earth

/ handmadebyjo / 4 Comments

120828 Back Forty Sunset (1)

 

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God.  Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be.  And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.

Anne Frank wrote those words when she was 14 years old.  She must have been an old soul, so much wisdom, so young.

It’s been almost two weeks since I’ve been to Rowe.  I need to see the stars and get away from traffic, take a walk in the woods.

The pear tree needs trimming although it’s later to do it than it should be, it still needs to be done.  The raspberries need trimming, the beds need to be semi cleaned out, mulched.  There are brush piles to be burned, wood to be split, gardens to be spruced up.  I need to check into what I have for seed potatoes and get some onion sets.  The Ball jars need to be inventoried.  Just the beginning of the busiest time of the year – now until October.  Always too much to do and just enough.  I love having an outdoor to do list.  There’s always an excuse to be out there.

So even though I will be working I will also be alone with the heavens, nature and God.  I will return to my work week renewed and refreshed.

Thrive Where You’re Planted

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100426 (6)

 

During the Blizzard of ’78 my sister was in the hospital for some emergency surgery.  Her later to be mother-in-law sent her a pot of daffodils – there were a dozen in the pot as I recall.  Once they had died back they were planted in a border garden around the patio.  Over the years they have naturalized to the point of hundreds.  They are all over New England at this point.  Everywhere I have had a garden they are now too numerous to count.  They have been given away to friends and family in  MA, VT, NH and CT.  They are now in full bloom in Enfield, around the front of the house, along the driveway, in the perennial garden in the back yard.  They are scattered all down the bank going into the back forty in Rowe.  These amuse me most of all.  For years my mother’s mulch pile was over that bank.  There was a stone wall there many years ago and it was completely grown in with trees.  She would dig up things that she no longer wanted or bulbs were perhaps pulled along with the weeds – over the bank they would all go.

I have planted many plants in a perennial garden only to watch them migrate to where they really want to be.  They will self seed in a sunnier or wetter spot and the original will die back.  It’s no use trying to get them to grow where you want them to, they just grow where they are happy.  That’s how I feel at times about being caught between Enfield and Rowe, suburban and rural, noisy and quiet.  I just want to be where it’s sunny and quiet.  Then I think about those daffodils. They speak volumes about thriving where you are.  It doesn’t mattered the soil type, the sunlight, the moisture – they all seem to like where they are and continue to multiply year after year.  In my head I know that’s how it should be – thrive where you are – but some days (especially sunny spring ones) I just want to be in a quiet spot.  Maybe transplanting daffodils.

Happy Earth Day – go dig in the dirt!

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Going, going, gone.

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130411 (1)Sue messaged me on Tuesday to say I wouldn’t believe how much of the snow was gone.  Sunday when we left there was just one bare spot next to the patio.  This morning all of the gardens are exposed.  Things are popping out of the earth everywhere.  God I love this time of year.  The birds were all singing.  The back forty was very, very wet but walkable.  The water is rushing through the little brook that exits Hoover Damn (I guess I should write about Hoover Damn sometime).

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The garlic is up!  That’s very exciting.

130411 (2)And this looks like what will be on the agenda this weekend – burning brush.  It seems like this is a never ending chore.  It piles up all year waiting for burn season to open in January.  Of course in January there is usually too much snow and half the pile is buried so we have to wait . . . and wait . . . and wait.  Burn season ends on May 1st so we just finish sugaring and it’s a mad couple of weekends trying to get everything burned.  There is also a large pile of logs that needs to be cut and split.  And of course Chester has photo bombed another shot.  That’s his purpose in life.

 

 

Dreaming

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image

I’m dreaming of warm weather. Of tilling the earth, the smell of it. Of a vegetable gardens surrounded by caution tape. The smell of fresh mowed grass. Fresh lettuce. Radishes. Chard. Beans. Longer days. It’s coming. A few short months away.

Running in the Grass with Your Bare Feet

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Sophie Zooming

If you watch any media at all you are bombarded by negativity, death, destruction, fear, fear, fear.  I’m not sure what purpose all of it serves but I do know that I am capable of turning most of it off and tuning it out.  I have to admit that I do keep up with current events and can get caught up in many things political.  This past weekend I turned it off.  I cooked, baked, cleaned, kept busy all the way around.

It sometimes feels as if the world around me has really gone off of the tracks.  If you listen to the media or Facebook or Twitter you begin to imagine that the horrors of any particular news cycle are happening in your back yard.  Sometimes you have to say enough.

I have a theory that one of the reasons there is so much absurd craziness is that people have become too disconnected from the natural world. They have lost that reverent respect for life of all kinds.  I believe we are effected by everything surrounding us.  Years ago I lived in a medium size city on the north shore of Massachusetts.  I was surrounded by concrete and pavement.  There were a few large maples on my street but they were surrounded by concrete as well.  I would watch the children playing outside on the street or their paved driveways and was always struck by the fact that they never touched the earth, no playing in the dirt.  I would then walk a mile or so to the end of my street where there was a huge, old cemetery, it was like a big, beautiful park.  I would take off my shoes and walk in the grass.

I think everyone needs to be grounded to the earth.  As crazy as this sounds I believe we attain some sort of energy from the earth itself whether we are walking barefoot in the grass, planting a garden or swimming in a lake.  I think we take something with us every time we do, like charging a battery.  I think the disconnect is growing.  The calmest, most sane people I know have some connection to the earth and understand that even in a subconscious way.

I think we should all spend some time running in the grass in our bare feet.