---Shop News--- ☼ Forest & Field Happenings ☼ ~~~Gratitude~~~

My life is FULL of random abandoned.  Finding time to be here, blogging, is become more and more difficult.  Abundance calls and garden produce waits for no woman!  Right now as I type I am multi tasking.  I have dinner in the oven with a timer set.  Every few minutes I will be running downstairs to attend to things, then back up here to type a few words.  No complaints, it is amazing how much I can write in 5 minutes!  So my dear reader, please, bear with me during this busy time.  I will be here as much as I can.

 Some Days are like this

&

 Some Days are like this 

In Between all that the laundry needs doing, the meals prepared, before I know it all that wood will need to be brought in for the winter. This week I had just a wee bit of stress around all that needs doing.  The best cure for me from that kind of stress is a very productive day.  I am happy to say yesterday was such a day!  Everything in that wheelbarrow has been dealt with!

My sewing room and Etsy office are in disarray with many projects in progress.  Photos need taking, listing need doing, printing, tagging, bookkeeping....etc, etc, etc!  But I am very grateful, this month already I am averaging a more than a sale a day!!!  I counted up my sales in all 4 shops and they equal over 500 since I started with Esty in January 2012, not too shabby.

I had planned another "productive" day to get me further from my mental angst.  All started well with the reconstruction of my kitchen after yesterdays produce palooza ( got everything dealt with from the wheelbarrow...I didn't say I got the kitchen cleaned up...I am not super woman!)...when a very tall young man, who it still amazes me that he is actually, my child, came to me and asked if I would make lunch and watch a soccer game with him.  I hesitated, feeling that welling rush of stress, then he looked at me with doe eyes and said pleeeease.  He will be off to college in 2 weeks.  I enjoy soccer only because he has schooled me to enjoy it.  Without him I will never watch soccer again.  So lunch was cheese, crackers, cucumbers, tomatoes, and my famous eggplant relish.  We huddled together around his laptop and watched Arsenal barely beat Crystal Palace 2-1.  Good thing since the boyo is an Arsenal man.  And yes he is a man and I am his mother.  These moments are more rare than the perfect, purple, bug free, cauliflower.

~~~GRATITUDE~~~

Rainy and damp with ankle deep lawn....sooooo MUCH to do each day, each moment!

Making time for ducklings many times a day ... just too cute to resist!!

I am multitasking whenever & wherever I can.  Like reading aloud to the duckies.  I have been reading this book for awhile.  I have been having a hard time paying attention to what I read when I go to bed dead dog tired.  So I started reading aloud to my self!  I spent 13 years reading aloud every single day to my son when he was 0-12.  I had forgotten during the teen years how much I enjoyed it!  But now that the boyo is home it is just too weird (for even me) to read aloud within his earshot.  The duck house is warm, private, and with good lighting.  Plus, I can take a moment while contemplating what I have just read and enjoy looking at the quackadoodles.  +++ the duckies are getting used to my voice...and maybe learning something too! ;)

More of the Happenings.....

Duckies having their morning greenies!

Tomatoes in Desperate Need of Planting!

Tomato Structures Put up Yesterday...

....but will need to wait until the grass is mowed!

Clover "Floor" growing in the Sunflower House

First Sunnie Emerges...being eaten by a slug...akkk!

Slug! Prepare to meet your maker!!

Eaten!!

So what I am Grateful for today?  Plenty to do!!!  And a body healthy enough to do it!  

I choose this life and I embrace this life.  I love this life!

Happy LIFE to You too!

It is my intention, each Sunday, 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 gratitude moments. 

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

Everything is Just Duckie!

My sweeties arrived on another grey day in Maine.  They certainly have brightened thing up for me.  More rain on the way for today....I did manage to get 5 loads of laundry dry yesterday...just barely.  Very happy to have this wick cute distraction!

My son got a job at the local grocery store for the summer.  He is working in produce and starts work at 7:00am.  After dropping him off I headed to the post office to pick up my ducklings!

They came in this box via airmail...the only flying these flightless duck will experience.  Home in about 7 minutes...

Here they are soooo cute.  13 ducks ~ they sent a spare.  So the first step is to take them out one by one and dip their bill into the water to be sure they get a drink.  Then they are free to roam about the brooder.

Ok~~ I am a new "mom" so lots of photos.  If these are not enough you can now follow me on Instagram! http://instagram.com/injoyemporium   They are a major distraction!  But I finally left to get some other things done.  But an hour later I came back with some greens.  Chopped dandelion and tender grass.

Duck viewing seats...what can I say?

I also noticed that one duck was acting lethargic.  I picked her up and she had a bit of blood coming out of her vent.  So I separated her from the others but, gave her a little window so she wouldn't feel so distressed by the separation.

Sorry to say she was dead this morning.  Such is the way of things and I am sure plenty die at the hatchery but it does make me a little sad.  I will bury her, funny how that will make me feel better than offering her to the ravens...I didn't mind giving the ravens the vole Runa killed.  We are funny creatures we humans.

I did manage to get some other work done between mooning over the ducks...

Broccoli & Cauliflower Planted ~ Black flies Biting ~ Grass needs Mowing

The Skies cleared a bit in the evening so Runa & I had a little walk.....

~I did sleep well last night~

2 ~ Walk Day

Winter is finally waning.  I celebrated with two walks today.  I am just in from my evening stroll.  It has been a long time since I have gone on an after dinner walk.  It felt absolutely wonderful and relaxing!  I am back to walking on our land so Runa is off leash again.  She enjoyed a romp this morning that included giving chase to the flocks of robins that have returned.  Harder for me to get to the computer these days, just want to soak the sun and above freezing temperatures.  Here is a little photo journal of my close to home journeys...

Ice will be out soon I think!

Water flowing into the pond.

One of my newer gardens heavy on the clay side but will produce amazingly well.
Here is where my garlic is waiting to emerge!

GREEN! I'll take what I can get!

Things to come!

Evening walk...even more snow has melted since morning!

Thaw

Over the land freckled with snow half-thawed
The speculating rooks at their nests cawed
And saw from elm-tops, delicate as flowers of grass,
What we below could not see, Winter pass. 

Edward Thomas

happy walkers
brown preferable to white
my heart is off leash

orah

~~~Gratitude~~~ Spring Thaw?

We decided to celebrate spring yesterday afternoon by helping the thaw along with a campfire!  We made our Selves stop working and just sit a bit and enjoy the wonderful outdoors.  A lot of the time we just sat in quiet together, mesmerized  by the flames and the sound of wind in the trees.  I am grateful that I am with a man that I can be quiet with me.  

Getting the fire going on top of ice!

Still struggling with making meal for 2 middle age folks watching their waistlines.  Realize that leftovers are a new phenomenon in our house.  I am used to cooking for 3 with the third being a growing teen that always looked imploringly at me after each meal...is that all?  (his first bit of communication as a babe was sign language for the word "more" ~ it is rumored that up at college he has 6 meals a day!)  We did enjoy our meal by the fire~ chicken wings, quinoa salad, water, & wine!

A CAMPFIRE

There's something ‘bout a fire and the mesmerizing glow
Of its dancing, flick'ring embers that does enthrall me so
A soft and gentle fire slowly glowing in the night
Soothing, calming, warming. It is such a pure delight

The best time for a fire's when the flames they have died down
And the crackling and the popping all have ceased
All the flurry and the groaning, all the hurry and the churning
All have gone, and now the fire is at peace 

Neil Milliner

It is my intention, each Sunday, (OR another Day)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 gratitude moments. 

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