27.6.09

One More Some Thing:

or, How I forgot to mention that life is best lived at a reasonable pace.

or, Slow down, there's a Lot to see.


I've been thinking more in verse lately.

Some Things:

Summertime is special, very special. The elders continue to flower, and Mike is slightly fixated on curing everyone we know of the Swine Flu with the honied flowers. We've got about a solid quart of infused honey, I'd bet. The best part about collecting the flowers, though, is the fantastic river exploration it necessitates. We wondered down the South Toe a ways looking for warm spots to swim and more elders the other day. I can't really explain how it feels to wander downstream with your lover collecting medicine and splashing among rocks older than you can imagine. O, and Toby the dog came and swam with us in the deeper spots, he is such a good dog. The benefit of living with folks with animals is the ability to share the companionship of those animals. We have a lot of animal friends here.

In any case, yes, the rain has finally subsided, at least for the better part of the last five days, and I don't believe there's much of any being called for this coming week. That's good in that the sun is the best motivating force I can think of, but it's a little bit lame in that the garden will need more regular watering (which is totally fine), but the rain barrels aren't totally full, and I'm quite sure we'll run out before the rains come again. Ah, well, this is how it goes. I watered with nettle compost tea the other day, diluted to about 1:10 or so (very rough estimate), and I smelled like poop the rest of the day. That girl who lives here sometimes between herb school and travelling abroad said she likes the smell of it, kinda, when I told her she smelled like poop last time she used the nettle tea. Now I understand.. it sort of grows on you, plus the plants really like it! We have a Rhode Island Red rooster who sort of completely separated from the rest of the pack of birds (the other roosters do not like him), and he roosts on the air compressor we have on the porch. There's a metal plate beneath him where we collect his poop, and it's generally what he's free-ranged from the yard, plus a little scratch Mike gives him when he's around during the feeding hour. So far we've been putting it in the compost, or on the potatoes, but I think it is a good idea to make compost tea from it, manure tea for da plants.

The blueberries are getting quite blue, and I've eaten two! We hope to get up the ridge to collect wild berries (they're so much more blueberry-ish) a bit later in the summer. The daylilies planted all over the property are blooming with lots of crazy beautiful colors and patterns. I had no idea there were so many different kinds. The peppers and tomatoes are starting to make plump fruits, and the squash is just starting to form fruits. The broccolis are getting bigger, and yesterday I thinned the beets and chard for a third time and came in with another great big bowl full of greens. We had chard pizza yesterday! :)

I suppose that's all for now, not much more than that going down in Berrytown. Well, much always go on across the drive over at the big house, but it's a bit removed from the news of this half. Steph's garden is covered in flowers, calendula, borage, lilies, spirea, yarrow, firepinks, tomatoes, etc etc etc. It's beautiful over there, and a definite inspiration to see so many cultivated perennial medicine plants mixed with the annual vegetables. I love the self-seeding borage and calendula, so much. :)

with summertime love,
abigail

ps- Over at Little House in the Ghetto (which is linked in my links list), there is a good article posted called something like Definancialisation, Deglobalization, Relocalisation. It's pretty spectacular straight-talking, and I'm feeling it. The link is http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2009/06/definancialisation-deglobalisation.html , but still do go check out the Little House blog. I love those people.

<3

20.6.09

1 day 'til solstice

Well, it is early this fine Saturday morning, quite early. In fact, it is not yet morning at all, for it is still night for me on Friday. The clock seems to've passed midnight without prior notice.

Me and Mike and my good housemate, Max, we all went to Black Mountain and Asheville today. Mike and I had to stop in Asheville to pick up this new laptop! It was on quite a sale, so in typically frugal style we have come up on this new movie box. It's amazing, really, that this currently decent computer is more than twice as powerful as computers that came out two or three years ago. It feels dangerous to spend very much money when the technology keeps pace with the plastic pieces embedded in cheap computers. So what if this falls apart in a year if another few hundred dollars buys something twice as nice later? OK, that is not how we felt on purchasing this computer, I can promise, but it is interesting to consider.

