Thaw

It's about 50 Degrees out there today, and tonight my sweetheart and I will move back to our own little cabin (we've been staying up in the main house through the coldest nights), hopefully for the duration.  I started preparing our first seed flats this afternoon, about a month later than I typically would, and it felt great to have my hands in soil again.  I look forward to the first little sprouts with such eagerness.

I'd post pictures of the thaw, but honestly (and I think y'all know this for yourselves) it looks kind of desolate out there.  So instead, I'll share the last lovely walk in this past week's snow.

Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli *

It's been a rough week and a half.  Extreme weather has denied my sweet hubby and I our preferred lodgings in our half finished little cabin in the woods. The roads have impassable to anyone on earth, but my intrepid middle son (who thankfully made the long trek to pick up our milk a few days ago). The windows got beautifully frosted,

and the icicles kept growing.

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

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?

Weathering the Storm

Ice.  That's what we got today.  After all of the wretched (yawn) winter weather we've had here in Middle Tennessee, we get ice.  But, no worries, in two days it's supposed to be back in the high 50s and low to mid 60s.

Really, the ice just made a dreary monsoon landscape so much more beautiful!  And while the drippiness freezes up the best thing to do is to set the kettle on, choose a favorite tea, pull a chair up to the fire, and relax.  You can't do anything outside anyway!