Thoughts of Peace

"A Dream: After the 3rd World Was was over there was no more than a handful of people left alive, & the earth was in ruins. The survivors decided to meet to talk over their problems & to make lasting peace. There were 83 countries & each country sent a delegate to the convention. Each delgate brought the flag of his homeland, except the delegate of China. He produced a shoe box, from which he drew a living flower." "That," he said, "is a wild flag (Iris Tectorum). In China we have decided to adopt this flag, since it is a convenient & universal device & a very beautiful and grows everywhere in the moist places of the earth for all to observe & wonder at. I propose all countries adopt it, so that it will be impossible for us to insult each others flag...."    E. B. White, The New Yorker, December 25, 1943

Letterpress Print by A Revolutionary Press, Harborside Maine

The Irises here are at their peak. My friend John of "A Revolutionary Press" introduced me to this work by E.B. White last year.  A wonderful peaceful thought after a busy and tiring day.  All of these irises came from a little clump that was given to me 20 years ago.  I keep dividing them and dividing them....only, wish peace was as easy and prolific in the world.....  Well, just didn't want the irises to go by without sharing.  Peace to YOU! 

P.S. Took my first real swim today...4 laps!

***Tuesday's Tip***

It is such a busy time of year here at Gratitude Gardens (that is what I call my "farm")  I always wish to blog more.  I really do enjoy sharing with my readers!    The best way I get things done is to set up a schedule of sorts.  I have Sunday Gratitudes which I am happy to say, I have not missed a Sunday since I made that commitment with my Self!  I am getting going with Friday Etsy Shops News...which is something else that keeps me off the streets at night...4 Etsy Shops now...but more on that this Friday.  

As a manic maker I have plenty of ideas and projects I would like to share.  So I am starting...

<<<Tuesday's Tips>>>

With this "commitment" I can start getting all my ideas off those little scraps of paper that are floating about and let them start world wide webbing!  So for today something super easy, beautiful, and delicious 

                                    ~~~Chive Flower Vinegar~~~

Step One:

After you are done being distracted by all the beautiful butterflies, collect some chive blossoms.

Chive plants are super easy to grow.  They are perennials that grow nicely from seeds or find someone that has a clump and ask for a shovel full.  They handle division quite well!   My lovely row was started from seeds I saved, then I just divide each year to make the row longer.  Besides being yummy they are loved by pollinators.  That is why I grow so many...Easy, Bees, & Butterflies!  

Oh Yeah, collecting flowers.  I just pop them off in my hand.  But you could use scissors as well.

What you need includes: Clean Glass Bottles or Jars.  I run mine through the sani-cycle on my dishwasher.  White Vinegar is preferred to a brown vinegar.

Loosely fill the jars with Chive Flowers.  I do not wash the flowers.  They are grown organically.  I figure between clean jars and vinegar things are clean enough. (but I will eat a carrot right out of the garden that has only been cleaned by wiping it on my pants...)  If you want to wash the flowers do it gently and dry them thoroughly. 

NEXT:  Fill the jars with vinegar....then wait a week.......

Voila! Beautiful Pink Vinegar!

Some folks strain out the flowers, but I leave them in until they have completely faded.  They make wonderful hostess gifts (I have given away 3 bottles, already!)!  The vinegar has a nice chive-lively flavor

Of course, butterfly distraction = Haiku Thoughts

but if I held it...could I touch

the lightness of this

flutter butterfly?

buson

  https://www.etsy.com/listing/95136957/yellow-green-wedding-favor-wall-hanging?ref=shop_home_active

