Longing for Peaches

Florence Dunbar Tending the Garden by

Evelyn Dunbar (1938-1939) 

“The flavor the came to me was a luscious Sincerest peach that I once had in California. This heirloom variety needed time to ripen on the tree to achieve its peak flavor. Unlike other peaches that were picked unripe so they would ship more easily, Sincerest peaches had to be eaten right away. But they were worth it- fragrant, luscious, juice-dripping-down-your-chin perfection.” ~~ Judith M. Fertig, The Memory of Lemon

“Life is better than death, I believe, if only because it is less boring, and because it has fresh peaches in it.” ~~ Alice Walker, Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology


"The peach-bud glows, the wild bee hums, the wind-flower wave in gladness." ~~Lucy Larcom

Its a blue sky sunny day in March, but don't let that fool you into wearing a sweater and shorts.  It is in the high 30s.  By the time March rolls around in Ohio, I long for spring and the fruit of summer.  I was walking home from work this past week, and I noticed that the crocuses and daffodils leaves are pushing up out of the ground.   The effect inspired me to purchased tomato and pepper seeds to start in the house. Spring is coming.

A characteristic I share with Xi Wangmmu, we are gardeners.  Her garden is filled with peach trees; mine vegetables and raspberries.  Those who are gardeners carry similar characteristics.  We have patience to let a fruit ripen in the sun; can see patterns in the weather and try to understand what our plants may need to grow; and have a vision of what to outcome will be like--tasting a sun ripened tomato basil salad with mozzarella cheese, balsamic vinegar and olive oil.  

~~~

The peach tree on the southern wall 
by Christina Rosetti (1830-1894)

The peach tree on the southern wall 
Has basked so long beneath the sun, 
Her score of peaches great and small 
Bloom rosy, every one. 
A peach for brothers, one for each, 
A peach for you and a peach for me; 
But the biggest, rosiest, downiest peach 
For Grandmamma with her tea

~~~

Chinese painting: peach blossoms

Artual (ART + Ritual)

Peach Blossom Song (Chinese Folk Song)
Arranged by Yoshiharu Morokuma

Forsythia – let there be flowering

BEMS@Copywrite

Maker's Moon - What wants to be conceived/born/shaped/made from our own minds/hearts/loins/hands? - CAYA Moon Question


"Forsythia is pure joy.  There is not an ounce, not a glimmer of saddness or even knowledge in forsythia.  Pure, undiluted, untouched joy."  ~ Anne Morrow Lindberg




I woke up today and the weather guy was droning on about “weekend of snow.”   There is a nice thin layer of cake frosting covering my car windshield and if this was January, I’d be smiling, but not so much now in March.  Then my son looked out the window and groaned:  “You’ve got to be kidding.” 

This past week I crunched across the community garden to our plot to bless it.  When I dug in to plant my egg, I quickly discovered that the top soil is still pretty much frozen.  This is very different from last year when we were having sweatshirt weather and the weeds were already up. 

My Grandmother use to say:  “Three more snow falls after the forsythia bloom.”  I went to where my Forsythia are and and and …. No green, no green buds only twigs sticking up out the ground.  Disappointed I tramped back into the house.  Yes, the robins are singing and the rain sometimes smells like spring and the crocuses and snowdrops are blooming, and the trees all appear ready with their buds, but not the forsythia .  Ohio this year is having a traditional winter season.

I admit.  I was spoiled by last year’s early spring weather that started in February. 

As a CCWWW, I have a love of nature and a passion for the wild and elemental.  These are a reminder that all creation is a gift from the divine.  These are a reminder that I’m just one piece that is interconnected.  I'm longing to lay in the grass and watch the summer wind blow the leaves. 

~#~

Let there be new flowering

by Lucille Clifton

let there be new flowering
in the fields let the fields
turn mellow for the men
let the men keep tender
through the time let the time
be wrested from the war
let the war be won
let love be
at the end

 

~#~

Potential tomato plants

Part of my practice as a CCWWW is growing my own vegetables and herbs. It is having a relationship with the devias or spirits of the garden and plants. My garden is a special place were we can meet. It is a place where I have learned many things that are magical.  It is in the garden that I learned about the tomato love spell.

