The Root of the Matter

It's been a long summer . . . but I didn't need to tell you that.

An unprecedented quantity of produce has passed through my kitchen and been processed into sauces, jams, pickles, purees, relishes, frozen foods, pastes, dried vegetables, wine, and medicines. All of this in spite of a number of crop failures. 

And we’re not finished yet.  As a matter of fact the bulk of our most important crops are just beginning to flow in. 

Mindful Monday

It was one of those March days

when the sun shines hot 

and the wind blows cold:

when it is summer in the light

and winter in the shade.

Charles Dickens

Great Expectations

Mindful Monday

I've got joy like a fountain,

I've got joy like a fountain,

I've got joy like a fountain 

in my soul.

From an old summer church camp song.

Mindful Monday

Life seems neither long nor short, and we take no more heed to save time or make haste than do the trees and stars.  This is true freedom, a good practical sort of immortality.

John Muir

My First Summer in the Sierra 

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?

Drought Gardening

It feels like England right now.  Outside, it's cool and breezy, not to get above 75 degrees for the day.  It rained a bit yesterday and the day before, and the weatherman tells me that it will rain in the upcoming days as well.  Rain, rain, rain.  I love it.  The more soft gentle rains we get the more the groundwater will be replenished.  We are managing to get the garden planted in spite of all this rain.  The one thing the rain makes difficult is the continuation of our drought gardening practices.

"Why" you might ask "are you bothering with drought gardening when you are getting all this rain?"  Well, I'll tell you.