Outside

Some photos from last week at Worlds End. Things are bananas there. If I thought I was in tune with the seasons before, I had no idea. My sensitivity has been increased a hundred fold. I have to make more space in my brain for the input of nature.

The struggles we have with the farm are outweighed by the pleasures and small triumphs. The place demands so much from us. Eric stresses, I dream too big, the girls extend themselves to assist with weddings and studio work and tasks like ordering truckloads of compost. (Did you Asheley?) I'm on the road a lot lately and their stellar work shines brighter in my absence. I'm tired but love my job even more than I could have ever imagined.

Last week Eric and I were there working on the hellebore garden - setting to rest the plants that Barry sold us for cutting in a recent Little Flower School Class. I've always dreamed of having a place to bring such refugees home to...resting their roots in solid ground instead of my over-crowded city container garden.

The farm is funny. This place, newly turned over to novices...it knows what it wants, and what it wants is lots of checks. I feel like all I do write checks and checks and checks. I could write pages on the endless supply of cash that a farm requires, here in only my seventh or eighth month of playing this game. I try not to think about the finances too hard. Money is just money, and when we run out, we'll work hard to make some more to feed it.

So when Eric and I found ourselves digging rocks all day in the hellebore garden last week, and making a little patio out of those rocks, using only our own hands - I felt relief. Relief to realize that there are some projects we can complete without many resources. Make a patio, brush it off and remember that the next time we break for coffee around 4pm we can sit here amidst the shade plants, swatting mosquitoes and looking out to the yard at the myriad of other projects that await us patiently.

Speaking of coffee breaks and work days - do you have any interest in coming up for a day and working along side us? It would make me so happy to have you come and see the newest part of Saipua. We're thinking the Saturday before Memorial Day - May 26th. You can camp out with us and Nea, and although the house won't be nearly done, we'll have two working new bathrooms (god willing) and a pig roast to celebrate our efforts. Maybe the water iris will be blooming by then. Think about it, and email me if you're up for it.