Happy Solstice! Joyous Litha! Hauskaa Juhannusta!

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Finland, garden, joy, solstice, summer, wheel of the year

Today is the longest day of the year, the summer solstice.  A time for rededication and rejoicing.  I got up to watch the sunrise and gather a few herbs, still wet with dew–rose, yarrow, lavender, elderflower, sage, lemon balm–whatever felt right to me.

Tonight I will light a small bonfire in the yard, a way of being grateful for this longest day by trying to extend it just a bit.  This Saturday in Finland, everyone will be lighting the Juhannus kokko, a bonfire.

As in much of Europe the pagan solstice celebration was combined into the Christian Feast of Saint John the Baptist.  In Sweden and in some parts of Finland there will be dancing around midsummer poles (we Americans think of them as Maypoles, but in Scandinavia, May is still too early in the year for the abundance of flowers and greenery.)

I wish you a joyous day, in whatever way you wish to celebrate this longest span of sun and light.  Blessed be.

June 1st garden tour

Tags

CoyoteCrow Farm, farming, garden, gardening, homesteading, spring, wheel of the year

Poppies

Lettuce, cucumbers, herbs, newly planted

Backyard veggie raised bed

Coral bells: from Great-grandmother’s garden, by way of Grandma’s

Rhubarb

Herb bed, with ginormous valerian, almost 7 feet tall

Sugar snap peas

Shell peas (slowly recovering from rabbit attack)

Siberian irises

More irises, wild geranium around the base of the crab apple tree, and the famous CCF truck

Tomato and potato driveway garden

Purple basil sharing space with tomato

Busy weekend

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chicken coop, farming, Foraging, garden, gardening, gratitude, homebrewing, homesteading, life, wheel of the year

I was going to write a nice descriptive post about the process of making dandelion wine, and maybe I will.  But this weekend was so chock-full of busy-ness and activity that I can’t pull my mind together.  I think I can manage a list, though.  🙂  Thank you for your indulgence.

• Weez was home all weekend, which was lovely.  Three whole days together, working on the homestead.
• Got over myself and bought started veggie plants from the organic guy at the farmer’s market–tomatoes, basil, dill, lavender, cucumbers, sage.
• We planted potatoes and tomatoes in the driveway, which involved lots of shoveling dirt.
• We put together all the ingredients for this year’s dandelion wine.  Hoping the magic will transform the smelly sludge into a potent elixir like it did last year!
• Bottled the Scottish 80 shilling ale from Northern Brewer.  Can’t wait to try it out!
• Made huge progress on my Rose Garden Shawl from Jane Austen Knits 2012.  Yay, lace knitting! (Or knitting lace, can never keep the two straight.  If you have no idea what I’m talking about, count yourself lucky.)
• Weez constructed what I’m calling a chicken patio, putting down tiles along the front side of the coop.  Pictures forthcoming.
•  Enjoyed life enormously, used my muscles, sweated, lifted, planted, measured, tended, and loved.

I am so grateful for these days.  This was our traditional “plant the garden” weekend here in the Berkshires, and it was a marvelous several days in our journey forward through the wheel of the year.  I hope your weekend was equally satisfying.  Blessings.

It’s been a whole week…

Tags

chicken coop, chickens, CoyoteCrow Farm, farming, garden, gardening, home, homesteading, spring, video, wheel of the year

…so I know you’re all just dying to see the chickens in action once again.

I give in!

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dogs & cats, grateful, gratitude, hearth, home, stubbornness, wheel of the year

I’ve been trying to avoid having to light a fire in the woodstove.  Lighting a fire means carrying in wood, and with a recovering toe, a sore back, and an absent wife, I don’t want to carry firewood.  I managed to convince myself that 55 degrees isn’t so bad.  Just put on a sweater, some wool socks, it’s fine.  However.  This morning when I came downstairs and saw that the INDOOR temperature is 50.4 degrees, I capitulated.  There is a lovely fire going in our woodstove.  The animals are all deeply grateful, and so am I.

Equinox

Tags

gardening, loving, magic, marriage, seasons, spring, wheel of the year

Rejoice!

I love the word Equinox.  My amateur Latin interpretation reads this as Equal Night, short for Equal Day and Night.  (My apologies to those Latin scholars out there, you know who you are!)  We are on one of the balancing points of the year.  Spring is starting, the whole planet is experiencing a twelve-hour day and a twelve-hour night.  This happens only twice a year, in March and in September.

There is something personally special about the Equinoxes for us as well.  Weez was born on March 20th (Happy Birthday, my love!) and I was born on September 21st.  We each came into the world on one of these balance points.  I believe that because of that, we each are a unique combination of opposing qualities, a constant paradox, unpredictable.  We are also perfectly balanced with each other.  The best possible case of opposites attracting–a pair that complements each other in all things.

I am taking the day off today (and yesterday) to celebrate Weez’s birthday and the coming of spring.  Unfortunately, she is sick, so my celebration is a bit one-sided.  The weather, however, is cooperating awesomely, although it is somewhat unseasonably warm.  Yesterday I weeded out last year’s vegetable beds in the backyard, and combined them into one nice big raised bed–about 3 feet by 12 feet.  I will start some seeds today, outdoors, because the soil and the earth are crying out for it. There is no life without risk of death, so I acknowledge that I am taking a chance of losing a few radishes and lettuces to frost, if we get a return to normal temperatures in the days to come.

In my explorations around the yard this morning, I saw…

…swelling buds on the pear trees…

…leaves coming out on the elderberry bush…

…new green growth on the blueberry bushes and the bush cherry…

…some perennial herbs returning to life in the medicinal herb bed…

…mini daffodils, crocuses, and little purple flowers blooming…

…crows flying by with twigs in their mouths to build up their nests for the season…

On this day of Equinox, also called Ostara, I wish you balance and the joy of new life.