Our garden is looking might fine these days. I fish-emulsioned everything but the broccolis the other day. I think the potatoes grew twice as big in the four or five days since. It's strange not to have to water the garden with as much rain as we've had. Really, it hardly gets dry before the rain is on again. I've never experienced so much moisture. Steph is over battling the slugs in her garden everyday, she's tried beer traps, gravel around the bases, and eggshells broken up around the plants, but she's still out there with scissors chopping them up by hand several times a day. There's just not a lot you can do if you're trying to mulch for next year during a wet season, at least as far as slugs. In the big garden our biggest issue is a matter of two hens with a pretty good ability to fly, they are the ones that lay blue and green eggs, and they're kind of evil. They love to pull all the straw from the potatoes in the morning looking for bugs and worms. Everything is getting big without any time passing at all. The blueberries are starting to turn into grape sized blue-ish berries, the apples and peaches are getting bigger, the grapes are starting to form after the death by mid-may frost, and today we harvested a bunch of elder flowers which I think I'll put into honey. I've honied sage flowers/leaves, lemonbalm, garlic, and lemon-thyme. It continues to be a fruitful year.

Mike's got a jewelry desk built around a counter/sink area in the cabin, and there're lots of shelves with clothes and books on them. I like this place a lot, and there is so much room. The mountain laurels are finishing up blooming, and now the rhododendrons that are so tall and thick in front of our house are starting to bud up very big, getting ready to bloom. I'm also excited because I saw pink fluffy mimosa flowers blooming down in Marion today, which means that within a week or two we should be having them bloom up here. A flower so pink and fluffy just has to be good for the spirit. The mullein flowers should be coming on strong soon, too. I'm also pretty stoked because Mike is seriously planning and beginning to put together a solar dryer, which just makes me want to go crazy collecting and drying plants. It's amazing what there is to dry and preserve when you have the ability to do so.

with love,
abbi

4.6.09

beautiful mountain rain down

A few folks came by to sleep in the mountains last night, friends of the friends with whom I live. These folks hitch-hiked from Atlanta to Asheville. As I recall, she's studying in an ashram and is an expansive, light and beautiful being. Those should probably be words I use more in person with the people I enjoy (and perhaps those who I don't). I think he rides bikes a lot and is a quiet, kind, and gentle creature. Thank Mother God for speaking through people in passing.

This has been, let's say, a thoughtful 3 weeks living alone in my bed. The rain has come down almost continually, even when it's not coming down things are just drying out. It's true that I can't focus, but really it's a good thing. It has been a gift to feel so able to be expansive and trusting of what I'm receiving, that I'm not going to wash away. Even if I did, it'd be OK. I guess this is related to that guy not being around, too, and my feelings as they relate to relationships. I have had a very difficult time trusting people, I think from growing up with so much love between people who hurt each other and being so filled with love for people I couldn't trust. I've definitely had to learn from observation how it can be possible to live and love with people who don't cross those physical and emotional boundaries if they can help it. This has opened a door for me in the last 3 years. I feel like I can actually look back now and see that long and beautiful path through the door has taken me into an overgrown forest where my heart is so much more free. I can breathe and cry and grow and heal, gardening and being called to from the trees and the incredible flower that blooms on every plant.

OK, so I'm feeling very spiritual and heart-ful of late. That much is clear. I'm pretty excited for Mike to come home tomorrow. My body and heart feel so good when they're near him. I'm glad to be reminded of the difference when we're not together. I think it's a requirement for full appreciation to spend time apart.

My companions on the property here and I had a fairly stressful few days this week. We came to the consensus that we had to ask one of our roommates (and consequently his girlfriend, someone we all appreciate very much) to leave. It's very hard to know how to be a good and decent human being when I'm stressed out to the limit trying to figure out just the right approach to everything with someone I'm trying not to hurt. The thing is, I was angry with him and frustrated by his manipulation, both very clouding and coloring emotions. It was so hard to try to keep a clear head and to speak directly, with my brooding heart. I feel like we all came out of the bad situation feeling a lot better, though, having cleared the energy of the space. It was really pretty past time to ask this person to leave, and our home feels so much more safe and integrated now that everyone is on the same page.

In other news, we have planted the entire big garden with tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, chard, beets, onions, basil, ashwaganda, and carrots. Over in the other garden there are chard, kale, mustards, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, chervil, basil, beets, turnips, radishes, and other little babies. I'm planning to fertilize this weekend after the rain abates with kelp meal and fish emulsion for most of the little planties. The peonies and rugosa roses and poppies are all blooming, and it is so summertime, despite the rain and shade. Three weeks from the solstice and we had a freeze two weeks ago. What a place to be a gardener! Fortunately this is a super-abundant place for free wild edibles. Too bad you don't often run into wheat on the paths through the wild spaces.

I am so ready for the sun, for Mike's return, for thinking on future plans.

with love,
abby