A walk in June

A Summer Day

"I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?"

~ Mary Oliver

~ j

Goats

Where do I begin?  
It has been quite an adventure with these three.  
Exploring adequate fencing, 
(we've had numerous escapes - putting my Tiger Lilies in grave danger)
trying to figure out feeding, 
getting used to the routine involved of tending to them twice a day.  

It has been altogether a quiet and pleasant event, the milking of Mama. 

Our milking stand is outside since there is no room in the small

 barn for anything other than 3 goats.

 I russel the kids into the barn with their bucket of feed, close the door and bring Mama Ethel onto the stand with her bucket of feed. 

This is quite the process: 

involving loud and chaotic "Maaing", 

jumping goats, 

and the pulling of baby goats off of me... 

...but once settled in Mama eats contentedly, 

and I can milk her.  

Goat tending is a work in progress - 

They came to us from a farm where 2 lifetime dairy 

farmers were their caretakers.  

 So I do appreciate their patience with us.

~ j

June is here.  The busyness of this month provides little time for writing. 

But a lot of good work! 

The garden is growing. I am the weeder. 
So I have been weeding. 

But weeding is work I enjoy! 

A friend of mine told me it's a power trip thing (and she is a farmer, so she would know!): deciding which plants stay and which go. Removing the roots with one fell pull, never to be heard from again! 

There is something oh-so-satisfiying about a freshly weeded row of veggies. Putting everything in order. 
Tidying up.

That empty plot of dirt has become green with growing things. 

Yummy things!

We have been enjoying fresh lettuces, chives, arugula, mizzuna, herbs. 

Nothing better, I tell you, then going out to the garden with a basket and picking your dinner. 

Coming up: peas, beans, beets, carrots, cukes, taters, squashes, pumpkins, corn, tomatoes, onions oh my!

How does your garden grow?

~ j

Tending... it's a lovely way to spend a day really. 

  A rhythm rising out of the day that feels comfortable and authentic. 

We tend to each other, to the land around us, and the gardens we hope to grow. We tend to the small group of critters who share this space with us. 

Tending feels differently from "doing chores" or "taking care of responsibilities".  It is an action that is softer than that because it comes from the heart.  Woven into the act of tending is the energy of nurturing and cherishing.  Reverence.

I find that within this daily tending are gifts.

~ connection to the people, the animals and the land around me

~ connection to a rhythm to my days that bring me peace 

~ bearing witness to what is happening around me day to day, month to month, season to season 

To bear witness to these changes is humbling and joyful. Because next week it will all change again. And the week after that it will change again.

An unfolding.  Forever in flux.

And so I notice: the new blossom, the new leaf, the movement of the sun across the sky, the seed turning to plant, the little girl whose pigtails will surely be gone this time next week:

And of course I remember to take time every day to tend to myself.

A deep breath, a moment of beauty, a stretch in the sun at the end of the day:

What are you tending to today?

~ j