Finally Winter

"Why do you flee so soon, sir, to the theaters, lecture-rooms, and museums of the city? If you will stay here awhile I will promise you strange sights. You shall walk on water; all these brooks and rivers and ponds shall be your highway. You shall see the whole earth covered a foot or more deep with purest white crystals . . . and all the trees and stubble glittering in icy armor." ~~Henry David Thoreau

It finally snows, the irony of a snow-less winter after purchasing a snowplow. I am glad for the color that snow adds to a landscape of gloominess that seemed bleached of all vitality. For snow holds within that whiteness the rainbow of all color. It makes the sky bluer and the browns stronger. Winter is not winter without snow. We have had suffocating haze and rain that freezes at night into sheets of ice covering all the fields around us so we seem to float, our house, on a little island in a sea of ice.

Our Corolla dies, a sad death on the highway into town. Transportation is where all our money goes. You pay for those miles in more than gasoline. It makes me think about urban sprawl and suburbs, about how there use to be small independent cities. We found out we are living on land that use to be a town called Square Town. Greg has been spending time researching this town that no longer exists and by the strangest of serendipity found that his great-great-great Grandpa Abbot settled in Square Town. Talk about unknowingly returning to your roots! He can't find much information and nothing about why the town disappeared. We need to break out of our introversion and talk to the old locals before they die and take all that knowledge with them.

Solitude

I have a great deal of company in the house, especially in the morning when nobody calls. ~~Henry David Thoreau
I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. ~~Henry David Thoreau, "Solitude," Walden, 1854

If you are going to live out in the middle of nowhere you must be an introvert who is good at planning ahead. You forget one item in the recipe you planned for dinner, it is not easy to run to the store. You get lonely without the sound of humans or people passing by, you are out of luck.

We have one neighbor in a two mile radius. They were worried when we started to build. In the last year I took them a treat at Christmas and waved a couple of times. They think we are the best imaginable neighbors and we think the same in return. If they ever needed help we would never hesitate, and I know they would do the same for us. Beyond that, I don't want a neighbor for anything else.

I go to town to socialize; I go home to recharge. Home to me is a sanctuary where only the invited should tread. It is the place where I am safe from judgement or expectations where I can do and be without the worry of "what would the neighbors think". A place were I can escape from comparisons and mistakes.

We all must find the balance of social and solitude that creates a positive well being for our individual soul. Each and every person is different, but I believe we all need moments of quiet and reflection. That we all need to find companionship with ourselves.

Gratitude

"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives." ~~ Henry David Thoreau

I have been thinking a lot about gratitude and happiness and it seems to me that they go hand-in-hand. Those who are most happy are those with the most gratitude. There are studies that show the process of controlled thought changes the synapses of the brain.... that thinking happy thoughts continuously builds deep pathways where the feel good hormones flow. This is the scientific evidence for the power of meditation or prayer or the simple practice of turning every self-pitying thought around to a thought of gratitude. I am working on teaching my children this idea with varying degrees of success.... at 13 especially, the world can seem to be out to get you personally. I will keep trying, for it has taken me decades to truly believe this and still I am not always successful. For the moment I am grateful for a roof over my head and food on my table. For the beautiful views out my windows, the fruits from my gardens, and the silence at night. I am grateful for family, for children who are full of hope and kindness, and for a husband who loves and helps me. I am grateful for a job that most days I love and feel like I am making a difference. I am grateful for the sun, flowers, thoughtful words, books, art, and music all these warm and brighten me. I am grateful for health and peace within myself and all my loved ones. I am grateful for each new day when the sun rises and I again have a chance to do better than I did yesterday, to have another day of gratitude.

October

"October is the month for painted leaves. Their rich glow now flashes round the world.

We love to see any redness in the vegetation of the temperate zone. It is the color of colors. This plant speaks to our blood. It asks a bright sun on it to make it show to best advantage, and it must be seen at this season of the year"" ~~Henry David Thoreau

It has been a perfect October with just the right portion of rain and sun. The one makes you appreciate the other. October to me is associated with home. After a long summer of being outdoors, you begin to spend more time inside. You process your harvest and engulf your house with smells of baking. The earlier darkness brings everyone together, in a cozy bond of communication.

Harvest

“The true harvest of my life is intangible - a little star dust caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched” ~~Henry David Thoreau
















It is harvest time, the tangible reward for all the many reasons I love gardening. We have more tomatoes than I have ever grown before and make and bottle enough salsa and tomatoes to use for stew and chili to last all the non-ripe-off-the-vine months of the year.

I never feel so alive as when I am in the process of a harvest. I do not know if it is some sort of deep down DNA survival trait from all the farmer ancestors and ancient humans who would not survive without the drive for finding and preserving food or because I have such fond memories of gardening and preserving food with my parents.

My father is the gardener to set your match to. He always has the first ripe tomato, the tallest corn, and the most abundant beans. He keeps records like a scientist and is always trying new varieties and different ideas for the best crop. As a teacher gardener he was at his best--- the most patient, the most kind, the most happy. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of planting the garden with my dad, watching the first green shoots appear, and excitedly eating the first ripe food. The stress relieving process of digging in the dirt and killing a few weeds after a day at a desk having to fill all the forms of government red tape and to be polite to people who don't necessarily deserve polite-- is both of our way to relax after a work day. I have taken what my dad taught me and made it my own. My garden might be on the wild side, not as tall or abundant, but that same love of earth is there. Greg also adds the artistic to our garden. There is always some visual point of interest... Curves and flowers, stone and wood, all make our edible landscape more than just a harvesting ground bare in the winter season of the year.

Preserving the produce of my dad's garden was my mom's domain. It was my marker to adulthood. To work side by side.... my one tomato to her five, gradually year by year closing the gap. It is time to talk, to think, to hear stories of her youth, to be together in a positive and productive activity. I am so thankful to have a daughter who loves this process. At 13 she can already match my ability with a paring knife, in ways she has already surpassed me. She has an intuitive precision and artisticness to her food preparation that I will never have.

It is a beautiful thing to watch both my children run out to the garden and pick a bunch of produce to bring into the kitchen and prepare for dinner. Both have developed a love of fresh fruits and vegetables and find creative and delicious ways to present them.

I hope they will take what we have taught them and make their own unique harvest.

August

"Sometimes, in a summer morning, having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise til noon, rapt in revery, amidst the pines and hickories and sumachs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sang around or flitted noiseless through the house, until by the sun falling in my west window, or the noise of some traveller's wagon on the distant highway, I was reminded of the lapse of time. I grew in those seasons like corn in the night, and they were far better than the work of the hands would have been. They were not time subtracted from my life, but so much over and above my usual allowance. I realized what the Orientals mean by contemplation and the forsaking of works."

~~ Henry David Thoreau

Summer passes quickly. Greg works on finishing the rock on the South Wall. I water and weed and mark my garden's growth.... finding contemplation in work during the early and evening hours. Soaking in the heat, enjoying the cool breeze, watching the storms that have performed for us more often this year.

Nine Mile Canyon

“We can never have enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor, vast and titanic features, the sea-coast with its wrecks, the wilderness with its living and its decaying trees, the thunder-cloud, and the rain.” ~~ Henry David Thoreau





I go as a chaperon with 9 InTech students and my daughter to a week long archeology camp in Nine Mile Canyon. We have flat tires, rain, and flooding campgrounds. The students are always cheerful, ready to learn, to help cook and clean up, and to have fun. Anyone who complains about teens these days needs to spend more time with this age group. The teens I know are intelligent, caring, fun, and thoughtful. They care about the earth and all the inhabitants and think beyond the realm of their everyday.