My heart has been so full of the sweet beauty of the spring lately – all the flowers and sweet smells, and the still cool milky nights under the waxing moon, with the first little fireflies winking in the dark places under the oak trees, looking bright but lonely in the big night. O sweet…
Category: Celebrating
Midsummer’s Homecoming
As soon as I got home, everyone rushed over to me, barking and wriggling and glad. It was wonderful to wake up at night again and hear other people breathing, to feel the dogs walking on the deck outside, scratching and playing, to have my favorite kitty Ginger snuggled purring next to me, and to…
Easter 2020
Our naturally dyed eggs turned out so pretty this year! We made the most beautiful blue dye from the very dark purple Nebula carrots in the garden. We did the usual beets and turmeric for red and yellow. I woke up very early, when just the barest white violet light was bathing the dew-soaked garden….
Solstice Brownies (Paleo, Grain-free, Gluten-free)
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the return of the light, and what it means to wait in darkness, closed in, caught in long moments of obscurity, almost forgetting that there was anything but stagnant midnight, longing for and trying to believe in the first ray of morning. I have been trying to sleep…
Easter
This was the first year we were able to dye eggs with all home grown dyes: turmeric, beets, red Brussels sprouts leaves, mulberries and spiderwort flowers. The natural dyes are so subtle and beautiful. They blend in beautifully with nature and are really hard to find. I woke up early to cut dewy grass and…
Unfolding Spring
Spring is just so beautiful, when the bright little leaves look like lace in the dark forest, and the air is sweet with flowers. The branches are dripping with blossoms in the unrelenting damp. The wild herbs have woven themselves into a tapestry of many colored greens, embroidered with delicate flowers. Their names murmur themselves…
Solstice – Birth and Barley
Erce, Erce, Erce Mother of all good green growing things. May the barley grow tall and shine like gold. May the milk flow in rivers, And the cattle grow fat in the marrow of their bones. Let the pastures grow tall and be filled with flowers, And the fruit trees be leaning and laden. May…
Savory Sweet Potato Stuffing
All the days lately have been either full of silver mist with sunshine at the edges, or golden and blue with somber grey in reserve. Some very sad news reached us a few days ago – a very dear family friend passed away suddenly and unexpectedly over the weekend. He was only a few years…
Birthdays
This past week was full of rushing here and there and the birthday celebrations of my oldest – now 14, and my youngest – now 6. We made homemade corn dogs (hotdogs dipped in corn bread batter and fried in home-rendered lard. There were a few presents wrapped in paper feed bags and tied with…
Fruit, Nut, and Chocolate Easter Nibbles
I didn’t mean to skip this past week’s blog post, but the weather has been so wonderful, and we have been so busy in the kitchen, in the garden, wandering the beautiful pastures, and celebrating spring that the days slipped by, days full of fun, sun, work, and beauty. The natural dyes turned out very…
Blooming
Since the first frost that killed the last of the summer zinnias, there have been no flowers in my garden. In the fall I seeded snap dragons, chrysanthemums, linaria, and poppies. They have grown slowly between the hard frosts, at least bringing the green of plant life to the empty flower beds, but no flowers, …
Return Of The Light Grain-free Lemon Cake
It’s been unusually cold lately, cold enough to snow although we weren’t so lucky. Hard frosts for several days in a row left everything sparkling with minute crystals in the early mornings, the ground hard frozen, and we marveled at the layers of ice on the water troughs that had to be broken through. The…
Toadstools And Fairy Rings 