From My www.injoyemporium.etsy.com Shop

~~~Gratitude~~~

Today's Gratitude is Dedicated to the One Who Loves Turtles!

The Guy that did ALL of this...with very little help from me!

Who's Favorite Flower is the Lupine

Who somehow can burn a big pile of brush on a super HOT day!?!?!

The One who bought me this Rhododendron 20 years ago when I used to miss the PNW

The   man who makes all my ideas happen! 

Like a garden sink with a hummingbird feeder outside my kitchen window.

He is like a Genie...my wishes all come true!

To the One who has loved me for 33 years and wears a matching hat!

Happy Father's Day!

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'~~~

---Shop News---

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MzM1ODA4MTN8MjcyNDYwMjQyMA/need-a-little-sunshine

Sunshine has been hit and miss this week in Maine so felt inspired to create a yellow is a jolly fellow treasury!  

All Team Madcap items~~~Because it IS a Madcap World!

Puppets for Sale at www.injoyecocutie.etsy.com

Puppets are made with "eco-fi" felt which is made in the USA 

100% polyester made from 100% recycled post-consumer plastic bottles.

SHOP NEWS ~~~ for In Joy Eco Cutie!  Puppets!

There is a little story around these puppets...of course...always a story!

I love to sew on felt.  It is fuzzy fun!  So what better than fun puppets to create with felt.  My first puppets were gifts for a growing population of nieces and nephews about 30 years ago.  Then later I got involved with a couple of craft coops.  I tried to sell handwoven items (not always easy...but weaving is a true passion www.injoyemporium.etsy.com ) Well, the weaving didn't sell to well.  I added puppets to my items for sale and they sold like crazy!

Decided to create another nephew for the family...stayed home and had my son!  Of course, puppets were a part of his growing up.  We had a lot of fun, even had a puppet theatre.  When my boy started school I became a substitute teacher at his elementary school.  I had a LOT of fun doing that job!  Being a substitute is a lot freer than being a teacher (who I bow to with GREAT respect).  No staff meetings and some allowance for my eccentric "ways".  I had a reputation for dressing like Ms. Frizzle of The Magic School Bus.

Oh yeah...PUPPETS!  I devised a way of getting super wonderful behavior out of a class...usually.  I had my "Super Secret Substitute Teacher Suitcase" an old fashion suitcase filled with PUPPETS and surprise craft supplies.  I would start the day telling the class that every time they worked well together or follow directions they would get a "Good Job" tally on the board.  When a couple were earned they would get to have quick peek in the suitcase.  This would continue throughout the day until the end and the puppets would be released and I allowed a little mayhem to ensue!  Birds and butterflies soaring, fish fights, and flowers in deep conversation!  It was fun and I was loved...all the tasks the teachers left were completed too.

So here is a gallery of the puppets from the suitcase.  Not too shabby even after all that mayhem and rugged play!

Owl & Parrot

Red Wing Blackbird & Kingfisher

Butterfly, Flower, and Rose

Fishy & Rose again...Rosy is my favorite...one will be coming to Etsy soon...cut out but not sewn ...YET!

~~~GRATITUDE~~~

Well folks, it is done, graduation from highschool of my one & only child.  

A new rhythm is about to begin for he and me.

Sort of at a loss for words....

I gave my Self a gift...I listened to this poem 18 times...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EjB7rB3sWc

The Lanyard - Billy Collins

The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother,

but the rueful admission that when she took

the two-tone lanyard from my hand,

I was as sure as a boy could be

that this useless, worthless thing I wove

out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And here is a poem that I wrote...

Subterfuge - Orah 

the house is quiet

as quiet as it can

Be

in the electronic 

age

the clock ticks

it's battery operated 

tick

the refrigerator 

hums

but the house is

quiet

I drink wine

I read a poet that

I love

then a voice 

drifts 

down from the 

attic 

who is he talking to

or with

?

?

I hear his familiar 

voice

but who is this person

I can no longer 

photograph

only with

subterfuge

do I get a picture

of you

now

oh I am photographing the cat

you are near 

it is a coincidence
I just want a picture of a 
cat

Garden Galore!

Since Sunday I have sat at my computer each night and stared at a blank "add a new post" page for this blog.  I have just been too tired to type!  Even though daylight is burning I want to take a few moments to share with you what has been the source of my exhaustion.  So a little trip backwards in time.  The above photo is from this morning of yesterdays work: weeding, thinning reseeding what was washed away by the big rain.  This is the  everything else garden....meaning non-tomato or potato garden...the plot is called the Big Garden.  It was a great day yesterday, sunny but cool and windy so no bugs!

