Gardens End ~ Years End

Hello!  I am still here.  I have my new computer... I am getting used to it....spending a good deal of time with the tedious task of transferring things from the PC to the MAC.  Which creates a great opportunity to consider what I want and what a do not.  A perfect task to be doing at the end of another year.  I haven't taken the time to get my camera software on this computer so in the meantime here is a blog I began in the fall that I never finished.  Another wonderful way to end a year with reflection on the things gone by.  (Plus I am getting used to my keyboard and trying out various heights to see if I need DH to make a custom board to get it just right...ergonomically!)

I barely remember this day of digging.  All this food is now nicely tucked away in the cold room.  Some of it has been eaten.  We are already through nearly half the carrots!  Guess I should plant more next year.  This is the time of year we tend to take stock in all that has passed.  A time for goal setting and getting busy again after all the celebrations.  I have begun my long list of desires.  Hoping not to make my Self crazy with my goals but, to always remember slow and steady fills the pantry.  There can Be times for flurry and time for reflection all mixed together.

It has been a nice and quiet holiday here.  Just the 3 of us enjoying good healthy food and each others company.  I declined most invitations for big parties and listened to my need for quiet.  I feel refreshed rather than drained from this festive time of year.  I hope to continue to improve my inner "hearing" in the new year!

Well, time to get back to the transfer work, year end bookkeeping, garden notes, seed order, Etsy creating, and all the day to day ~ buzz, buzz, busy-ness!  Hope this little blog finds you and yours well.  And if I don't get back "here" before the New Year... Wishing you a Very Happy One!

Simplified & Sustainable Christmas

I decided this year not to have a holiday tree.  This will be the first time in 20 years without the tree.  (can you guess how old my son is?!)  I have never purchased a tree, they have always been wild trees from our land.  I am usually scoping out trees several weeks ahead of time during my daily walks.  This year I didn't find a tree that I wanted to cut down.  So I thought why not just skip it...

For the last several years the tree tradition has been my baby.  DH & Son don't really care one way or the other.  I go out and cut the tree and drag it back to the house.  I need to clear a space in our small home for the tree which involves packing up my little loom and putting my spinning wheel away for the duration.  I do all the decorating, watering, and then take it down when the time comes.  So no tree has been something I have been considering for a number of years.  When my son was young he used to help and enjoy it very much.  In those days we would put an electric train around the tree...it was a lot of fun.  And that is what it is supposed to be about, Fun!  So when my son didn't enjoy it anymore I did it because I wanted too, but not this year. 

But the house wasn't feeling that festive, at least not for me.  

It just so happened that I had made plans with a couple of gal pals to come over and make wreaths. I went out tipping in our woods for balsam fir boughs.  Well, when they came over we got to gabbing, took a snow shoe, then a sauna...time got away from us.  I was left with a big pile of tips.  The an aha moment happened!  Why not make a big garland and decorate it with some cherished ornaments!

Here is how I did it!

First a little explanation on tipping.  It is pretty simple.  If you have balsam fir it is the nicest smelling and the needles are soft.  Spruce is pretty prickly.  Any evergreen will work.  Be sure it is your land or you have permission to tip.  In Maine it is against the law to tip on other folks land without permission.  We have a pretty big wreath industry in this state.  Tipping is sustainable and enjoyable.  You just snap off a few tips from many trees to get your boughs.  The boughs are about 10 to 15 inches long.  You can use pruners but on a cold day they will just snap off.

All you need is some wire on a paddle or spool.  Some pliers to cut the wire and something to wrap the boughs around.  I used a long piece of bailing twine.  Also, I put an old sheet down to catch the needles and keep my table pitch free.  Next just grab a bundle of tips and start wrapping the wire around the tips and twine.

Make several wraps of wire around each bundle of boughs.

I end with a few half hitches around the final bundle with the twine.

 Leave some twine for hang your garland.

I have sturdy beams for hanging.  It is a bit heavy.  Fewer tips would make it lighter.

