Monday, October 14, 2013

~~~Gratitude~~~


Ah me, I so wanted to make this Gratitude post yesterday.  Well, a standing computer desk has its drawbacks....like being too tired to stand after 2 days of work!  I have wanted to blog more...lots of stories dance in my head as I go about my work.  Reflecting back to the beginning of this blog I realized I started it on October 30th a year ago.  That was after my garden sabbatical summer.  So I guess I will cut my self a break!  (Also~~~distracted by a visit from UMO boy this weekend!  Very nice bit of family time...when he wasn't visiting his girl friend ;)

It has/is being an amazingly mild autumn so far.  We have only had the lightest of frosts.  This will be the latest frost since I have been keeping records here which started in 1991!  Could let things stay outside but at some point one just has to go for it and get a big bunch of work done.  We really like to have most of the outside work finished before the local fashion statement is HUNTER orange.  So this is what we did this weekend....



Before


After


Beets, Leeks, and Rutabagas are in the cold room.  I still need to harvest my carrots but I like to pack them in leaves.  The leaves are still on the trees!  Got going on the Garlic planting today...hope to finish tomorrow...then giving the boyo a ride back up North.  The thought of North makes me long for winter winds and snow....I am grateful that most of the fall tasks are complete.  I am grateful that I love winter.







Mary Oliver (1935 - Present)
Fall Song
Another year gone, leaving everywhere
its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves,

the uneaten fruits crumbling damply
in the shadows, unmattering back

from the particular island
of this summer, this NOW, that now is nowhere

except underfoot, moldering
in that black subterranean castle

of unobservable mysteries - roots and sealed seeds
and the wanderings of water. This

I try to remember when time's measure
painfully chafes, for instance when autumn

flares out at the last, boisterous and like us longing
to stay - how everything lives, shifting

from one bright vision to another, forever
in these momentary pastures.



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'~~~

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Shadows


Now is the time of shadows.  The summer fades and winter is at our doorstep.  So funny how the mind works.  I do not realize how fully present I am until I reminisce.  This how my garden is now...
  
Spring, did it ever really happen?

So neat and tidy...full of potential...

and growth...


just a shadowy reflections in my mind

Leaf golden orange,
Fell slowly and lightly down,
Shadows hug, let go.
Copyright 2013 Brenda Davis Harsham


Thursday, October 3, 2013

PAUSE & SEE



I am wicked busy.....

We are in the midst of a glorious bit of weather...so yesterday morning I could not resist a walk in the woods...the first in quite awhile.  Now that it is fall and the biting bugs are nearly gone and a sunny day doesn't mean humid heat, the woods are irresistible!




I was just enjoying the lovely sights~~~mossy logs, my little favorite spot by the run-off stream, and interesting little fungi!



I came upon this old birch stump covered in fungus~~~Beautiful!  I remembered the first blog I wrote looking through a curl of birch....


...when out of the corner of my eye I saw what looked like a white puffball mushroom....????


...but it was not!


...it was a hard boiled duck egg!!! 

A few days ago I had 3 cooked eggs that were a bit past their prime, so I put them out on the edge of the woods hoping someone would enjoy them.  They were gone the next day.  Someone is stashing this one for later!


I covered it back up and left it alone...I haven't been back today to see if it is still there...I am wicked busy....

wonder who?  Raven?

and a poem....

Forest Walk

BY KRISTINE O'CONNELL GEORGE
I’m practicing my
         I-belong-here
         no-twig-snap
         no-leaf-rustle
         no-branch-crack
         see-all, know-all
         float-like-fog
         like-smoke
         pine-needle-soft
         forest walk. 
No one will know I’m coming.
No one will know when I’m gone.