Saturday was WICKED hot but I was determined to get my tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants in the ground.  This is a newish Garden I call Pond View Garden.

This year I am planting most of my tomatoes with plastic.  I would like to get away from plastic for environmental and cost reasons.  So I am experimenting with some tomatoes planted in winter rye as suggested in an Organic Gardening Magazine Article:  http://rodaleinstitute.org/2012/growing-vegetables-with-cover-crop-mulch/  I'll keep you posted how it goes for me here in Maine.

Some of tomato planting "secrets" include adding a scoop of worm castings and eggshells with each plant.  This year I forgot to save my shells but had an overabundance of duck eggs so each tomato got a cracked egg!

I started very early in the morning Saturday in order to beat the heat but since it is a tomato patch it was FULL sun....by 1:00 PM I was done in more ways than one!  The next day I was not well...sun poisoning I call it!  So I stayed inside and puttered about not being very productive.  By Monday I felt much better but still stayed out of the gardens~~we had a nice gentle rain~~perfect!  Fortunately, my seedlings all managed the transplanting just fine despite the heat!  Was blessed with a beautiful sunset on Monday evening!  Back to work now...a "bit" more to do out there before tomorrows rain and this weekend's GRADUATION of my boyo!

~~~Gratitude~~~

a humble bumble

waiting watching ~ arrival!

breath ~ peaceful relief

~

orah

I have to admit I have a little bee arrival anxiety.  With all the bee trouble in the world I get a bit angsty in the late spring when I haven't seen the Bumble Bees yet.  This week they finally appeared!  I am ever so, completely, GRATEFUL for Bees and all the pollinators who make our food possible!! <3

I kept honey bees with my dad when I was a girl.  I lived on the edge of suburbia then.  We had a larger than average yard and in house that was built before the sprawl started to happen.  There was a very large vacant lot across the road for most of my childhood.  It did turn into a subdivision in my teens :(  Anyways, the beehive was one of my favorite places to hang out as a girl.  I would spend hours watching them go in and out of the hive.  It was here I learned that nature was peaceful and had no wish to harm.  You leave us alone, we will leave you alone.  I was never stung while watching the hive even though I sat only inches from their home.

A few year back, before the knowing of Colony Collapse Disorder http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/animals/bees.asp?gclid=CL-wtrHBxbcCFVSe4AodpmYAqAI thought I might take up beekeeping again.  I was worried that my many vegetables and berry plants were not getting enough pollination.  So I started researching and preparing for the endeavour.  (this was before we had the internet) I read books and contacted Cooperative Extension.  This all lead me to a the head Apiarist for the State of Maine.  I got him on the phone to get further advice.  He was a super curmudgeon!  Very gruff with me and wanted to know why I wanted to keep bees anyways!?  Well, I went on about my pollenation worries.  He cut me off and gave me a speech about only those who truly love the art of beekeeping should be beekeepers and the wild pollinators will serve me just fine!  Well! I became more determined than ever to have bees...by golly..who did he think he was...oh yeah the head apiarist..but telling me off...!!?

Meanwhile, I had recently finished the book Behaving As If the God in All Life Mattered by Machaelle Small Wright (see Amazon Link at the side) a book about co-creating with  nature and some of the principles of animal communication. I kept getting "messages" not to keep bees.  Just one stumbling block after another but I still remained determined! Until one morning I awoke from a very vivid dream.  I actually sat bolt upright from my sleep with the vision of the face of a giant bumblebee in my face.  I "heard" "we don't want them (domestic bees) here!  We will take care of your plants!".  I stopped my beekeeping pursuits that day.  When late spring finally came that year I never before or have since seen so many bumblebees in my blueberries!  You can believe me or not!  But, since that day I have believed in animal communication and have taken many more steps to be a co-creative life on this land where I live!  

Speaking of animal communication....

Yesterday morning as I was about to start transplanting my tomato teens...I heard Raven not too far off.  So we did a little back and forth squawking at each other.  I was photographing my planting set up for a future blog when Raven flew right over me and did a little hover flight above me and croaking!  It felt like a very nice howdy do!  Believe it or not...Raven and I are friends!

  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'~~~