a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

Category: Reflections

  • Sounds of Spring

    SpringDitchA

    A fortuitous combination of country road crews and rain has created a slender garden of cascading mountain streams along Bow Hill Road. Take a few steps away from busy Bow Hill Road and you enter the calming world of a mountain stream, cascading over the rocks.

    [wpvideo XMgE42YH]

    It’s a world almost no one sees though thousands go by every day. While I was filming the cascading waters, cars drove by every five to ten seconds. At a car every ten seconds, that’s 360 cars a day. In ten hours that’s some 3,600 cars and how many thousands of people? Do any realize how beautiful it is in the ditch?

    In the future, when cars drive themselves, you’ll have time to enjoy the beauty in the ditches. You’ll be able to get out of your car, and send it on it’s way to pick up your shopping and do your errands, while you dip your toes in the cold cascading waters of the ditch. Your car will come back in an hour with your shopping, and take you home, refreshed from listening to the sounds of spring.

    Every cascade makes it’s own sound. The size and shape of the rocks, the width of the stream, the slope of the rock, the flow of the water, all make the water sing a different pitch and volume. The water sings its way down to the valley. When the road engineers and crew were designing and building the ditch, I don’t think they were planning on making a water instrument miles long, but that’s what they accomplished. Often the most wondrous things people make are things they never intended to create.

  • Spring Snow for the Pond

    CherryPetalsOnPond

    After a snowless winter, falling cherry blossoms on the pond are the most snow the pond will see. It’s been a few years since the pond has frozen over, let alone be covered by a blanket of deep snow. Does the pond miss feeling the hard ice, the quiet a heavy snow brings? Are cherry blossoms enough to make the pond happy, or do they make it weep for a thick layer of ice topped with a blanket of snow?

  • Fog to Sun

    FoggyMorning

    All it takes to transform the place to a hideaway high in the mountains is for the fog to roll in.

    FoggyMorningB
    FoggyMorningC
    FoggyMorningD

    BB enjoys a walk as the fog starts to lift. In the afternoon, with the sun out, and the fog but a memory, the chickens are out foraging under the blooming cherries. It takes wide open spaces for chickens to be happy and lay the best eggs.

    FoggyMorningE

  • So Much Happens in Just One Day

    NoTrespassing

    So much happens in just one day, it’s enough to make your head spin around. Biking home, I noticed a “No Trespassing” in the middle of a flooded field. Is trespassing really a problem in this case? Maybe people are launching boats to go duck hunting in the field.

    FallenLimbs

    Nature is the consummate producer of disposable items. One wind storm and a thousand used-once branches come flying out of the trees. The good thing about the items nature throws away is that they are all compostable.

    NewMapleLeaves

    The maples are putting out this year’s leaves. In six to eight months, they’ll be worn out and falling to the ground. Better enjoy them why I can.

    DancingPlums

    There’s less time to enjoy the plum, cherry, and pear blossoms. A few weeks and they will be just a memory.

    DoubleCherries
    PearBlossoms
    DustBathingHens

    From dust bathing hens come the world’s most delicious eggs. These won’t last but a few days.

    EggsInHand
    CherryRootsInCedarA

    So much happens every day, that it’s taken me ten years to notice these wild cherry roots growing down an old cedar stump. Ten years! And I’ve walked by this cedar stump a million times. I wouldn’t have noticed them either if my husband hadn’t asked me to help him gather up fallen branches. So if someone asks you to help them do a little chore, don’t say no, you might see something worth seeing that you’ve missed for ten years.

    CherryRootsInCedarB

  • No Shame

    BleedingHeartLeaves

    The bleeding hearts are spreading their lacy leaves. This morning their leaves are jeweled with yesterday’s raindrops. Before long, their pink flowers will dangle gracefully. Back in 2006, when we brought BB and Echo to live with us, Echo had his first encounter with bleeding hearts. His smile and playful, wagging tail are no longer with us, but the fond memories of him sniffing the bleeding hearts still delights.

    EchoAndBleedingHeart

    I’m laughing frequently these days reading Fukuoka’s The One-Straw Revolution. His insight into nature and the ridiculously complex systems we’ve made to feed ourselves is a good read. I haven’t laughed so much in a long time.

    “The world used to be simple. You merely noticed in passing that you got wet by brushing against the drops of dew while meandering through the meadow. But from the time people undertook to explain this one drop of dew scientifically, they trapped themselves in the endless hell of the intellect.”
    Excerpt From: Masanobu Fukuoka, Larry Korn, Wendell Berry & Frances Moore Lappe. “The One-Straw Revolution.”

    One of our cherry trees is in full bloom. There are just a few shy buds working up the courage to expose their delicate petals. Even cherry blossoms have personality. Some are unabashed tarts, too eager to show their wares. “Tickle me, tickle me,” they sing with no shame. The modest ones need to be coaxed to furl their skirts open.

    CherryBlossoms

    Below the cherry trees, the chickens wait. You won’t read about this in chicken handbooks, but cherry blossoms are a spring time treat for chickens. In a few weeks as the cherry blossoms fall as thick as snow, the chickens will feast on them. If you close your eyes and taste their eggs during this brief time, you can pick up the hint of cherry blossoms on your tongue.