Tomatoes are relatively easy to grow: sun, light, water and dirt.  And, it ceases to amazes me that some people have never seen a tomato plant growing in a garden.  These same people have told me they have never felt their fuzzy vines or smelled their distinct fragrance when brushed against.  They have never taken a bite out of a sun riped tomato.  They haven't held their tiny seeds in their hand.  (Maybe this is what intimidates people from growing them?)

I want to make sure we're all on the same page.  In Ohio, you don’t get tomatoes off the vine from your garden until end of June (maybe) July and August definitely.   It takes about 40-50 days to get tomatoes ripened off the vine according to the package and Ohio Cooperative Extension.  It also takes a specific type of weather – hot during the day and cooler during the evening. 

Tomatoes are part of a big family of plants known scientifically as Solanaceae or to gardeners the nightshade family.    Below are some of the cousins, and as in all families some are good to have around (edible) and some are toxic.

Mandragora (mandrake), Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade), Lycium barbarum (wolfberry), Physalis philadelphica (tomatillo) , Physalis peruviana (Cape gooseberry flower), Capsicum (chili pepper, bell pepper), Solanum (potato, tomato, eggplant), Nicotiana (tobacco), and Petunia

If you are thinking of “making” your own tomato plants - you need about 8 weeks to get those seeds ready.  I usually count 8 weeks back from US Mother’s Day – so now is the time for Central Ohians.  Mother’s Day Weekend has been usually our last known heavy frost day.  Tomato plants are annuals here in Ohio and don’t like the cold.    Here's a map of the world for planting times.

You start the seeds in plastic trays purchased from your local garden shop – or you can reuse the plastic lettuce containers and cardboard egg cartons.  You fill the trays (egg cartons) with dampened sterile soil mix. And plant the seeds.  I’m using a heirloom mix this year.  The seed containers should be placed in a southern facing window.  What is nice about the plastic lettuce containers is that they have a lid.  The egg carton can be cut down to fit the lettuce container and the lid creates a mini greenhouse that is waterproof.     

Before planting the seeds I thank the soil, thank the water, thank the sun and thank the seeds for the tomatoes that will help feed my family.

To be continued……..

Designing a Garden

BEMS@2013

Silent Moon - How can we find silent time to restore and regenerate our enthusiasm for our lives/work/relationships? ~ CAYA's Full MoonQuestions.

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. ~ Margaret Atwood, Bluebeard's Egg

Love which planted a glorious garden redolent with precious herbs and noble flowers--roses and lilies--which breathed forth a wondrous fragrance… ~ Hildegard of Bingen letter to the Monk Guibert, 1176

It’s getting close to spring.  I can see the days getting longer.  The sun is above the trees when I drive home after work.  I’m anxious for that change in the rain smell.  I’ve been getting e-mails daily from all the seed catalogues enticing me with 2 for 1 deals.  And, I paid my fee for my community garden plot.

Last night my Gurney’s Seed Catalogue came in the mail.  I flipped through it relining on the couch.  The cover shows three bright photos: Ka-Bluey Blueberries, Big Beef Tomatoes and Biggie Sweet Chilies.  I’m pulled into the size and redness of that tomato.  My mouth waters as I imagine its July sun sweetness – right off the vine - sliced between a baguette with fresh basil, mozzarella cheese, salt and fresh cracked pepper.  My finger itches to press its seeds into the dirt.

~#~

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) is considered to be a master gardener and herbalist. Her two treatises on medicine and natural history were widely read even today and probably have influenced modern pharmacology.  In her Causae et Curae, she catalogue over 47 known diseases during her time period (i.e., cause, symptom and treatment).  The treaty also provided lists of 300 medicinal plants and their use in treatment. 

The abbey Hildegard was prioress would have followed the Benedictine tradition by being self-sufficient. There would have been a vegetable/kitchen garden, farm fields, orchard, and physic garden.  Her medieval kitchen garden would have included: turnips, parsnips, onions, leeks, various legumes, mint, basil, wormwood, borage, mugwort, nettle and melons.  Whereas the physic garden would have traditionally grown sage, rue, aloe, rosemary, southernwood, poppy, mint and pennyroyal, parsley, gladioli and marigolds.

