“When I sound the fairy call, gather here in silent meeting,
Chin to knee on the orchard wall, cooled with dew and cherries eating.
Merry, merry, take a cherry, mine are sounder, mine are rounder,
Mine are sweeter for the eater, when the dews fall, and you'll be fairies all.”
― Emily Dickinson
The first batch of the season, bought from a nice man in a van at one of the local breweries.
$9 a pound and worth every penny.
“The way to get over creative block is to simply place some constraints on yourself. It seems contradictory, but when it comes to creative work, limitations mean freedom.”
― Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative
Most of my creativity juices come by way of chance, so I can’t help but wonder what would happen if I were to put some constraints on myself.
I won’t share the list yet, but I am curious to see what happens.
“ I breathe at the open window above my desk, and a moist fragrance assails me from the gnawed leaves of the growing mock orange.”
-Annie Dillard
“Be thankful for a breath of fresh air to be alive and well. Allow love and happiness to penetrate throughout your mind and soul. Take time to relax and live in the moment, the now, the present. Enjoy today.”
~ Amaka Imani Nikosazana
We spend Sunday with the kids, helping them trim up some tress. Their five acres is like a secret oasis of peace and quiet. I am not so good at hauling huge cedar branches and volunteer to weed the garden beds a bit and chase the chickens with my camera. I hear laughter from the corners of the property as light rain falls off and on, understanding there is no other place I would rather be right now. Later we order take out burgers and chicken yakisoba from the tiny market by their house, eating on their screened in porch. I come home full of love and gratitude for these wonderful humans who I get to share my life with.
"Do you bow your head when you pray or do you look up into that blue space?
Take your choice, prayers fly from all directions."
— Mary Oliver
Today I will run some errands and go to the post office.
Today I will sit on the floor in the children’s section of the library and choose some new books for Percy.
Today I will do my best to be kind, and pleasant, and upbeat.
Today I will live with that lump in my throat and try not to cry.
Today I will ponder just how much of the world I will have to shut out to protect my well being.
“A tomato may be a fruit, but it is a singular fruit. A savory fruit. A fruit that has ambitions far beyond the ambitions of other fruits.”
― E. Lockhart
I stand among the vegetables at our local food co-op watching the young man place these beautiful tomatoes in cardboard baskets. He offers me a bright red one to taste and I slide it into my month and taste summer. I reach for a paper bag and ask him to slip a couple baskets inside. He empties two very full baskets into the bag and hands me two baskets to place them in once I get home.
I can’t resist taking their picture.
And the wind upon its way whispered the boughs of May, And touched the nodding peony flowers to bid them waken.
- Siegfried Sassoon
I tied them up with a nylon, which I had him pickup at the pharmacy one day a few weeks back.
The rain, while constant and unforgiving has not broken them down. They stand tall in the front garden, the bush full of buds, ready to open any day now.
Their season is far too short, so I will visit daily now, and do my best to capture them at from every angle.