Daily Scribbles and thoughts, I bring the GOOD NEWS!

In the not so distant past we all wrote letters to eachother, then there was the phone ring ring ring..., and then we figured out how to FAX, sort of. Now we have email, and all the social networking sites of various types, we call this the information age! I would just like to be the place for some inspiration and good news, I love to keep in touch- please feel free to comment- back!

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Friday, March 5, 2010

welcome back


welcome back !!!!




- please do not start singing that silly song from the tv show welcome back kotter...




Welcome back to spring! and welcome back honey bees, wild canaries and warm days and sunshine! Redding has its good season, it is spring! I love how we have an early spring, it will be warm and sunny here long before most other California towns. We have many more warm days here, yes sometimes too warm! But it really great for growing flowers and farming food. I love my garden, it always give me peace and meaning in my life, no matter what the garden is my comfort, and in it there is room for everything and everyone. I can bring my thoughts, good or bad, and I can loose them out there and even make some needed pruning on them. We all have too much to think about, it is good to let the worries drop off like bad fruit, so that new growth can find its way out our lovely branches.


We can travel the hour to Chico easily from here, that little college town world famous for its Sierra Nevada Brewery, but really has many other beautiful sights to see, the blooming dogwood trees are too many to count. These trees blossom large5 and 6 pedaled flowers in pinks and whites will loosen from the tree and drift gently and serenely down to the ground looking like something out of Disney's fantasia, they are surreal with beauty. But the Chico dogwood is not the only blooming tree, you can drive from Redding all the way to Willows there are orchards of peaches, and apricots and almonds here, with the popcorn flowers popping daily in cheery pink colors, the cherry trees with their large white flowers will emerge any day now, and that brings back the busy buzzing bees, and it feels once again like spring. Chico has a great college feel, it has wonderful antiques stores, and quaint houses, and many great place to dine out, I get lost in Chico, even with a guide! So I usually stay close to home.



At home I have so many pressing issues each day, I have worked since I was a young child, at the age of 13 I was a "people" sitter, with no insult to the elderly, I really enjoyed and still do. Working has always been my thing, I feel like I have had good experiences in all types of jovs, hospitality, restuarant, education, retail, corporate business sales, and balancing that with college, being free lance artist, and mother and house keeper- the hats I can't hide. We wear our jobs on our faces, and I often believe they age us, and mold us, with or without us knowing, unless we find our serenity, our place in the sun. The perfect job I have not yet found, but I would believe that it will show its' face soon, and then life again will find balancec for me.


Until then, for sanity, I will sit in my yard on a sunny day, and soak in all its beauty. I will stare at the flowers and count the bees, I will look for new shoots of raspberries and new bulbs starting up with purple faces of Iris and watch for the Easter Lillie's to reappear from the ground. I recommend saving those Easter Lillie's that you see in the pots, yes when you think they are done, and dead, please don't throw them away, they are not dead! they are resting, and will be more than content to sleep in your yard and wait until the same time next year and blossom up nicely for your decorations the very next year. ( I can hear them - I am not dead yet..!)

There is always work to do in the yard, pulling weeds, getting dirty, getting the yard to look inviting, and fertalizing. I like to see the flower push out, and I think of the wonder of the movie Totoro by Miyazaki, if you have not enjoyed this wonderful childrens animated film you really must see it, we love it. I caught myself doing the Totoro dance to celebrate my fruitless apricot making flowers this year-- yea! I am sure you can find clips of it on YOUTube, its really great to see it all at once, it has this other worldly charm about it.



Birds, birds wonderful sounding birds! Yes we have wild canaries, you can not believe it, but we do. In spring you can hear their hallmark singing if you are patient enought, its fantastic. That is Redding for you, I have seen so many neat wild birds here. I do love seeing the black and white wood peckers, they would come to eat the sakatia bugs, I even like the blue jays with their loud croaks. I have collected many bird houses that bring such activity in the spring, it is wonderful to see the babies peek out and then finally make the yard their home, usually eating all of my green grapes left on the vine. That is fine with me, we cant possibly eat them all. The little birds with their tiny beaks, how can they fit the grape in, I do not know but are happy to sit and eat sun warmed grapes right off the vine.




