Perspective

I think the world is being run by a lot of lost crazy people. Dictators threaten their neighbors with nuclear weapons with all the concern for the aftermath that people would have for a snowball fight. As a news junkie I am grateful for the power of nature to pull me away from harshness and volatility"out there" to a place of wonder, predictability, and mystery just outside my door. Three magnificent linden trees stand in front of our old house. I suppose they were planted when the house was built about 180 years ago. Every midsummer they burst out into yellow blossom and at the same time thousands of wild bees turn up from heaven knows where. As dependable as the sight of the canada geese soaring over the house in spring and fall, they bring the hope of continuity for this old world. Spring was very early this year and the trees have flowered 2 weeks ahead of usual but the bees knew and came at the right time. The yard hummmmms with a constant loud drone of their busyness. I can sit on the swing beneath the tree and feel as if I'm in a hive. I can feel that all is right with the world, at least this small part of it. Nature gets it right, and is a great teacher if only people would listen.

I have this quirky idea that aggressive and belligerant leaders, hyperactive wild kids, and sourpusses of all types would gain a whole new outlook if taken out of an environment of concrete, asphalt, steel and plastic and immersed in nature. They'd have to follow my instructions though..."Sit! Stay! Be quiet, Inhale deeply and Listen....."

Art all around us

Nature has always been the finest artist of all. When I was small I had a sort of vision of Nature pouring from a multicolored paintbrush in the hand of God. I'd wake up, go to the window, and there would be a brand new beautiful day like a lovely picture I could run into, just waiting to be explored and experienced. I was blessed with a childhood lived outdoors with freedom from electronic distractions of any kind.
And still the outdoors calls far more insistently than all the backed up chores inside... I came upon this beautiful arrangement of apples just as they fell from the tree near our back door. No carefully staged artists still life could rival its balance, design, repetition with variety, light and shadows, and complimentary colors. Design by Nature....
or Nature by Design ?


So today Ive been gathering up all these free gifts from the sky. Its a very tall ancient neglected apple tree that still bears heavily every second year. The perfect apples go to the cellar for eating fresh, the bruised ones get cut up for baking and frozen, still more go to the juicer for cider and apple jelly, and finally theres a potful turning into applesauce. The kitchen smells richly of apples and cinnamon.


Jimmy has been digging the carrots, a marvelous crop this year, plenty for us and the horses too. Here he is being rude with a bunch of them...


The horses get all the tops, all the small and misshapen carrots, and the ones with grubs in them. The rest get layered with damp peat moss in a big plastic tote box in the cellar where they keep beautifully right through to the next crop.






The horses lined up at the garden fence for the carrot harvest, the best show in the country for them.