace before the meal, a beautiful, respectful and unassuming expression of gratitude for the wonders we all enjoy in this life.
I wish we all could embrace that standard of tolerance, where prayer to the Divine (no matter what you called it) was recognized as an act of love.
I pray to the Universal Divine for you, and I hope you pray to God for me.
What so many do not comprehend is that sentence actually reads: I love you, and I hope that you love me.
Hubby went back to the market today and sold a bunch of radishes and a batch of lettuce. The buyers told him that they are eagerly awaiting tomatoes and cucumbers. I’m pretty excited - I never really thought about selling… Ok, that’s kind of a fib, because I’ve always said that if we lived at the farm and one of us could farm “full time” I would do a garden twice the size and have a real country farm stand. I just never thought about taking the excess from the garden we already have and selling them at market.
Right now we’ve made enough cash to cover about 1/3 of this year’s garden costs. Of course, the real goal of the garden is to grow & preserve enough veg so that we do not have to purchase.
Reasons I grow a garden:
- We save a lot of money (for $150 worth of seeds & plants we get thousands of dollars worth of fresh produce)
- We reduce our carbon footprint by not purchasing vegetables that have travelled to market
- We eat healthier since we do not use any artificial fertilizers or dangerous chemical pesticides
- We eat fresher, since all we have to do is pick what we want, when we want it
- And of course, I like to do it - I get to spend a lot of time outside, feel especially connected to the Earth, and weeding is like meditation to me
However, the idea of selling the excess (because there always is) and recouping the monetary costs that went into making the nice veggies grow… that appeals to the Frugal Fannie inside me! WE shall see where this all takes us…