Then decorate it with some ornaments!

It has been up for over a week and is shedding very few needles.  The few that do fall are easy to sweep up.  It smells great!!  I love going up and putting my face into it  and soaking up the aroma.  When I am finished enjoying it I will be able to wrap it up in an old sheet and dry the needles for balsam fir sachets!  Love a multi tasking task!  

I new tradition has been born!  I love this garland!

All my fussing about didn't even phase Vern one bit

...or...

could it be the new catnip rat I made him?

Wishing You & Yours a Very Happy Holiday Season!  

I am really savoring a simpler celebration this year.  

More time to enjoy the ones I love & just gaze out the window on a beautiful wintery day.

~~~Gratitude~~~ Quiet

 In the small hours after midnight

when things are still and calm

dreams float in the meadow

and the moon drifts o'er the farm

A. Curran

 This quote came to me via a greeting card years ago.  I keep it in my bedroom and especially enjoy it  in the late (early) dark hours of winter.  Winter is not my time to hibernate.  I tend to stay up later and later until it becomes early during this season of darkness.  I need less sleep now that I don't hit the pillow exhausted from my garden work.  More time to read, create, and be.  Just BEing in the quiet is my favorite thing to "do".  Like looking out the window into the world of dark & light or having time to really be aware of the contrasts of the cold outside and warmth by the fire.  Winter is my time of rejuvenation.  I am like an child waiting for Santa to arrive but, my gift is simply winter.   

This reluctant shopper has finally decided to buy her new computer this week.  No more research, thinking, hoping for the sale of the century, procrastinating  because I don't like to spend.  Time to accept that this computer has reached its end....nothing last forever...especially Winter...the best time for me to become comfortable with a new machine.  THEN I hope to be back to regular blogging.  I have new ideas and new directions in mind.  Until ~ SOON!

Hope you are finding time to enjoy this season simply because it is.  

Well wishes of relaxation!

 

~~~

It is my intention, each week, to share something that fills me with Gratitude. 

I write ~~~Gratitude~~~ with the wavy lines to represent the gratitude ENERGY~~~~~! 

I hope you will join me and share your moments of Gratitude. 

~~~Amen, Blessed Be, Namaste'~~

~~~Gratitude~~~ Many Things

This Morning

I know I have been absent, lately.  I am still having equipment issues.  My 2007 Vista with 2MB of RAM computer and my 2011 IPad 2 with IOS 8 (I recommend Not updating an older IPad...too late for me) are not quite up to "speed" with todays computer requirement.  Any day, now, I should be upgrading to the Mac Mini...when I finally decide what I want and face the fact that Apple really doesn't have sales...of course, then this long time PC user of a certain age will be on a little learning curve~~~  That said I will start my list of gratefulness with the fact that I am grateful I am in a position to purchase a new computer!

Winter seems to be here!  What a week!  Last Tuesday the temps reached nearly 60 F!  I was able to clean out the duck house with ease.  I was able to dig my last carrots too!  Carrots that have been in the gound through a few freezes are indescribably delicious!  They are a favorite of one young man I know, who happened to be coming home from college for Thanksgiving!

 I left a few carrots in the ground.  It was a bit of a gamble since the only mulch was their carrot tops and plenty of hunger mice and voles are in the area.  But, each day on my walk I would have Runa patrol the carrot area to hunt for these little subterranean carrot eaters.  "Pay Dirt" on Tuesday!

The last time my hands will be covered with earth in 2014!  I am so grateful for my garden bounty!

I did not need my fork to pull the carrots.  The soil was loose and wonderful from all the fall rains!  But winter is here now.  A sure sign of winter are the nap location chosen by Runa and Vern!

