bee creative

there is still more story

She drives me crazy sometimes.  This little one who turns six this month.

She is a destroyer.

But that means opportunities to explore, to create. 

She reminds me to be patient.

She makes me laugh.

She dances.

 

As of this month I have lived in my current house longer than I've lived anywhere in my life.

As of tomorrow, Briar has lived with me for 12 years.

Briar reminds me that there is goodness in the world, there is hope.

Today bee creative turns six.

I still feel like I have more stories to tell. 

hello...

This morning...just before dawn.  A few birds singing...

I had just been listening to "The Last Quiet Places/On Being." 

One of my favorite parts of this interview: 

"Is there something in our ancestor's environment that matches our peak hearing human sensitivity...Birdsong....Why would our ears possibly have evolved so that we could walk in the direction of faint birdsong?  Birdsong is the primary indicator of habitats prosperous to humans. Isn't that amazing?"   Gordon Hempton

Hello birds, I'm so very glad you come to my garden...

happy new year...

11:45 AM 33 F, Winds N 5 MPH Visibility 10 miles and tiny lazy snowflakes...

and primroses blooming in the garden.

Arms attached to the body.

Sunrise 8:03 AM Sunset 4:23 PM

"Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy.  The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world was meant to be celebrated."

Terry Tempest Williams

 

measuring the season

Yesterday as I walked down the hill towards work I had my head down, picking my way carefully as it was so very slick.  It was dark still and I had my flash light on.  Something made me look up...there were two deer behind me, about 10 feet away walking across the street.  Doing the same thing.  Walking carefully.  I stayed long enough to make sure they made it across the street without being startled by a car coming around the corner. 

.....

7:14 AM 39 degrees, overcast, Wind speed NNE 10 MPH, visibility 10 miles Sunrise:  8:01 Sunset:  4:17  The sun came out this afternoon. 

........

Today was the last Farmer's Market for the year. 

Winter squash, swiss chard, pumpkin seeds, raisins, and spices, wrapped in a tortilla.   The raisins are the grapes from my garden.  I've been storing the raisins in the freezer to keep them fresh.  It is hard to dry the grapes enough so they won't rot but not so hard that they become too hard. 

.....

Fourteen and a half inches.  I am aiming for eighteen. 

...........

I finished reading Joanna Macy's book World as Lover, World as Self.  In one of my favorite chapters she discusses our understanding of time...

"We can watch time's rhythm in the breathing of the moment, and sense how its very passage connects us with the past and future moments.  They become to us like unseen guides and companions as we once again reinhabit time." 

 

first snow

"i do not worry if longer nights grow longest; i am not sorry when silence becomes singing"  e.e. cummings

I saw my first snow for the season this week.   I was sitting in the office at work when I heard the most incredible erruption of joy from the preschool classroom...

The snow didn't stay, but it was beautiful for an hour.

Happy Solstice.

the moon and Jupiter?

                            A little something more in the sky tonight to see...

today I celebrate...

Shelf fungi found in the garden

The last rose blooming in the garden... "Green Ice." This a cutting off one of my grandfather's roses. 

The creative process.  Time to read and sew and knit.  "Work is a vehicle for the creation and expression of our deepest values."  Joanna Macy. 

And the last fresh tomato of the year. 

approaching full moon

first leaf

First autumn leaf that told me "pick me up."  The fabric underneath is velvet dyed in the homegrown indigo vat.  It's still wet, dipped twice.  I put it back in again tonight for a long soak (not recommended but that's what I'm doing). 

eleven pieces of of the last two days

This morning...



Equinox fish:





1.  Kale one year after planting.  I want to reread my copy of Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman soon. 

2. Baby Swiss chard planted about a month ago.

3.  Hazelnuts harvested before the squirrel could take them.  Dried in the dehydrator.  The squirrel won't get as many next year...

4.  Drying corn, peppers, and a mixture of carrots, parsley, celery leaf and onion.  I use all these as seasonings for foods throughout the winter. 

5.  I have grapes!  Should be enough to dry some.

6.  Hops harvested before the rain.

7.  Tattered fall crocus.  The sun came out for just a bit this afternoon.

8.  Mending the wool blanket.

9.  Peanut butter cookies!  Recipe here.  Worth making even if you are eating wheat. 

10 Lola makes her nest.  I can hear both dogs snoring at the moment... Time for another cookie.