Apple Cider Time!

It is that time of the year when
human hearts turn towards walks
through golden woods and drinks
of sweet apple cider...

I Saw, in that Leaf

I sat beside the pond on a wet day
still, like a stone,
quiet, like a falling leaf
expecting miracles
and I waited

And I stared at the early autumn leaves
falling from the trees
smoothly as a dancing butterfly
and touching down,
lying on the ground
with the dignity of days

And I noticed on the aged bottom
of the rusting metal johnboat
a Tulip Poplar leaf had landed there
and shone gold
a bright moment on a gray day

And I saw, in that leaf
the whole world
and possibilities not yet fully realized.

Living in Community

I have not oft-mentioned on this blog the notion of living in intentional community, but that is what this living together is about for us. On this blog, I've recorded some of the sights and sounds of living together, but not talked much about the ideal of living together.

With that in mind, I'd like to offer some thoughts from Wendell Berry on living in community and related themes...

"Community, I am beginning to understand, is made through a skill I have never learned or valued: the ability to pass time with people you do not and will not know well, talking about nothing in particular, with no end in mind, just to build trust, just to be sure of each other, just to be neighborly. A community is not something that you have, like a camcorder or a breakfast nook. No, it is something you do. And you have to do it all the time..."

“A community is the mental and spiritual condition of knowing that the place is shared, and that the people who share the place define and limit the possibilities of each other's lives. It is the knowledge that people have of each other, their concern for each other, their trust in each other, the freedom with which they come and go among themselves...”

“Always in the big woods when you leave familiar ground and step off alone into a new place there will be, along with the feelings of curiosity and excitement, a little nagging of dread. It is the ancient fear of the Unknown, and it is your first bond with the wilderness you are going into.”

“We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. 

We have been wrong. 

We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption, that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it.”

“You can best serve civilization by being against what usually passes for it.”

“'You have been given questions to which you cannot be given answers. You will have to live them out - perhaps a little at a time.'
'And how long is that going to take?'
'I don't know. As long as you live, perhaps.'
'That could be a long time.'
'I will tell you a further mystery,' he said... 'It may take longer.'”

“It may be that when we no longer know what to do,
we have come to our real work
and when we no longer know which way to go,
we have begun our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings...”

“Love is what carries you, for it is always there, 

even in the dark, or most in the dark,
but shining out at times like gold stitches in a piece of embroidery. ”

~Wendell Berry

The World is Holy...

"The world is holy. We are holy. All life is holy. Daily prayers are delivered on the lips of breaking waves, the whisperings of grasses, the shimmering of leaves."

“Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.”  

“To be whole. To be complete. Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from.”

~Terry Tempest Williams

"To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter... to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring — these are some of the rewards of the simple life."

“Look underfoot. You are always nearer to the true sources of your power than you think. The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are. Don't despise your own place and hour. Every place is the center of the world.”
 
~John Burroughs 

“Every aspect of our lives is, in a sense, a vote for the kind of world we want to live in.”

~Frances Moore Lappé

"But love of the wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only home we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need - if only we had eyes to see."
 
~Edward Abbey

"In the woods is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years. In the woods we return to reason and faith."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Memorial Day Gathering

A few photos from our annual Memorial Day/Honor our Graduates party...

Wet Weather Hikes

The rain was drizzling down to nothing as we pulled up to the farm... this on a day that promised nothing but gray skies and downpours. The sun was even making a goodwill effort to poke through the clouds and so, with no guarantees, we took a wet weather hike.

This hike was especially magical and life-full. We saw four fresh, shiny-baptized box turtles (two very amorous ones) and many toads. We had butterflies flittering around us the whole way and saw two large pileated woodpeckers and heard and saw many other birds. 

 

The trees glowed green.

As we finished the dragonfly loop trail, the clouds returned and, shortly thereafter, so did the rain, as we raced back to the dry house.

I think wet weather hikes - just after or between storms - may be some of the best. There is a life that pours out of the ground like no other times.

More Spring flowers (mid-April)

 

Lyre-leaved sage (above), all over the field at the farm beginning mid-April.

Trumpet honeysuckle, a favorite of hummingbirds. Spotted along the Turtle Trail on April 20th.

Yarrow begins showing up in the field mid-April. It has beautiful fern-like leaves in addition to lacy white flowers.

First Spring wildflowers, March and April...

Cutleaf Toothwort

Cutleaf toothwort is the first of the spring wildflowers to appear at the farm, usually. They start showing up near the first or second week of March and are all over the hills by mid-April. It's also called Pepper Root and Crinkle Root. It has been used in the past for medicinal purposes.

Mayapple

Mayapples start showing up right about the same time as the cutleaf toothwort, but maybe a week or so afterwards... mid-March. They really start showing their umbrella leaves by the first and middle of May. Here, you can see the young mayapple sprouting out of the ground...

By the end of April and into May, you start seeing the white blooms (often hidden beneath its leaves and then, soon after, the fruit of the mayapple...

 

Spring Beauty

Spring Beauties start appearing towards the end of March. They're tiny, delicate white and pink flowers and scattered here and there throughout the forest.

Star Chickweed 

Star Chickweed starts showing up near the first of April. We've seen it on the creekbanks.

 

Bluets

Bluets are simple, small and easy to identify. They appear in abundance beginning near the end of March.

Early Spring

Early spring beauty...

Signs and Secrets

 "There are secrets and signs out there," he said
"hidden beneath the leaves
and the one who knows where
and when
can find them
when the time is right..."




The time is right for early wildflowers and what not. Any day now. Maybe today.

cut leaf toothwort

spring beauty

daffodil

redbud

black snake

Return of the Spring Peepers

A warm winter day,
brought back the spring peepers
singing songs to the moon

2016 Farm Retreat

We created and posted some much needed trail markers during our farm retreat yesterday, in addition to playing some games, eating and singing a song. We marked the main 1 mile loop trail with the yellow/red dragonfly markers, the "pond loop" with red/green turtle markers and the "crystal tree" path with a sun marker. This spring, we hope to clear out/add some additional trails, especially on the outside of the main 1 mile loop trail.

It was a perfect T-shirt weather February Saturday!

A season of lengthening days

We live in
a season of lengthening days

We must believe this to be true

Even when the skies whisper gray doubt
and the streams run slow and ice-covered

Happy New Year!