The end of November is upon us. How did that happen?? I still haven't canned all the tomatoes I jammed in my freezer in a panic in September!
It's snowing on the farm as I write this, and as difficult as snow makes farming, it also comes as a relief. Once the snow flies, there are so many tasks that simply get crossed off the list and assigned to a new column under 'next year'. Thank goodness.
I had a funny moment just now and both Jeff and I said at the same time, 'Whelp, there's the Fresh Sheet topic for this week.'
Not funny haha . . . but sometimes, what can we do but laugh?
Whelp, the last week has been a lesson in being careful what you wish for!!
Practically overnight, the farm has transformed to a dust bowl to a soggy, wind-strewn mess. The first storm of the season dismantled my greenhouse and sent a pig shelter flying (and my husband cursing.)
And yet - the creek is flowing again and I finally heard frog song in the evening - a month late, but there nonetheless.
So today I popped into the bookstore downtown for a quick break, and what did I find but CHRISTMAS vomited all over the store!! It's not even Hallowe'en, people.
It made me think about how much pressure there is in our culture to go fast. Whether it's reading tweets instead of novels, rushing our kids through...
So a thing happened recently that left me feeling ... shook.
Many of you will know that I have been a painter much, much longer than I have been a farmer. I also grew up on Vancouver Island, where...
One of the greatest gifts of worry and even clinical anxiety is that if we're brave enough to be curious about it, to simply sit with it, it will teach us how to move through it.
For me, the bridge over the foreboding marsh of worry and despair is gratitude.
Hard to believe, but tomorrow it will be 10 years since we got the keys to the farm. What a crazy 10 years it has been.
We've watched our children grow from half-naked, semi-feral terrors of knotted hair in gumboots to confidant young farmers in their own right.
Acres and acres of brambles have transformed into...
Phewph.
Transitions are tough. Whether that's transitions from holidays to school, one chapter to another, one season to the next.
And yet, in nature, transitions are where the good stuff happens