This a regular feature I plan to include in this blog.  I try to see something new each day.  It is part of my practice in "seeing".  The art of seeing is essential to any creative work in my humble opinion.  My favorites are the ones that stop me in my tracks!  Like so many folks I have a very busy mind that I struggle to quiet.  But by creating this practice it has given me many opportunities to pause and be with a new wonder.  I love to wonder about wonders.  These little seeings can be just the jolt my creative process needs to get out of a rut.  But mostly they provide a pause which is that moment of peace I need to heal from a frustration. These seeings are grounding for me and bring me to the present.  I will admit to laughing out loud with joy over some of these discoveries. They are a moment of childlike wonder!  

"When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky"             ~~~Buddha

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Slow & Steady


Autumn, my busiest time of year, made more so this year with all the changes around these parts.  I am hoping I have finally found my footing again and will be back to the blogosphere on a more regular basis.  So here is a little...or not so little photo journal walk through of what has been going on and keeping me more than just occupied!


If you are a follower you know my biggest change is that my one and only son has gone off to college...nearly a month has passed.  There is very little communication from the boyo...I always say~"No News is Good News" and in this case it is, he is getting all A's, making friends and when a message comes it says, "I love college, it is awesome!" What more can a mother ask?  

But we, his Dad and I, needed some sort of closure, I guess?  So we rehabbed the teen tower or The Owl's Nest as we call it. It is the cool attic room that gave our son privacy in our open floor plan house.  We told ourselves that we would use his room to practice laying a cork floating floor that we plan to put in other parts of our house.


This is the truth but, the deeper truth is that we did feel some sort of transition had transpired when we completed the job.  It is all ready for his first visit home...nicer than ever!

That was Labor Day weekend!  Your supposed to labor, right?  Next was my husbands 2 week "vacation".  Now that the teen who needed long showers had departed we embarked on a long planned bathroom rehab.  (we have been collecting materials for months...my husbands job allows for a super discount on the supplies making it affordable for us...we always say...half the job is getting the materials here!)




Some vacation!  It was good.  We ARE project people.  But this shower job has been stretching us to the edge of our DIY skills.  Each morning was spent watching YouTube videos of that days tasks.  In the beginning there were a few Pandora's Boxes...and some swearing at the people who built this house...oh yeah...US!   When we finally figured out one of the studs was a 2 x 3 instead of a 2 x 4 things went more smoothly. (20 years ago we must have been short a stud...never thinking we would open this wall again...)  

We did have some fun during the 2 weeks.  We visited some friends that included a nice drive to the east.  We tried to stop working early and just relax here at our bit o' paradise. One night we had a fun campfire.  There were "fun" trips to the Home Improvement Centers.  We went to the Common Ground Fair...first time in 3 years...even though it is only 7 miles away!

Then the night before the installation of the waterproofing membrane for the shower, I got a scratchy throat.  I managed to do my part the next day but it was downhill from there.  I did all my holistic voodoo magic healing and I still ended up with a very bad cold or a weak flu.  Time to quiet down.  Gratefully, my DH did not get as sick as I did...He did all the voodoo before he had any symptoms!


Took my cues  from Vern and Runa~~~rest & relax. (contents of the coat closet were on the couch for a week in order to access plumbing---Vern did not seem to mind)




I am still coughing a bit & sleeping is my favorite activity.  Slow and Steady is my motto as I plod through the work that needs doing.  Autumn is beautiful and glorious but, all the work makes me crave winter and the leisure it brings to my life.



I stacked half the wood you see here (half of that today)  Usually, I stack it all but, I was sick.  Only the smaller cookstove wood to go then move on to finishing the harvest and  putting the gardens to bed.


There is Etsy work that is on going too.  I am not in any sort of panic or anxiety over the tasks ahead.  I have circled the years enough times that I know I will somehow manage to get it all done or just forget about what didn't get finished.

I wrote a new list today circling it with my turtle icons to remind me of my Autumn motto.  

Sunday, September 15, 2013