Hildegard was also a woman ahead of her time.  She adopted a way of eating that was based on color.  She believed and wrote about how foods offered specific viriditas associated with their colors.  She encouraged eating a multi-colored food diet as a way to promote well-being - mentally, physically and spiritually.  Today her “diet” for healthy living is better known as the Rainbow Diet, the Chakra Diet or My Plate 

Hildegard held the emerald colored foods above all.  Today we know that these dark green leafy vegetables are the powerhouse of the vegetable.  They are rich in minerals (i.e., iron, calcium, potassium and magnesium) and the B vitamins.  It is written the fennel was her favorite green colored food.  The herb is known to help with digestion and improve sight.  Eaten it tastes a little like anise.
 

~#~

"... Only gradually did I discover what the mandala really is: 'Formation, Transformation, Eternal Mind's eternal creation' (Faust, II). And that is the self, the wholeness of the personality, which if all goes well is harmonious, but which cannot tolerate self-deceptions." ~ C. G. Jung

~#~

BEMS @ 2013

My class on Hildegard also includes learning to draw mandalas.  Up front, I’m not an experienced mandala drawer and consider at the most an amateur mandala coloring in the lines person.  

What I’ve learn so far is that some people consider mandala is like a garden temple or sacred space.   In many traditions it is used as a tool where one can use for meditation or trance.   It can assist the meditator on their journey for inward towards their sacred center for healing and commune with the Divine one.

Each day I focus on one of Hildegard’s writings and let my creative side take over. 

During my silent times of coloring, cutting and pasting, I’ve been inspired to move away from the boxy 9”x9” squares in my community garden to circles and fluid lines.  My research landed me on sites discussing mandala and keyhole garden structures.  These kitchen garden structures are non-linear and fluid.  They are considered more ecological and kinder to the soil.  Additionally, the design is said to be more pleasing to the eye - meditative. I can picture the rectangle I'm renting to look more like a mitochondria - the powerhouse organelle of our cells who's DNA is from our mothers.   

My mind contemplates the possibilities and my finger itches to press seeds into soil.

~#~

Recipe for rainbow eating – inspired by Martha Stewart and BonAppetit

Blood Orange, Beet, and Fennel Viriditas Salad

Ingredients

2 medium 1 red and 1 yellow beets, tops trimmed and roasted and peeled and sliced

3 blood oranges, peel, pith cut off and sliced into segments  (Make sure you catch the juice)

1/2 small fennel bulb, very thinly sliced crosswise on a mandoline

1/4 red onion, very thinly sliced on a mandoline

Small container of greens

2 Tbsp orange juice

2 Tbsp of olive oil

1 Tbsp of balsamic vinegar

1 small container of feta crumbled

Into salad bowl, greens then beets, fennel, orange, onions.  Mix orange juice, olive oil, and vinegar together and dress the salad.  Add feta cheese and serve.

Cycles, Composting and Creativity



Landscape with Snow (Paysage enneigé), by Vincent Van Gogh
late February 1888. Oil on canvas, 15 1/16 x 18 3/16 inches
(38.2 x 46.2 cm).  Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York,
Thannhauser Collection, Gift, Hilde Thannhauser 84.3239

Silent Moon - How can we find silent time to restore and regenerate our enthusiasm for our lives/work/relationships? ~
CAYA's Full Moon Questions.

“Only to a magician is the world forever fluid, infinitely mutable and eternally new.  Only he knows the secret of change, only he knows truly that all things are crouched in eagerness to become something else, and it is from this universal tension that he draws his power.” ~ Peter Beagle

“In nature the life-death-rebirth cycle is clear as we watch flash fires ignited by lightning level the prairies.  It may appear that all life is gone, lost to the ravages of flame and smoke, but within days, tiny green shoots begin to poke above the surface of the soil.  Mother Earth has cleared the land for new life.  Even in my garden I sense the seasons and the cycle of life-death-life.  Perennials planted in my yard years ago go through their seasonal life span: a new green shoot, a blooming tulip, soon gone, but the bulb below the soil holds all the necessary ingredients for repeating the cycle again next spring.” ~ Kathleen A. Brehony, Awakening at Midlife

Ohio Story:

A guy is nursing his beer at a downtown Cleveland bar.  For over twenty minutes he’s been studying the pictures that decorate the place: Cy Young, Doris Day, Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Bob Hope, Jessie Owens, Orville and Wilbert Wright, Toni Morrison, Thomas Edison, Bernadine Healy, Erma Bombeck, Rita Dove…  He leans over and asks the bartender.  “What’s with Ohio?”