I am so happy to have winter.  Yesterday, I enjoyed my first snowshoe of the season with a couple of gal pals. On the day before Thanksgiving I made a lovely dinner enjoyed by the 3 of us + one good friend of our sons who has been in our life since the kindergarten days.  A real Eagle Scout who honored me and DH with Mentor Pins this fall!  I have warm house, plenty of firewood, a bursting pantry...I live surrounded by beauty and love.  I am very grateful!  I really want for nothing! (well except for the computer up grade...my machine has frozen 5 times while typing this :p )

I will be back to regular blogging.  I really enjoy the process and sharing.  I appreciate your patience...I am learning another level of patience with the current computer configurations.  In the meantime I wish you and yours all the very best!

~~~

It is my intention, each week, to share something that fills me with Gratitude. 

I write ~~~Gratitude~~~ with the wavy lines to represent the gratitude ENERGY~~~~~! 

I hope you will join me and share your moments of Gratitude. 

~~~Amen, Blessed Be, Namaste'~~

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 Finally feels like winter around here!  A nice bit of snow and colder temps has gotten me into high gear when it comes to working on Etsy.  I am photographing and listing like crazy, a bit of making is mixed in as well.  I have created something like a schedule for my Self to keep things flowing and somewhat sane.  I usually put in three 10 to 12 hour days working on Etsy now that the gardening is REALLY done.  On those days I do not cook or clean.  Three days I do a mix of Our life work and fun chilling with the DH Once a week I try to get into town for a swim and a visit with some gal pals and do whatever errands need doing.  Everyday Runa & I get out for a walk.  This is probably the most essential aspect to keeping me grounded.

I know we haven't had Thanksgiving yet...but...if one is a maker of things the Holidays need to come early or one will miss the boat, so to speak.  My own house is still decorated for Thanksgiving and Fall and the mood is excitement around seeing our son when he comes home.  Thanksgiving is my second favorite holiday...Halloween is #1!  Anyways, I ramble and make excuses for what you are about to see...Christmas!

Playing with a New idea which includes Wire and Wool! More HERE

Vintage "UGLY" Sweaters are all the Rage!  What every family gathering needs for a bit of Fun!

Vintage Holiday Goodies HERE

This is REALLY Goofy!

 

New Icicle Garland in the EcoCutie Shop!

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Selling Sea Glass even Now!

Veterans Day ~ PEACE

I have never thought of myself as veteran even though I served in the United States Coast Guard Reserves for 11 years (DH was in for 8).  I served during a relatively conflict free time. I was attracted to the  Coast Guard because it has a very important peacetime mission which includes search and rescue as well as maritime law enforcement.  It would seem that after 11 years I would have stayed until I reach the 20 year mark.  But I made a conscious decision to leave the USCG.  It was during the first Gulf War, Desert Storm.  At the time a lot of Coasties were being called up to go to the Gulf.  I took a hard look at my values and realized I was very much against any war.  We didn't get called up but decided we needed to leave the service as a matter of personal conscience.

Like so many young people I joined the service for economic reasons.  I had wanted to got to college to become a Marine Biologist but that wasn't in the cards for me at the time.  I had intended to be in the active service. I thought my experience in the USCG would be valuable and the GI Bill might pay for college someday.  I flipped a coin with another gal in the recruiters office, I got the reserve billet, she got the active duty one.  After 10 weeks of boot camp and 6 month of active duty my life took another path. Ah youth....

What I really want to talk about on this day of remembrance is just that, remembering.  Although, I am very much anti-war I have nothing but respect and humility towards our all military folks.  So many young people, like my self, choose the military path as a way out of poverty and to gain independence.  It does grieve me that so many have lost their lives or have been damaged in body and soul.  I want us to rememeber with all our strength why we honor this day, not celebrate.  It is because of War.  We send our young and shining future to defend, in my opionion, political ideals.  My greatest hope is that we, as a speices find a way to resolve our differences peacefully.

