October

October is drawing to it's end and time continues moving it's swift pace. The season of fertile summer, flowers, babies, green leaves, warm days is very much behind us as I take a deep breath and begin to catch up with my life. For me, since June, it's been the season of "baby".  For awhile I barely attended to what I would normally be doing in the summer and early autumn.  The feeling of newness and unfamiliarity is shifting into another state. Kaz, Josh and I have really become a unit and now the new normal is settling in. Some routines have been established and still there is a lot that keeps us on our toes. I imagine that raising children keeps you on your toes at all stages, so here we are. Yet despite this awesome focus of most my attention, some attention is being refocused back on me and my pursuits.....ahhhh....art...gardens...writing.

We have a new home studio/office that we built last spring.  As I sit here typing the rain falls, I look out the new, big picture window and I notice that most of the leaves are off the trees. The beech trees are the last to shed their leaves in our woods and I can see their green, yellow hue mixed in with the newly exposed greys and browns of bark and branches. I love when once again I can see the skeletons of trees and the space around us in the new way. We have a western view of the hills across from us, once the leaves are gone, where it is nice to watch the sun set.

Kaz and I took a couple drives in the last few weeks and I brought my camera along to take some photos. It's lovely and mysterious when the mists and fog cling to the hills and trees this time of year creating mystery and reflecting this time of dying.  The killing frost came letting me know it's time to put the gardens to bed. On a chilly rainy, night last week my beloved feline friend, Gilligan died. This loss magnifies the autumn feeling as I deal with my grief and loneliness for a dear being who touched me so deeply. I will post more on Gilligan in the near future as he shared a rich meaningful life with us and I have some good stories to share. Everything has it's season. There are many old cemeteries tucked away on dirt roads in the towns where I live. I love visiting them from time to time and reading all the names of people who were here before.  Good old fashioned names appear like Ebenezer, Josiah, Hannah...

Next to the Streeter Cemetery on Old Stage Road some cows wandered over to the stone wall and seemed curious as to what I was doing. I explained that I just wanted to take a few pictures as they posed for their cow portrait.

Finally, I can't end this post with out a picture of Kazmir and I in our warm, wooly sweaters, snuggling up at the Ashfield Fall Festival.

Pussycat with Poppies

One would think my cat Gilligan was the creator of this new design by the look on his face. In fact he does often have a presence with most things...his strong personality seems to claim ownership of a place, a thing or a person he loves. I think I will make him Vice President of the handmade design business I am developing. Something tells me he'll be the perfect guy for the job.

Spring Around the House

Good morning!  My girl, Una, or Lala as we like to call her around here, has the right idea.  She stays in bed, snuggled under the covers on these cool, drizzly,spring days.  I would've liked to have stayed by her side this morning.  Last night we celebrated Passover with another couple and their kids.  Let me just say, I'm paying

the price for those "four glasses of wine" you are supposed to drink during the ritual dinner.  

Besides Lala staying in bed...what else is happening around the house these days?  The gardens are waking up which means I'm getting ready to put the pedal to the metal because it's time to work hard out there.  This past weekend we worked in the gardens transplanting raspberries and blueberry bushes before the rains came.  I was back raking my client's garden and lawn on Monday.  My muscles are waking up. I feel that familiar soreness that comes when I get back to work after the less strenuous winter months. Other things are waking up around the house as well.

The fig tree in my studio is putting out new growth and so are the apple and peach branches I pruned off the trees in my little orchard.  After a week of sitting in the warm house in water they are about to blossom.

It's warm and cozy in here next to the fire.  Here are some other signs of spring...

The hand dyed eggs that I have made with friends over the years are out on the dining table in the kitchen.  Yet another symbol that there is new life all around.

The blossom of the hyacinth that I bought at the grocery store has gone by but the green leaves and hot pink wrapping are a cheery sign of spring.

Now lets venture outside and see what's happening this time of year in the gardens....

I've cleared away wild blackberry canes that have been hiding this beautiful boulder.  I then found a lone tulip coming up in front of the rock.  Sharing space with the tulip is some Siberian iris and fern.  It's nice to meet you all!

If you look closely you might see the garlic that is coming up through the straw mulch.

Happy, wet daffodils are popping up everywhere.

The frogs are back in my little pond.  Look what they left attached to the submerged flower pot...frog eggs!

The Allium bulbs are catching glistening rain drops.

The first flowers are blooming...these pink Pulmonaria, a crocus, coltsfoot...

Green mosses and lichen add such beauty and interest to the many rocks around the gardens.

This week, the gray, drizzly days, have been a blessing.  I'm not working at the poster shop because of the Holidays.  So, I get to work at home on the projects here that are taking up so much time.  I am planning to study and travel in Central Europe this July and August.  I am going to Poland and Hungary to study the folk art of these two countries plus I will meet family in Poland, stay with friends in Hungary and visit the villages where my grandmother and grandfather's families lived before they came to America.  I can't wait to share more about my upcoming adventure with you.  For now the planning for this trip is taking up a lot of time and I have it this week! I'm reluctant to work in the rain in the gardens too so I can happily bask in the glow of my computer with a warm cup of coffee by my side...a little calm before the storm.  Next week I will be in PA visiting family and working. The first week of May I'm off...back to the garden work.