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'~~