Summer into Winter

Summer is here indeed.  The solstice is only just past, and the sweltering days have set in immediately.  The long days are good for accomplishing much, and the creek is always good for washing off the sweat of those accomplishments.  With summer being so new, then why am I already talking about winter?

Hidden Treasures

Last week a visitor to Groundwell Farm looked at my garden greenhouse and said something like, "Clearly not much is happening in there."  I mumbled something about growing seeds and we moved on.  I really couldn't blame my visitor for not noticing the hidden treasures within that structure,

It certainly looks a mess.  But much more is happening in there that a quick glance can reveal.

Mindful Monday

It is time to come home to a nourishing food tradition that grows healthy guts and healthy minds,

 that creates a permanent and sustaining agriculture,

 and crafts a meaningful connection between our sustenance and the bioregion that gifts us with our food.
Leigh Senna
Growing Wise Children
in
Permaculture Activist Magazine 

Live Silence

This was an incredibly busy week.  Mom and Dad were down to help build their storage shed/camping shelter, and from day one the work was literally dawn to dusk.  I primarily cooked and shuttled food from one spot to another, gratefully (for a change of pace) leaving the heavy building to the "menfolk".  It was a wonderful week and Mom and I had more time to talk than we have in years!

The View (considerably better than the tv show)

Digging foundation holes.

Finishing up the floor.

Mom getting sideways with the wall.

Three walls to go.

Almost there.

The sexiest builder around.

Evenings were delightful.  In the cool of the gathering dusk, after everyone had bathed, sitting around the fire or in our living room chatting about the day past and the plans for the next day were good times.  That, as a matter of fact, is when it happened. 

Mindful Monday

To have you there beside me and never be alone
And all the time that you're with me
We will be at home 

John Denver

Follow Me

The Window

We've been looking for a window.  Not a window for the house, though we have been finding ways to open more windows to get some breeze flowing through the house as the temperatures rise.  We've also been creatively covering some windows that allow in too much afternoon light.

Morning in the Gardens of Groundwell

"We are stardust, we are golden, we are billion year old carbon,

 and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden."

Joni Mitchell

Woodstock

7:30

I'm out in the rows of my garden, taking it all in.  The water drop call of the brown headed cowbird brings my attention to the drops of dew sprinkled over the leaves.  I notice that while some rows are impeccably tended

Mindful Monday

 . . . A green new land where you and I

Can settle down to home.

Garrison Keillor

A Letter from Copenhagen

in

Leaving Home

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words?

Last night convinced me otherwise.

We walked down to the creek after sunset last night.  It was a challenging walk for me this time.  There wasn't much moonlight, and the road is in really bad condition due to the poor management of it by the roads department.  Also I was a bit under the weather with a bit of a cold, and was feeling a mite disoriented.  I regained my stability when we got to the flat and were soon by the creekside. As I thought about how much I wished I could get a picture of the scene to share with you all, a new thought came to my mind.

Mindful Monday

It's good to touch the green, green grass of home.

Claude "Curly" Putman Jr.