I had a lot of good times in the USCG.  I had a few struggles and a couple close calls.  I learned a lot about my self.  I learned the value of service.  I still serve my country & my planet with work towards peace and a healthy environment.  On this day I bow my head in humility and pray that we will give peace a chance.  Let us all be called to some sort of peaceful services to all life upon this planet.

~~~ with Love & Light

Still Autumn

Even though we had 'insta-winter" it is still technically autumn.  Though after last weekend I feel it may be time to bid this season of golden light farewell.  The light is changing, the leaves have left, and the gardens are put to bed.  I took these photos in October.  What amazing clouds!  I think October is my favorite month, though, I really don't like to choosing a favorite.  It was a good Autumn.  Now I am ready for a good winter!

Immortal Autumn

BY ARCHIBALD MACLEISH

I speak this poem now with grave and level voice   

In praise of autumn, of the far-horn-winding fall.

I praise the flower-barren fields, the clouds, the tall   

Unanswering branches where the wind makes sullen noise.

I praise the fall: it is the human season.

                                                                  Now

No more the foreign sun does meddle at our earth,   

Enforce the green and bring the fallow land to birth,   

Nor winter yet weigh all with silence the pine bough,

But now in autumn with the black and outcast crows   

Share we the spacious world: the whispering year is gone:   

There is more room to live now: the once secret dawn   

Comes late by daylight and the dark unguarded goes.

Between the mutinous brave burning of the leaves   

And winter’s covering of our hearts with his deep snow   

We are alone: there are no evening birds: we know   

The naked moon: the tame stars circle at our eaves.

It is the human season. On this sterile air

Do words outcarry breath: the sound goes on and on.   

I hear a dead man’s cry from autumn long since gone.

I cry to you beyond upon this bitter air.

~~Gratitude~~

 There is a saying in Maine, "if you don't like the weather...wait a minute!"  Well, the last several days proved that adage to be true!  It started on Saturday the 1st of November with our first hard frost!  This is one of the latest frosts that I can remember.

I

I got the very last of my garden work done that day.  Liming & leaf mulching the lavender!

The Ducks enjoyed the day even with the frostiness. Good thing because, the next day turned into what I am calling Insta-Winter ......

Sunday started out with a few flakes.  Then the snow really started to pick-up soon followed by the wind.  So I filled the tub and any other water containers I could find.  By late afternoon we had a blizzard on our hands!

View out the sewing room window ~ Buntings at Etsy

Ducks did NOT mind the storm!  We tried to herd them in but they won't go until they were ready...after dark!

These photos don't really show the big blow that happened after dark. Speaking of dark we lost our power at 4:00pm Sunday afternoon.  We didn't get it back until Tuesday evening at 5:00pm.  49 hours without power really made me feel grateful for electricity.  I had plenty of off the grid activities to keep me occupied.  But, the power outage had the affect of discombobulating me.  I just couldn't get organized...so I organized along with a little therapeutic dusting.  I am never a spring cleaner, spring is time to get outside.  But when the weather brings me inside I get the urge to cleanse my nest.  While I was cleaning DH was plowing!

 

 2 days without power makes it pretty easy to reflect on Gratitude.  Grateful for showers, the use of the oven, lights at night.  But, also, grateful for our systems that make a power outage a bit more bearable. We have wood stoves to keep us warm, a generator so I won't lose all my garden goodness from my 2 chest freezers.  And of coarse, I found time to be grateful for all the beauty around me.

Today feels like spring!  The 12+ inches of snow is nearly gone and the temperature is mild.  I am all caught up with the post power outage chores like... since I emptied the refrigerator I might as well clean it.  Now back to Etsy work and blogging.  I am enjoying the shift in the seasons.  It is good to be done in the gardens...though I have to admit I have been looking at the FEDCO tree catalog and thinking about a few things for next year...ahh me!

~~~

It is my intention, each week, to share something that fills me with Gratitude. 

I write ~~~Gratitude~~~ with the wavy lines to represent the gratitude ENERGY~~~~~! 

I hope you will join me and share your moments of Gratitude. 

~~~Amen, Blessed Be, Namaste'~~~