Life is good.

Raindrops

My lawnmower and manure spreader...

Mullein and melted snow...

Spiral herb garden made for me with love by my love...

Garlic

Over wintered leeks and the very last of the mache, grown and eaten all winter long in an unheated cold frame covered in two extra layers of plastic.

I snapped this picture of two sleeping girls through our wavy, 150 year old window...  looks dreamy.  

Ah, sleeping late is such a guilty pleasure...

Peace.

"All Struggle is Not Loss."

"There is no one who does not have to choose sometime, someway, between giving up and growing stronger as they go along.  And yet if we give up in the midst of struggle, we never find out what the struggle would have given us in the end.  If we decide to endure it to the end, we come out of it changed by the doing of it.  It is a risk of mammoth proportions.  We dare the development of the self.... Life forges us in struggle... all struggle is not destructive... it is not struggle that defeats us, it is our failure to struggle that depletes the human spirit.... Struggle is part of life.  In fact, struggle is an unavoidable part of life.  It comes with birth and it takes its toll at every stage of development.  In each of them we strive for something new at the price of something gained.  We tussle between the dark and the daylight moments of the soul.  If we stop struggling, we may die.  But if we struggle and lose, we stand to die as well.  So how are we to think of struggle?  Is it loss or is it gain?....    Life itself is the answer..... No other dimension of life can possibly offer it because no other process in life requires so much so deeply of us. Struggle bores down into the deepest part of the human soul.... bringing new life... The problem is that struggle requires the most of us just when we expect it least."

Scarred by Struggle, Transformed by Hope by Joan D. Chittister

Earth Anthem

Last night we went to a wonderful, pre-Earth Day performance by Kathy Lowe.  She sang songs and we created some amazing music right here in our own little town.  We came together to honor mother earth and rejoice in our communal energy.  We were all so connected by this beautiful, vibrant expression of our love for the earth.  We ended the evening by singing an anthem, the tune is our national anthem, but the words....

Earth Anthem

O say can we see

By the one light in all

Our Earth to embrace

At the call of all nations

Where our children can play

In a world without war

Where we stand hand in hand

In the grace of creation

Where the rivers run clean

Through the forest of green

Where the cities stand tall

In the clear skies of freedom

O say do our hearts sing

for harmony and love forever

on the planet of our birth

blessed with peace on Earth

Words by Stephen Longfellow

I thought it was lovely.  The entire evening had the same vibe for me as the Iron Eyes Cody pollution commercials of my youth.   They need to show commercials like that again, they propelled me to want to change my world....  We need that energy in the big world now, not more offshore drilling!

http://www.woodshades.com/KathyLowe.html

Spring is here...

Early visitors...

When the ground thaws the earth releases its treasures....  Mica!  I am a little obsessed with the hunt for it on the dirt road outside of the house.  Every time it rains I find more... it reminds me of searching for shells on the beach.

My neighbor gave me this beautiful rock full of mica as a get well gift after my surgery last year.  It was better than a bouquet of flowers.

She is waving hello...

I know farmers should chase the mice out of the barn, but we found this little creature stuck in the bottom of a bucket, dehydrated and dying...  My son and I had to help her.  So, while he cheered me on, I force fed her some water soaked bread and within an hour she was back...   

Of course we had to take her back in the barn when she was better, she might have had friends and family worrying about her...   Now that spring is here I am finding plenty evidence of them... they are still here.  Oh well, I guess it was the hand fulls of corn I left all winter just in case....silly me.

It's a time of rebirth

We woke to the sound of dueling wood peckers on the trees outside of our window.  I watched patches of grass grow before my very eyes yesterday.  The sun was out, the sky was clear and it was warm, like spring.  I planted peas and radishes...  

Hope your weekend is relaxing and peaceful....