The bartender shrugs and tops off another order.

“How does Ohio get all these famous people?  You know 8 presidents and 25 astronauts...”

The bartender nods.  “Four months.”

“Come again?”

“We Ohioans are blessed with four months.”

“I don’t think I’m following you.”

“Ohio winters.  That gray, snow and cold that people from other states complain about, well it has an opposite effect for us Ohioans.  We are taught at an early age that the best time to fertilize dreams is during an Ohio winter.  It makes you contemplate.  You know – chew on it and compost the stuff that doesn’t work.”

~#~

"To everything, there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven." Ecclesiastes 3:1.

Turn! Turn! Turn! by The Byrds

~#~

I love Ohio winters.  The cold temperatures that bite your cheeks, icy sidewalks and the gray sky days?  Not so much.  What I like is the stillness of the time.  I find this seasonal period always inviting me to rest, be silent and to listen.  It calls me to gather unfinished projects or those that are broken and to decide to: fix them, finish them or unravel them.  Spiritually, I know it’s a way for making room for something new.


I see winter as the ebbing part of an endless cycle. It reminds me of the ocean’s tide gently pulling back before the next surge forward.  Winter is the nighttime when dreams percolate as you sleep and all you have to do is choose one star to follow the next morning.  To exhale is winter.  The air rushes out of my nose and I can feel my shoulders relax for a bit or enough to catch my breath and focus my thoughts.    

As a gardener, I value this part of the seasonal cycle.  I’m hoping this year’s frigid temperatures will decrease the bug population.  (2012 bean patch was continually munched down and my salad mix had Alpine lacey holes).  I’m hoping it will create a big sugar rush in the Maple trees so that that the cost of a gallon of syrup will go down. (2012 too warm of a winter).

My compost bin also likes the winter.  The freezing and thawing (1/29/2013 60F and 2/1/2013 16F) helps break down the vegie matter into this primordial black stuff that T spreads into our garden.  The unwanted egg shells, used teabags, cabbage core and the moldy lentil soup that was forgotten in the frig all magically turns (science speak - decomposes) into this green silky film.  It then mixes with the other earthy smelling brown matter in the bin.  By October, the end product is this ultimate fertilizer for next year’s garden.

~#~

“The ancient rhythms of the earth have insinuated themselves into the rhythms of the human heart. The earth is not outside us; it is within: the clay from where the tree of the body grows. When we emerge from our offices, rooms and houses, we enter our natural element. We are children of the earth: people to whom the outdoors is home. Nothing can separate us from the vigor and vibrancy of this inheritance. In contrast to our frenetic, saturated lives, the earth offers a calming stillness. Movement and growth in nature takes its time. The patience of nature enjoys the ease of trust and hope. There is something in our clay nature that needs to continually experience this ancient, outer ease of the world. It helps us remember who we are and why we are here.” ~ John O’Donohue, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

~#~

Many of my poems, knitting projects and short stories have come from the scraps transformed in my creative compost bin.  The yule scarf that I’m working on for a friend has evolved out of an intended sweater I was knitting 25 years ago.  Every time I’ve looked at the beautiful red yarn and unfinished sweater in my basement, I immediately thought of the bad memories attached to it (i.e., old abusive boyfriend, laughing ex-friends (1980s) who thought knitting was an old lady activity, family members who believed I couldn’t finish anything I started).  This past January’s full moon I decided I needed to let go of those memories and tossed them onto my creative compost pile.  Immediately, I felt a winter – a stillness, a soft place with clean snow, and the ocean’s tide pulling back.  As January's moon let go of her fullness, I found a new and lighter place in my psyche.  The red yarn was free to become something new. 

Cable Scarf @ BEMS

Knitting Activity

Spirit Stitch’s Irish Fisherman Cable Scarf or Cindy’s wish for a fruitful day at the sea.

You will need a cable needle in addition to the regular knitting needles (I used 5 American needles)

Cast on 42 on regular knitting needles.

