Letting Go

There is this time every summer that, as a gardener, I just sort of let go.  What can be done is done or it may just be a weariness from all the work.  It is a time for a bit of respite before the harvest and garden clean up are in full swing.  That time is now, especially helped by a heat wave, it has been in the high 80's for days!  I got up before 5:00am this morning and took a walk with Runa, trying to beat the heat.  For the first time in a long while I grabbed my camera.  It has been some time since I came to this blog "place".  It has been a challenging summer.  My son broke his leg in the spring.  There have been many trips back and forth to the college campus.  Surgery, crutches, then complications so more travel for me and times of tension and worry.  Things are, finally, settling down.  The boy is on the mend and so is my psyche!  What has brought me peace during these times besides a supportive partner, is this place on earth.  I have often thought of starting up "here" again but I couldn't come up with a good segway for return.  So the time of "letting go" seems as good as any.  Here is a little photo journal of my dawn stroll with a bit of news from around the land.

The pond has been wonderful this summer!  I took a dip right after my walk.  I jump in everyday sometimes too tired to swim so I just float and look up at the heavens and relax.  The pond is quieter too.  We found a new home for our ducks so one less chore and little more freedom to travel.

A couple of photos of the "let go garden".  Plenty of dill!  Dilly beans will be processed soon!

A rare Vern sighting.  Except for meal time we hardly ever see him.  He is off on his own adventures these days.  Runa is my ever present companion!  Here she is begging for a bean.  She is such a lovely creature.  I am very grateful for her friendship.

 Still battling the beetles.  But they aren't making me so mentally crazy this year.  I sort of enjoy my evening of beetle collecting.  I might not be motivated to get outside around 8:00pm if I didn't have the beetles...who knows?

My favorite kind of flower is the one that creates a vegetable and can be tilled under in the fall!  This is a Long Pie Pumpkin flower surrounded by crimson clover.

A new experiment this year is letting a friend have a garden spot here.  It has been a very nice addition.  I have learned a thing or two from this beginner gardener.  Like I might not need to do quite as much work to get a good harvest.  Her garden is producing well even with being "neglected" more than my patches!

Well I have found my path back.  I will try to show up a bit more often.  All is Well~
wishing the same for you~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~My Lively Life~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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"Be Joyful because it is humanly possible"~~~Wendell Berry

Hello Spring!

FINALLY!  We have an emerging spring!  The ducks are able to make it over the snow to the big pond.  The phoebes have returned with their lovely buzzy name calling.  I saw a Gyrfalcon yesterday, a fairly rare bird in these parts.    Runa found a Long-Tailed Weasel swimming in our pond.  After she pestered it for 20 minutes it finally escaped the pond and I hope decides this is not the place to raise a family!  It is so exciting to be moving more freely about, outside.  I am trying to spend as much time in the sun as I can....before the bugs arrive.  Some folks call this mud season, and yes, there is plenty of delightful mud, but I call it pre-bug season!

This is the pond yesterday...

...and today...pretty sure ice will be out by tomorrow!

though we still have ice on the morning puddles...

1st time in 2015 the laundry is outside!

Vern & Runa enjoying spring :)

Today

BY BILLY COLLINS

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,

so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw

open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,

indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths

and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight

that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight

on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants

from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,

holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,

well, today is just that kind of day.

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~~~ 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'~~

---Shop News--- SNOW!

Last night we were blessed with a good old Nor'Easter.  I was busy working all day on my Etsy work.  This week I am focusing on the InJoyEmporium  Shop.  I focus on one shop a week, this helps me to be more productive and not too scattered.  Tuesdays & Thursdays I try to put in 12 to 15 hour days.  I actually do my best work in long sessions.  But since there was the storm I knocked off early...8:00 PM and took time to just enjoy the storm!  Runa & I sat in bed and just looked out the window. We were entertained by the feeling of being in a big gigantic snow globe!

Ok! Back to work!  That is what I say aloud whenever I get distracted by non-Etsy work on my Etsy work days...the trials of working from home!  But here are a few of the Emporium tasks I was able to get to this week.....

Emporium weeks I make sure to have time to weave.  I have made some nice progress at the Baby Wolf weaving this undulating twill table runner.  It always feels good to weave!

Finally, getting a big batch of Peace Flags done for the shop.  I had a bunch and they sold out!  This is one of my little ways of giving.  I donate $5.00 to The Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights for each Peace Flag sold.  Coming Soon!

And, of course, my weekly treasury!  Could not help but to celebrate winter and my MaineTeam!

....and Oh Yeah....Valentine's Day...Happy Happiness!     Maine Snow Love

And Finally...some cute cat pictures....how Verns spends a snowy day...

 Thought I could keep this couch tidy after the boyo went to college...

it has become Vern's sofa now!

Think Vern is sticking his tongue out at winter?

He did manage to switch directions~!