Want to read this email on the web? Click here. Learn character from trees, values from roots, and change from leaves. ~Tasneern Harneed Dear Reader We first arrived at our New Hampshire home in late November as an ice storm brewed. As I made a cursory tour of the cold and empty house, I noted the outline of a tree that filled the kitchen window. In the morning, upon closer inspection, it was added to the list of Things Needing Immediate Repair. As those first days unfolded, that original...
10 days ago • 3 min read
Want to read this email on the web? Click here. When you look at a forest, you think you’re looking at a static thing, but what you’re looking at is this incredible cycle. ~Suzanne Simard Dear Reader As April gives way to the first mild days of May, I’ve watched the Red Oak that frames our living room window dress herself for the spring festivities. Standing bare to me and the world from November through May, she dominated my view. Now, dressed in green, she simply fades into the increasing...
17 days ago • 3 min read
Want to read this email on the web? Click here. We all have preferences. I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose, I would always greet it in a garden. ~Ruth Stout Dear Reader On our nightly walk up the boarding road, Joachim and I often review the day, sharing highlights and challenges. Deep into our discussion, a movement in the woods to the left caught our attention. Pausing both walk and conversation and scanning the overgrowth, we, at the same time, tracked a set of blue eyes...
24 days ago • 2 min read
Want to read this email on the web? Click here. Cultivate the root; the leaves and branches take care of themselves. ~Confucius Dear Reader A month ago, I planted 12 lovage seeds. It would be my third seasonal attempt. The first two times, the story was the same. I tapped the seeds into soil blocks and patiently counted down fourteen days, then twenty-one days, and eventually gave up. The soil blocks were then repurposed for more "cooperative seeds". The problem was that I really wanted to...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Want to read this email on the web? Click here. You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. ~Henry David Thoreau Dear Reader April tugs and nudges me with an increasing force. Wake up she calls, enough with your drowsy slumber. Here I am dancing along with all that bursts forth, keep in step, and I’ll be your guide. Allow me, and nothing else, to be your conduit to what is real and true. In this way of being, duplicity, deception, and...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Want to read this email on the web? Click here. Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders. ~Henry David Thoreau Dear Reader Most of my days continue to be filled by the intimate act of seeding trays of future plants that will feed my body, mind, and soul. I fall in love with this act over and again each day. March’s slow and sporadic ramp-up to the spring...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Want to read this email on the web? Click here. The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. ~Rabindranath Tagore Dear Reader Although there are still pockets of snow, the arrival of robins en masse tells me our winter has passed. Mama fox has also been sighted now on a daily basis, darting the edges of the garden fence with her mouth full of some catch to share with her kits. Thursday night, the spring peepers...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Want to read this email on the web? Click here. March, when days are getting long, Let thy growing hours be strong To set right some wintry wrong. ~Caroline May Dear Reader On the first full day of spring, the view out my window reveals scattered remnants of seasons past. Waving in the blustery wind are threads of bean vines still attached to the summer trellis. Towering seed heads of Bee Balm nod, and a patchwork of snow remains. And yet when I slip on my muck boots for a wander, there are...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Want to read this email on the web? Click here. March is the month of expectation, the things we do not know - Emily Dickinson Dear Reader Depending on which window I choose to view the garden from, I discover a strikingly different scene. To the south, there are long swaths of white, still glistening in the sun, but to the west, along the tree line, all is revealed with barely a sign of the snow that once was. Before life begins to burst forth, there’s still time to take a moment and pay...
2 months ago • 2 min read