Knit 4 rows (8 rows total – down and back)

Pattern:

Row 1: Knit 8 (purl 1 knit 4) 6 times knit last 4 stitches
Row 2: Knit 8 (purl 4 knit 1) 6 times knit last 4 stitches
Row 3:  Knit 8 (purl 1 knit 4) 6 times knit last 4 stitches
Row 4: Knit 8 (purl 4 knit 1) 6 times knit last 4 stitches
Row 5: Knit 8 (Cable stitch Back the 4 purl 1) 6 times knit last 4 stitches
Row 6: Knit 8 (purl 4 knit 1) 6 times knit last 4 stitches

Repeat 1- 6 to desired length

Knit 4 rows (8 down and back) at the end of the scarf.

Note:  I crossed my cable needle behind for this scarf - this is different than the Youtube video.

Additional Reading on Composting

Dreher, Diane. Inner Gardening: Four Seasons of Cultivating the Soil and the Spirit. William Morrows. 2001.

Goldberg, Natalie. Writing Down the Bones. Shambhala Press. Boston, Massachusetts. 2005.

Visioning: A New Year of Possibilities

Great site to talk about gathering seeds

Happy New Year.

T and I went down to the garden one more time.  Monday they plan on plowing everything under.  We spent a good two hours picking green tomatoes, peppers, dill and dug up carrots and turnips.  We cut the arugula and lettuce for a last week of salad.  I went around cutting dried cosmos, zinnias and marigolds – seeds for next year.

The sky was over casted and the wind picked up.   It took me half a book of matches to get the incense lit.  This happened back in April when we started planting….  The wind made the smoke rise in little spirals.  One more time I thanked the garden and then turned and walked away.  It’s hard to say goodbye, but I know this isn’t the end.  The flower seeds tell something different.

A gardener knows this season is needed.  It isn’t final, but a part of a never ending pattern.  The gardener knows this death is necessary to bring about a successful harvest next year.  Everyone needs a rest – even the dirt and the spirits.

~#~

"When we realize the extent of the myriad interconnections which link us to all other life, we realize that our existence only becomes meaningful through interaction with, and in relation to, others." ~ Buddha

~#~

This past year I’ve been reading from many of my old friends.  Authors who I found tucked away in my bookshelf.  I’ve discovered new nuances in their writings – a “Mary Poppins Factor” so to speak.  I’m amazed at what I missed the last time I read the texts.  Specifically, how essential it is to see a goal completed – even those goals which seem overwhelming like seeing a world where everyone is fed, everyone feels safe, or everyone shows empathy for their neighbor. 

In Dreaming the Dark, Starhawk talks about the interconnected principle.  Meaning – nothing on this earth or universe exists in isolation.  We are all linked together.  If one changes we all changes.  When talking about dreams and goals – these won’t come to fruition if we don’t do some work.  This work includes seeing the goal completed and saying and doing one concrete thing.  An individual who does this changes themselves energetically and this causes everything else to change due to the interconnected principle.

As a gardener, I can hold the seeds in my hand and easily can picture the flowers blooming next summer.  Seeing people not in need of food pantries, I admit this is something I struggle wrapping my mind around.  And, maybe this is one of the reasons why energetically speaking hunger, domestic violence or any social justice issue is hard to tackle.  We can’t see it and we all have different ideas on how to begin.

I keep going back to Starhawk’s book and the interconnected principle.  If we each set a goal to do one small thing; “we make a change in relationship in which we take part” (44).  I might not be able to see the ending of hunger, but I can help hand out food or grow tomatoes to share in my garden.  I can see this and I can do this.  This in turns helps transform the energy around me. 

~#~

Activity

New Year Goals to help change my world

Make a list of 3 things you could do to change the status quo energy of exploitation, pollution and destruction.

1. In 2013, I will grow nine tomato plants strictly for the food pantry.
2. On Earth Day 2013, I will participate in my community’s activity of cleaning up a corner.
3. During Sexual Assault Awareness Month – April 2013, I will post daily on facebook information about promoting healthy relationships.

River of Souls by Dan Fogelberg

 

 

Samhain in CCWWW tradition

 


Blessings to all my ancestors

For all the saints - a favorite hymn of my grandparents.

For the Beauty of the Earth - Everytime I hear this sung I think of my Grandmother.
 

