Slow Morning

This morning is not slow because of anything but me.  The sun is stirring up the birds, the sky is clear, the wind is still from the SE and the chickens are out checking for something.  But me,  I am energized in my head but my arms and legs are saying, 'Slow is good.'  When I walk around a little more parts will get more interested in activity. 

I do have a great day planned!  I am going to assemble another section of fence. [The old fence between my neighbor and I didn't match the property line.  So I am remaking it. ]  Yesterday the little boy she is babysitting came wandering over. So I am really motivated to get it finished.  Also I am going to paint the last section of my new woodshop.  I don't know why but I am getting my first woodshop and I will have it ready for my 65th birthday.  I guess life is like that, dreams sometimes have to wait.  Oh then I am going to go through my old potting trays from last year. I am getting ready to move my 2" transplants to the 4" pots.  I still have to keep the seedling trays inside the house and studio.  I have a new small greenhouse but it gets around freezing every night. By next week I will start to move plants out there. It should be warmer by then. So three things today; paint, fence and clean greenhouse trays. 

This is a good day.  I think that before I start I will walk up on the hill. There are Mayflowers starting to carpet the forest floor.  The buds are opening and Spring is starting.

Earth Day Gathering

This weekend my family came to Talk, connect, and do things together on the land.  We met for a noon potluck in the studio and then spread out to start worm compost boxes, exchange seedlings and walk up to the woods on the hill.  Little snippets of conversation mean a lot.  Watching the grandkids run and laugh and climb trees makes a heart warm even on a cold raw day.  At least the rains stopped for a while.  I was tired because I was Spring cleaning for two days. But I was smart enough to let everyone lead and be in conversation.  I didn't try to make the day be all about me.  It is all about them.  We all have so much goodness and creativity.  The day is about the Earth and about us too.   

Then last night it rained again and off and on today too.  The land needs it. The water will pull the cold out of the ground and  awaken the plants and trees.  The grass is getting green and the trees are budding.  It is cold and raw but Spring is starting.

Snow to Sunshine

This morning the snow was covering the ground, the sky was gray and the day looked dark.  Well, I planned to do a favor for a friend so that all didn't matter so much. We were off to the city to get photo equipment checked. My partner is assembling a quilt in the ArkStudio with her day of solitude. 

When I got home the weather was sunny and very windy.  It didn't seem like the same day.  The wind had damaged the hoop house.  but I got it back together again. I think I left the doorway open and created a parachute. So that problem is solved.  Now another one,  some chicken is eating the eggs in the coop.   How do you find out which one is doing it? I'll try 2 or 3 visits a day for a while to see if I can see anything.  I am so glad to be home.  The tension is creeping out of my arms and the hill looks beautiful.

April 20 Snow Flurries

We have had a week of thawing weather, with temperatures in the 50's and 60's.  Now it is back, snowy rain and foggy gray skies.  So I dressed warm and  got going.   The birds were all over. The ground is just thawing and they were checking everywhere for seeds, worm, grass and bugs.  I could hear geese and cranes flying in the fog. They were close but I couldn't see them.  I cleaned up two piles of wood chip around my much smaller wood pile and spread them along the fence line. It was muddy and wet working outside so I switched to the Rainy Day list. Things to do when I have to be in. Painting in the woodshop came up number 1. My tools and saws and boxes of nails & stuff got moved into a mound when a carpenter came over to insulate my metal pole building. So that job got done and now I have walls of 4x8 plywood.  So I started painting.  I hung a plastic sheet over the doorway so the heat would stay in this smaller room. I painted and painted with 60's music. It wasn't long and I didn't want to be anywhere else. I got about half done, cleaned up and volunteered to cook. We had a spinach omelet. My pan was too hot but it tasted good.  I tucked in the transplants, the snow is covering the ground, it is getting cold. This has been a good day.