Welcome to my blogging world!

"Faith is believing inspite of the evidence and then watching the evidence change."

Welcome to my first attempt to enter into a new kind of relationship to you, my reader, and to my writing...as in this format I can share with you...
...notes from the gardening year, seasonal recipes...
... poems, essays, favorite quotes and passages from my own journal...

Emily Dickinson is quoted as saying "Life is so astonishing as to take all my attention!" So it is with me sometimes and this is what I am wanting to share.

So here goes...

Soon it will be Day Light Savings Time...March 15th? - a change I so look forward to. I love the light lingering in the Western Sky. This time of year so speaks to 'possibility' - of utilizing the creative spirit that is so present this time of year. It's a time of year oriented to the future, to give life to plans that have laid dormant throughout the Winter. Now, as the soil warms and the sun lingers, I feel a quickening inside of me and a burst of ideas, new projects, new endeavors wanting airtime.The light this time of year is so thin, so white and translucent, so in contrast to Late Summer when the light is a golden yellow, the air heavy and often damp, while everything is so still and slow. No! This time of year - Spring time- even the name is perfect- calls us to spring into action - movement.

Yesterday, as I was driving home, I passed a small farm with a hillside meadow beside the house where sheep are kept. Lo and behold! I saw a small black lamb, all long legged and fragile - so barely new- being nudged along by its mother who was trailing behind, instructing the little one as to the ways of the herd. My heart lept at the sight... for I'd forgotten - it's lambing season!

News Flash!
The gardening season has begun! From now until next November tending to a rather extensive family vegetable garden can feel a bit like running a marathon.So as to not run out of steam by mid July, it is important to pace one's self. The list of activities is rather extensive:seeding, composting, pruning, tilling, fertilizing, weeding, watering, harvesting, reseeding, more weeding, mulching, cultivating, putting up.

My seed order arrived last week! No wonder they have names like: Ace, Hurcules, Defender, Fortex,Bright Lights! This past Sunday I started my seedlings in the basement under a simple grow light: brocolli, swiss chard, romaine lettuce (first time for this), kale, and spinach. Later that warm afternoon, I went out to inspect the garden after the heavy snows we have received.The garden has been buried under a thick blanket of granular white stuff for weeks, so deep I couldn't have gotten the gate open if I tried. Left over from last Fall were five kale plants, stems so thick (and inch a least) I'd had difficulty wrenching them from their strong grip in the soil. This day, however, the soil gave way without a lot of effort on my part. Coming back inside I marveled to myself how the seeds I'd just planted, about the size of a small crumb, had the capacity to result in such a hefty and hearty plant!

"Locked in a seed the size of a speck is the mystery of the universe." (Adrian Higgins, March 11, 2010, Wash. Post) As I said...'Life is so astonishing!'