Lightning as Inspiration

I love lightning. On the way home from work there was a lightning storm brewing in the distance. I figured I'd be driving right into it, and I pretty much was. Only..it was huge, and everywhere...but it was strange because there was no thunder. It was just beautiful flashes of light...and then there were the cool streak lightnings, and some of them branched out in all different directions... Usually in a thunderstorm, you only get to catch a few of the really cool streaks...but this storm was so big and slow moving...and quiet...Right in front of me at least a dozen times there were HUGE streaks shooting all over the sky. I kept trying to pull over and watch, but didn't want to cause an accident, so I kept driving, but slowly..all the while watching the sky, my eyes darting back and forth waiting for the next flash. There were streaks to my left, my right, and some right above the car. As I neared the river there was a strip of woods and amidst the lightning flashes, against the dark trees there were hundreds of lightning BUGS just dancing and blinking and it was soo beautiful! I did pull over one time, when I reached the bridge over the river....but I didn't see any cool streaks, so I finally started moving and then I saw one...right over the river. At one point as I was driving this curve in the road a huge streak started to my left then shot all across the sky and kept going in front of me! I just kept saying out loud "ooo" and giggling to myself giddily.

By the time I got home the thunder had started and it was drizzling a little bit. I went and sat on my front porch to watch the show. It was magical, truely. The fireflies lit up the fields and the trees, and the lightning lit up the skies. My cat sat behind me on the table, and we listened to the rumbles and the drop drop drop of the rain. I was being thankful and enjoying the beauty when a HUGE giant streak, shooting out like a tree in all directions brightened the sky SO much that I felt blinded for a second. I smiled and laughed right before a booming CRACK! This made me jump up and run to get inside, calling for the kitty. She was no where to be found, having most likely been scared out of her wits, she had run to hide somewhere. The rain started coming down heavier. As I type the storm is still growling and flashing outside...still seeming to hold something back...but I had an awesome treat this evening and am so grateful for the beauty.

just checkin in

So Alex and I swear we'll start writing on a regular basis...and I know I def. need to...but in the mean time..things here are crazy but good. Way too much work to do and never enough time...Anyone have some free time to help plant???

Bi-polarity

My nature is very dualistic. Besides being a gardener, until the farm can support itself...I am also a massage therapist and a bartender. On Mondays and Tuesdays I do 3 hours of massage before going to my full time bartending job at night. People are often surprised that I would have two very seemingly different means of employment. But to me they are not so different. I actually really do love people, after all. I love their stories, I love their surprises. At times I do not love them, but in that I love the contrast too. I am a very spiritual person, but I also LOVE to dance. Two of my favorite music groups/singers are Metallica and Enya. I love beer, and wine, and going out to bars, and parties, but I don't do illegal drugs. But back to the employment....in both these professions I connect with people and help them relax...sometimes, if I may be so bold as to say, I can help them heal, at least in some small fashion. That's what I love. But I would get bored only doing massage, and although I might not be bored, only doing bartending would not be good for me. I need the grounding, the reminder that I get from massage. Gardening does that too for me, helps me stay connected. That's so important. I always go back to this idea I've had for years and years that the disentegration of community is causing most of society's ailments. Our society has become a bunch of boxes in a lot of ways and if you don't fit into them sometimes it's hard to find a community. Alex is convinced that is where modern religion has gone terribly wrong. Disconnecting from the natural world. Nature is where it's at, people! Anyway...I'm trying to get Alex to do some posts on this site, since it's her farm too...so I'm going to start differentiating when I write...this is Sherry...that's all for now. :)

7 April 2010

Today I noticed the bleeding hearts are in bloom.

When a neighbor knocks on the door, you never expect them to say they just killed your dog.


Death has a way of cutting in line, demanding attention before any and all of our other little notions about what the day will bring.

To Prune or not to Prune

So Spring is here now, and all of our babies are waking up from their winter nap to a beautiful season. We're trying to make up for last year's mistakes and get a head start this year so we won't fall too far behind. The Lavender garden is a big project. Alex and I went out there the other day, clippers in hand, ready to rescue our dying plants. The weeds did a number on them last year, and lots of our beautiful babies were half-killed by the evil crabgrass. The Lavenders look woody and dried out, but most of them have new green growth at the very end of the old dead stuff. So she starts cutting away, snip, snip, snip, "giving them a haircut" she likes to think of it as. But me? Oh....the horror. I have a real problem with pruning in general, not to mention pruning out of season. I am so afraid that I am going to cut in the wrong spot, or too much, or not enough. I'm so afraid that I'm going to kill the very thing I love.

I panic and Alex comes over to give advice, "cut about a third, and try to leave some new shoots if you can." So I go back at it, dismayed face, telling the Lavender, and reassuring myself...."she said a third, that's the rule." It's an unreasonably stressful thing for me. I feel on the verge of tears, and have to keep taking deep breaths. Alex says, "you really have to be okay with this, it's kind of an essential part of being a gardener." I know. I know...but I feel like I'm hurting myself when I cut off all this beautiful new growth.

I feel like this plant tried so hard to survive for us last year, despite our incompetence, and the fight with the weeds, and it survived. And instead of being grateful, and happy for it, here I come along and cut it down again. But we have to. If we let it continue, it's just going to get gangly, and ugly, and not very healthy. We know pruning now might hurt the plants. Some of them hardly have any new shoots at all, but if we don't try, we're not going to be able to keep them anyway. It's a risk, and it's our fault that they are like this, and I guess that's what feels so bad. I just have to learn to forgive myself, and pray that the little bit of life left in the Lavender can forgive me too.

Tax Seasoning

So the winter is generally a quieter time. Birds migrate south, plants go dormant, animals hibernate, people stay inside by the fire... Um...well... ideally that may be the case, and in some ways, still, yes. But reality is that human life doesn't much take notice of the seasons anymore, and our jobs still want us to show up everyday, the bills still come, and life still presents us with seemingly millions of things to do and no time to do them in.

Case in point: This year we have gotten unusually high amounts of snow. It happened that because we live far, far away from our night jobs and Virginians are generally unprepared for anymore than 3 inches of snow, we got to spend a couple of weekends snowbound in the house, with no obligation, or desire to go elsewhere. Those weekends were a godsend because it gave us time where we couldn't leave the house so we had to spend time cleaning and organizing everything for the spring...which always seems to come sooner than it should. I made a comment that first weekend..."this is great, all we need now is about 5 more snow-weekends and we'll have everything together!" Be careful what you wish for.

Alex is pretty much back to work as normal. For me, however, the snow took my request seriously and weighed down on the roof of the bowling alley I now bartend at until it twisted some support beams. I have been out of work for a week and a half and still have about 2 weeks left to go (if I'm lucky.) So that's that.

But with all this time off, you'd think I'd have written a novel, mastered the guitar, or at least gotten the house clean and organized. No such luck. Funny thing about time, the more you have, the more you seem to waste. Ah well, we are getting back on track finally and I have started being more productive.

Something I've allowed myself the luxury of doing during my "vacation" is to cook. Cooking for Alex and I is always an adventure. Food usually ends up splattered somewhere, someone usually gets hurt, and there are lots of sound effects (like "Oops, Sh**, Uh...," or general yelling of orders and explatives.) A while ago I received a pressure cooker as a gift. This is something I was excited about because I love Indian food and all my Indian friends assure me that a pressure cooker is essential. When I pulled it out to use for the very first time today Alex asked, "Who would get you a dangerous piece of cooking equipment?" Good question. I answered, "My Uncle Eric. Because he loves me." And that's the truth.

More on cooking Dal by pressure later....