I like the serenity of the garden, it has always been my muse, the enchanted garden has been my greatest hope. It started when I was in my earliest days in Livermore, and we had a back yard with lots of hiding spots, behind Eucalyptus trees, and in garden at my grandmothers house. She had lots of nice tall trees, and utilized spaces with clever gardens ripe with delicious fruits and veggies. Then there was the real enchanted forest, the one that once you experienced it, you became part of some Once UPON a time story, and you transform into this purist that lived long ago, and had the rugged yet natural life of a homesteader. I know that few will ever go there with the eyes of a child, or with my families eyes, but all that did were swept away with its beauty, and taken in by the simple charm of the backdrop of Rock Creek, and its farmhouse built with the hands of the people who would love that land for the nearly one hundred years. I cannot describe the beauty of that place it is indescribable, and also because it is appreciated by time. Not only has time made the land more valuable, yes that is true, but really a person would have to take the time to walk in the woods, and on the trails, and have a guide that knew every plant and every flower to know how to describe it.




I have a memory that I keep fresh in my heart, it is of my Great Grandmother Nina Bell Taylor, walking with me in the woods past her house, not to the creek or to the berry patch or to the animals, but another place where she said we would find a flower she called the Lady Slipper, and I thought what a funny thing to look for. What was it, a shoe, a tiny elf shoe? I wondered if we would see a Gnome or elf or fairy, and I had my heart set on finding one. We walked in the soft bedding of the thistles and dirt, under the cool canopy of the giant furs and pines, until after much searching she said, I found one! She reached down under a leaf very near the ground, and pushed away the other growing plants, and grasses, and plucked a single flower from the ground, it was so tiny I had to look at it several times to even see that part that resembled a " lady slipper". I could not believe that I with my closer to the ground eyes, and ability to find all the other tiny flowers, could not see the one flower that she wanted. I was even more surprised that we picked it, because we were taught to never disturb the forest, for it was not ours to destroy, and we were never allowed to pick flowers at random and then waste them. My Grandmother and her mother always said that the flowers were there to feed the animals or the bees, and I was neither, and neither did I need to pick them. That was good advice, and I respected these women in my life, they were the women of great power and wisdom to me.




I believe that the kind of people that have the patience to love and grow a plant into the greatest gift that brings good food to the table is next to God, and they are the gifted ones, here to help us. They often learned the skills from the days when you had to live off your land and buying the goods you need was just not an option for you, you had to make do, you had to make your own goods, and even if you could afford to buy it, you would make it yourself, because you knew it was just better quality to do it yourself. That is not what the baby-gloomers and the dooms-dayers are saying now, that same group of people that were brought up by people who said, don't complain, don't talk about it, and do it yourself, are having the toughest time seeing the forest for the trees. They could benefit from some nature therapy, I know I need sunshine and exercise! I can't live wihtout it like my friends in the garden, even bringing in some fresh cut flowers into the house can make me happy, more than anything the fragrance of flowers for me is enchanting, I brought in some fresh cut hyacinth from my yard, and placed them near a sitting spot inthe front room. They have a strong lilac scent that is better than any-perfume you can place in the house, and for me it is mind candy, or soul medicine, it just makes me feel better!




Life is the same, even as it was one hundred years ago, we all still need to eat and work to survive, and the basics never change. Just like the seasons, we expect the trees to bloom out in spring after a long cold winter, its a sign that spring will be coming, the trees have a great way of welcoming the season, and the bees. They put on there best face, and dress up right, and look their best for the bees are coming! Thank God they do! Bees are wealth of the land, they are the great workers for the fruit that heals and give us jams and jellies and pies and juice and all that is really great, and we really should celebrate each year when we see this traditional headdress of blossoms on the trees. Bees are so small on this earth but they do the biggest job of all, and we know without them we would not survive. I have a good friend who says, count every bee you see everyday, and thank God for them everyday. I do!




I hope that we can find time to remember the garden, and enjoy the trees, because somewhere inside this great serene place there is a lady slipper blossom, it is so tiny only a fairy could wish to wear it, and it is as it has been for the centuries to come. If the great families that came before us could survive so much before us, and make the work and meals appear for them we too can find this time to make the very best of what is here to enjoy. We have the same gifts still to enjoy, because we are one of the few who will have our own to teach the very same values, by just walking into the woods and finding its tiny gifts.




Return to the garden and lounge in the lap of luxury, as the seasons change, you will see that nature is responding to the time as it always has been and we too can find that grace in significant small blossoms in our heart, thinking of the cheery times we will be able to share soon.
Meet me in the garden, I will be waiting for you there.
L



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