 

As Beltain was for the Summer Solstice, Samhain is for the Winter Solstice.  To me it marks the end of a cycle.  The leaves shed their colorful dresses and lacy frost carpet the browning grass.  It’s a last minute chance to dig holes for garlic and daffodils – buried hope to arise next spring.     

At Samhain, the fall sun sets early allowing more time for reflection.  Specifically, for me Samhain is a time to remember all my teachers and ancestors – the saints in my life who’ve passed over into the great love source.   It’s my time to be grateful for all their wisdom they have shared – those that I use and those I’ve decided needed to be changed or not carried on to another generation. 

I tend to think of this of this Sabbath as a prequel to our American Thanksgiving.  The last vegetables are gleaned from my garden plot and the tomato stakes are put away until spring.  It’s one more time to light incense and thank the garden spirits and Motherfather Spirit for allowing me the space to grow nourishing food for my family.

A Scottish Prayer
Slainte - I lift my ancestors up in remembrance of all the things they taught me. And, as the long days of summers draw close I pray to Motherfather spirit to watch over me and my love ones through the dark days of winter. May our bellies may be full, and that we have warmth and shelter when we need it. Keep us from harms way and give us strength to help others who may not fare as well as we do.

 

Rituals:

New Year Attraction Candle

Materials:

Essential oils

Multi-color sheets of beeswax – I buy in a kit

Wick

Before the night of the new moon near Samhain – meditate and write down what you would like you would like to come into your life next year.  Think of this more in terms of emotions and feelings (e.g., protection, love, creativity, prosperity).  Visualize what these would look like in your life.  How would this love feel in your life…  how would creativity feel like in your life….. be very clear.

With this list in mind – I go to my books and intuitively pick out essential oils that match my intent of next year.  I also choose the color of my candle.

On the new moon…….

Take a sheet of beeswax and lay it on a smooth surface.  I place my hands on the wax to warm it up.  If you don’t warm it up; it tends to crumble. 

Cut the wick to the length the candle is going to be and lay it on the edge to be rolled up. Role the wax around it once. 

Place your hands on the candle and visualize what your intentions would look like in your life.  Going back to what you wanted and meditated on.

Splash the different essential oils on to the surface of the candle.  When I do this I say for each oil:  I sprinkle Cedar to bring for healing, purification, and protection in my life.

I roll up the sheet – focusing what I want for my new year.

I then raise the candle up to the new moon praying to Motherfather Spirit that these may come to be.

I place the candle in my window so it may gain the strength of the increasing moon.

The first full moon following Samhain I burn this candle.

 

Banishing Bowl (Modified Stein for a soloist)

Create a safe fire space outside.  (i.e., fire pit, candle in a bowl with water)

On slips of paper write what you would like have banished for next year.  This can be personal or this can be global.  (e.g., I would like to banish biting my nails.  I would like human trafficking banished….).  One banish per slips of paper.

Read each slip of paper out loud and then light it.

Wait until it is fully burned before lighting another.

Blessing of lost spirits

Since the veil is thin on this night between here and there, I light a candle at midnight.  I put out a blessing for those spirits that have lost their way.  I pray that all no matter what the reason they didn't make it - that they may find their way to love source. 

Update Garden and Rice Experiment Day 4

Update on the Community Garden

The head of the community gardens called me back.  He said he listened to my message and did some searching with other community gardens.  He stated he couldn't do anything about the Round-up spraying this year.  However, based on his research he did find that other community gardens around central Ohio have agreements with the gardeners.  He plans on proposing this to the Parks and Recs advisory committee.  I was only concerned with the Round-up, but he brought up the pesticides people use.  (Silently, I was cheering: "No more Sevin Dust").  I told him I would be happy to sign any agreement next year.  I also told him he could add into the agreement that people clean up their wooden and metal poles.  I was concerned with the guy who did the plowing and if one of those metal tomato stakes hit the plow - well it could fly and hurt him. 

I can't believe it - I got more than I ask.  And, I know someone on the Parks and Rec Advisory Committee.  Our sons are in Boy Scouts together and the same grade.  

Rice Experiment Day 4

No changes in any of the jars.  I'm starting to have empathy for the I hate you jar.  Why?  I wouldn't like to have those words said to me.