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

Mother's Day

Something magical about this day, I have to admit.

I try to not buy into the "Hallmark Holidays" (Valentines day, Secretaries day, Grandparents day, Pet day) Holidays that I feel were made up to generate overly-priced card and flower sales. But Mother's Day? Yes - I'll take it! Not for the Hallmark cards and store bought flowers - but for the simplest moments of love and grace. 

Some moments I want to remember today: 

Norah waking up at 3am (thinking it was morning) and asking me as she sleepily heads down stairs 'Mommy, are you hungry yet?"  

Norah waking up at 6am and asking me "Mommy, are you hungry yet?"

Eating my blueberry muffin in bed at 6:04am with Norah snuggling by my side

Homemade cards made with love 

Lots of hugs and kisses 

A sunny, warm morning - forsythias in bloom!

Coffe on my porch in the spring sunshine

A phone call to my mama

 French toast made by Caleb with butter and warm maple syrup

A Skype session with Emma (far away in Potsdam)

Lots of help in my gardens - with more hugs and kisses

A mud pie 

A walk with Norah picking dandelions

Beehives!  

(Not really part of my mother's day gift - but delightful just the same)

Flowers from a friend who biked up the hill today

An amazing and satisfying dinner made by my husband 

Enjoyed with family close (and friend)

Sitting on the porch at sunset, listening to bobolinks singing their funny R2D2 song and watching them joyfully swoop in the field 

And look at this! The hills are turning green again - spring is here to stay!

Small moments, yes. A string of moments that make up a day. This space, this blog, gives me an opportunity to absorb and assimilate some of these small moments, lest I forget. It's like sitting in a rocking chair on the porch at the end of the day - any day! - when all the work is done. Reflecting on all of the little gifts you've been given without expectation. Receiving them. Saying thank you. 

"Journal-keepers are creating a life-long record of their encounters. The habit of granting each day its singularity lays the groundwork for seeing into the hidden seasons, and seasons-within-seasons. The seasons, and thousands of other things that move us, reveal themselves in unmeasurable phenomena, like Thoreau’s “sheeny light” on the bent grass in the meadows."

Today was a good day

Lest I forget.

~ j

Right now  I am:

-Listening to the rain and the first distant thunderstorm of the season.

- Happy to have the windows wide open - to have slept last night to a symphony of peepers, coyotes and wind.

- Enjoying the field of green I see outside my window. 

- Loving this Wyeth-esque view from an upstairs window.

- Wearing my first summer dress of the year.

- Smelling the corn muffins Norah is baking (made them all by herself!)- and thinking about how good they will taste with some mint tea.

- Noticing how pretty those eggs in my egg basket are - in abundance now that the days are longer!

- Enjoying this Mother's Day gift made of construction paper, Elmers Glue, and 2nd grade sweetness.

- Realizing my construction paper and Elmers Glue Mother's Day gifts will be coming to an end in a couple of years.

- Remembering all the mommies in my life: the amazing circle of woman whom I learn from and lean on and am inspired by every day.  

- Thinking about my own mama - my grandmothers, and great-grandmothers, and great-great grandmothers.

 -Grateful that they loved and brought me here.

~ j

   

Things are growing around here.

Our garden plot has been tilled and we optimistically planted the first of our spring seeds on a chilly grey day in the still-cool earth. 

In a few months this empty plot of land will be filled with a jungle of green: plants and weeds alike will be fighting for space to live, and we will (with any luck) be spending a lot of our time tending to this little patch of earth.

The seedlings we planted indoors last month have begun to look like the plants they are - peas, tomatoes, basil, zinnias, onions are all awaiting their time to be put in the earth (when it becomes just a little warmer ;) )  

Our chicks arrived in early April:

And now, 4 weeks later:

Change is all around me - daily -

 as the earth shifts before my eyes from white

- to brown 

- to green.  

Color popping out of the earth and sky like jewels.

Here's to all things growing.

~ j