~~~Gratitude~~~



Today's GRATITUDE will be quick!

This is the beginning of week 2 of my husbands vacation and we are taking a day off today...much needed!  
So this is what we did in a week.....





There were countless pandora's boxes and cursing the people who built this house...oh yeah us!!!  Anyways, our almost 34 year marriage survived the week...actually was mostly enjoyable!  So I am grateful for all of the above!


Now for a day of R & R before we tackle the next week!

(I may need a vacation after his vacation!)


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'~~~

Monday, September 9, 2013

***Tuesday's Tip***



I made a wicked good cucumber pickle relish this past week!  I will share my recipe...but first...I stumbled upon the greatest idea I have had in a loooooong time.  I am very excited about it....but prepare yourself....it is unusual and a bit on the goofy side.

I make my relish with a nice quantity of my homegrown onions.  Onions are a key ingredient.  Grating my very strong Copra Onions can be quite a task...unless you really need a a good cry and even though my son just went off to college I was in no mood for tears!  I started to grate them up for the relish then the suffering began.  Tears were flowing, I had to step away to catch my breath.  I thought, I could really use a pair of goggles...then I remembered I had some!!!





My New Swim Mask and Snorkel!  They worked like a charm, not another tear was shed and the grating was finished lickety-split!  I will definitely do this again....I have a few other onion heavy recipes where this would work wonders!



ME!  VERY HAPPY!!!

MY SWEET CUCUMBER RELISH ~ mask and snorkel highly recommended!

Makes 19 - 20 half pints (I never feel making small batches is worthwhile)

So sterilize your jars ahead of time...I use the sani-cycle on my dishwasher.

12 cups grated cucumbers
5 cups grated onions
4 cups grated sweet pepper (red looks nice)
1 or 2 grated hot peppers...goggles good for this too!
3/4 cup canning salt
2 Tbsp turmeric powder
5 Tbsp dill weed
6 cups organic sugar
2 Tbsp celery seed
3 Tbsp mustard seed
6 cups apple cider vinegar

Combine grated veggies in a large non-reactive bowl (glass or stainless steel) sprinkle with the salt, turmeric, & 3 tbsp of dill weed.  Cover with cold water and 2 trays of ice. Let stand for 2 hours.

Drain Veggies thoroughly; press out the liquid.  Combine sugar, vinegar, the rest of the dill weed, celery, & mustard seeds in a large stockpot; bring to a boil.  Add drained veggies; simmer for 10 minutes.  Pack hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/4 -inch head space.  Adjust lids.

Process for 10 minutes in boiling water bath canner.

Enjoy!!!





Sunday, September 8, 2013

~~~Gratitude~~~




Well the first week of College has passed.  All is Well!  That is what I am grateful for this week.  All the messages I have received from my boy speak to the awesome-ness of college.  He wrote that everything is great even the classes!  What more could a mother wish for?

Last Friday was the big moving in day.  We got there early enough so we were before the big crowds.  We (his grandparents came too...Dad couldn't get off work) had a leisure time of watching him unpack. It was a beautiful day so we took an enjoyable walk around the campus.




I had thought I would be leaving pretty quickly after getting him settled but, he seemed to want me to stay.  So stay I did.  His Grandparents left but I stayed and waited for his roommate to arrive...a very nice young man and a great match for my boyo...happiness.  After that we had dinner together   During our meal my son received a text from a High school chum that had just arrived.  Suddenly, my kid no longer "needed" me!  I could feel him become restless...so I offered to leave.  After a private hug in the dorm room I left with an arm load of stuff not staying....including me!  As we parted ways I set down my burdens and took out my camera to shot a picture of my son off in the distance...symbolic I thought...


I zoomed in for the next picture.  He turned towards me just as I snapped the photo!  


PERFECT!  I let out a little yelp and did a little happy dance (far enough away as not to embarrass the boy) It was just the perfect end to a perfect day!

I spent a lot of time last night trying to find a poem that expressed how I am feeling.  I AM feeling.  But not in the "traditional" empty nest way.  I have moments of crying but there is NO Story...I have moments of unease still NO story attached to those feelings...I am just feeling.  But, mostly, I am feeling content and happy that the day of transition has come.  We were both over ripe for this change.  So a good day, a good turn down the path of life.

So I will share a poem I wrote in the 12th grade when I was 18.  It was for an assignment in English Class.  We were asked to write about Maturity.  So here it is in my original hand on notebook paper!



Maturity

You start with a seed
it begins to grow.
struggle, struggle
through the dirt.
reaching, grasping
for the sun
roots go deeper
and the seed is now a tree
tall and straight
changing less
...yet some how
still changing
continually growing
the roots go deeper
(it's very hard to move a tree)
But, remember, the tree always 
reaches
for the 
sun




by 

18 year-old self



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'~~~