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I've been trying to check for eggs everyday, anticipating the chickens would start laying again soon. I missed yesterday...
I'll be checking every day now!
Just a little explanation about this...chickens stop laying eggs when the days are short. For them to keep laying you have to supply the light. I don't do this as I feel they deserve the rest.
I think I've been going through a rest period too and am swinging back towards more making. I have lots of ideas I want to explore...
First harvest: a handful of sorrel. There are chives that could be picked too.
One of my favorite projects from this week: honeysuckle lotion. The recipe is from here. (Poppytalk) I didn't add the tea for coloring and of course, I used honeysuckle instead of rose.
A gift from one of my grandmothers: dish towels, cannellini beans, and a crocheted doily (I'm guessing one my great-grandmother made). I've been having a hard time finding dried cannellini beans in my corner of the world and they are one of my favorites. Thank you so much Granny...wish you were here to eat them with me.
New post at bee creative cooking. Warning: I climbed up on my soap box a bit.
Field notes: warm sunny days continue, cold frosty nights. I think peach tree is about to bloom. Has me worried. Might need to cover a few fruit trees at night.
And an afternoon spent in the garden.
The Kaufmania tulips and crocus have started to bloom.
I'm not the only one excited by this, so are the slugs.
I can't walk by the display at the grocery store without bringing another primrose home.
I may regret this...but I planted peas today. I don't bother soaking them any more before planting. It will rain enough to soften them up.
I will be like Wendell Berry,
"I have planted by the stars in defiance of the experts and tilled somewhat by incantation and singing."
Lola spent the afternoon in the garden too. And now she's stolen the cat's preferred spot for her nap.
Just so Hazel won't feel left out...
field notes: sunny after days of rain, warm during the day and cold at night.
I opened the door for Lola at just the right moment.
A break in the rain and the little birds were singing.
I have never quite figured out what these little birds are, but I love them for their smallness. I love how the burst mode on the camera has caught one flying off.
The process of making is about small things right now. Just a moment here and there. Sticking to the promise I made to myself to make something everyday.
There are times when I might continue further but then either Lola or Hazel or both decide they want attention and so I pause.
Pausing is important and I have been doing a lot of that lately.
Yesterday I worked on my mitten and listened to an interview with Mary Oliver (On Being) and was reminded,
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
And captivated by a fragment from her poem "Franz Marc's Blue Horses,"
"Maybe the desire to make something beautiful is the piece of God that is inside us..."
I love that in addition to the interview with Mary Oliver there is the post with Renate Hiller on handwork. This one, it was good to listen to it again.
And then today, at a lecture, the speaker quoted Einstein:
"Play is the highest form of research."
What do I want to do? I want to play, to make things, to cherish what is small and wild.
Friday was glorious and I took the long way home...
It's back to gray and rain, but their are still wavy tangled lines to be found.
Starting over because sometimes that's just what you have to do.