Sunday Stroll - A Moment to Reflect

Tomorrow, the teachers at the charter school where I work will return for a week of training before students resume.  It has been a whirlwind summer.  There have been ups and downs, but it has certainly been a time of growth: on the farm and in personal arenas.  I co-hosted Open Mic nights, participated in author's fairs, grew and preserved food, visited with friends and family, and spent time in nature.  Along with the start of the school year, the next course in my Master's Degree program launches tomorrow as well, so I anticipate busy and days and nights! We are also hoping to have another farm intern come to stay with us for a few months or longer.  It is nice to have the extra help and to provide an introduction to our farming way of life to an interested young person.  

I have not strolled yet today; been canning tomatoes instead.  May take a late evening walk with the dogs, but wanted to post this quick image of homing pigeons/doves who have been visiting the farm recently.  Not sure where they live, but we have seen them many times.  We were calling the first bird Houdini, so when he brought a friend along we decided this must be Harry (Houdini) and his Bess.

Wherever you are, whatever the weather, I wish you peace.  

Steve posted a lovely stroll, which you can pop over and see Out on the Prairie.  

Sunday Stroll - Poetry

If you name each thing you pass

As you walk to the blackberry patch,

it sounds like poetry.

Blue chicory holding

a pollen-flecked bumblebee.

An amber-winged soldier beetle

Feasting on goldenrod.

Dappled light falling

through the cedar trees.

What a beautiful world.

Wherever you are, whatever the weather,  I wish you peace.

Sunday Stroll -Bumblebees

There are pockets of color scattered around the vegetable garden.

The bees, of all sorts and sizes,

are loving the herb blossoms,

from comfrey to lavender

and everything in between.

What's in the kitchen garden?

Everything but the kitchen sink.

Oh, there's one of those too,

overflowing with salad greens (and reds!)

Wherever you are, whatever the weather, I wish you peace.

Sunday Stroll - Beautiful Sunday

With so many demands on the farm - to care for people, to care for animals, to tend and harvest plants - I feel blessed whenever I have the opportunity to slow down and appreciate the beauty that surrounds me.  The brilliant, rich colors of the pansies and the happy attitude of the snapdragons urge me to slow down... to look, to smell, to be still in the fragrant garden.

For a while, several bees hung still upon the pale pink rays of the milkweed that popped up (uninvited but VERY welcome) in the kitchen garden.  I sat still too and listened to them hum.  The deep pink rose at the center of that bed filled the air with sweetness.  I felt that, together, we were all content.

It was so hot and humid that we all drooped,

but drooping looks good on the coneflowers, doesn't it?

Wherever you are, whatever the weather, I wish you peace.

Sending prayers and good energy to Steve, Out on the Prairie.