Tags
{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by SouleMama.
25 Saturday May 2013
Posted Home, Outside, {this moment}
inTags
{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by SouleMama.
06 Monday May 2013
Tags
balance bike, boys, crocus, german shorthaired pointer, homeschooling, ice cream cone, long winter, mud, northern Maine, spring, sunshine
Winters are long here. So, so long. We have our first frost no later than mid-September. The ice goes out on the lake sometime in May (May 1, this year, was very early). In between, it is beautiful. It is white and frozen and stark and windswept and still and wild and cold. It is often very, very cold–I once photographed the thermometer resting comfortably at -40°F.
And it is dark. At the solstice, before the trend shifts back to lengthening days, we are lucky to have 8 hours of daylight. On cloudy or stormy days, there’s much less. And though we love it, it’s a long haul.
Those long stretches of cold and dark wear on us sometimes. We feel hopeless and isolated, tired of the same four (small) walls and the company of the same people each day. Sometimes, we doubt that spring ever will come.
And yet, come it does, with mud and robins and crocus blossoms and yearling moose in the roads and loons crying at night. And eventually, we get the heat, the green grass, the leaves on the trees, and the black flies (ugh!). Every spring, it seems to me, is sweeter than the last. Every spring, we walk out the door, open our arms, and welcome it, embrace it, hold it close. We all lose our minds a little when we see daffodil buds, feel mud between our toes, watch the chickadees building a nest in the hole in the birch tree. After all that long dark cold, our sweet spring is that much sweeter when it comes.
This week, we’ve enjoyed glorious weather and unseasonable temperatures. Yesterday, when a store clerk told me to enjoy the beautiful weather, I answered, “How can you not?”
Indeed, how can you not?
05 Sunday May 2013
Posted Outside, Sustainability
inTags
apple trees, barn, calves, climbing trees, draft horses, farm life, friendship, goats, haflingers, homeschooling, homesteading, jersey cows, milk cows, misfit farms, northern Maine
We are so lucky, that our nearest, dearest friends, are also terribly near. My dearest friend Sigrid lives a few (very, very, very, for this locale) short miles down the road, and her boys, Ulli and Tait, are my boys’ best buds. It seems built-in–how could we not be close with these nearest neighbors of similar taste and value? But we all know that affinity is not necessarily dictated by proximity and similar tastes.
Luckily, in this case, affinity transcended proximity. And there are so very many shared values and tastes. Sig and her partner Kurt are really *doing* the farming thing that we hope to be doing soon-ish. And I’ve learned by proxy that it’s one hell of a lot of hard work. But oh-so rewarding. Sig and Kurt, as Misfit Farms, make some enormous awesome eggs, some tasty grassfed beef, delicious milk, and the best honey I’ve ever eaten. Not to mention their plums, blueberries, veggies, and apples…..
Earlier this week, we spent an afternoon with these friends, in part because they’d been out of town for ten days (!!!) and in part because we do so at least once a week anyway, and in part because they had a brandy-brandy new baby calf to gawk at.
Who can resist a brand new calf? Not us, certainly. This is JayJay, and he’s who we came to see, ostensibly. But as you can tell, we enjoyed the better part of a day on the farm. Between climbing trees, visiting critters, stringing fencing, and watching everyone enjoy the spring, we were happy to share the joy (and the camera work, if nothing else).
03 Friday May 2013
Posted Outside, {this moment}
in{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by SouleMama.
If you have a ‘moment’ to share, leave a link to your post in the comments for all to find and see.
23 Saturday Mar 2013
Posted Home, Outside, {this moment}
inTags
best friends, homeschooling, igloo, northern Maine, snow, spring
{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by SouleMama.
If you have a ‘moment’ to share, leave a link to your post in the comments for all to find and see.