Our neighbors’ cattle have gotten out of their pasture three times now. The herd has ambled down the road and wandered into our yard, their hoof prints “aerating” our lawn. The bulls are feisty, the mamas are protective of their tiny ones and we do not have the animal husbandry skills/confidence to shoo them away. A call is made, and after a bit, someone comes down the road with a grain bucket to entice the beasts back home. Today we stopped to chat with our neighbor as he repaired his fencing once again. It’s rough trying to work a full-time job off the farm and maintain it at the same time. We are patient. But we hope he solves the mystery of how they are getting out before our veggie gardens go in. :-)
The wind and sunshine have dried out the muddy roads. Bluebirds are back, scouting out the boxes. Coltsfoot is blooming along the road ditches. Rhubarb crowns are poking up through the dirt. The spring bulbs are up. Vernal streams are gurgling all over our property, and boots are required in the boggy lawn. There is still snow under the trees, and on the north side of things. But the sunshine is warm on our faces and we went down to town this morning in fleece vests, unzipped. We are easing into spring up here in Vermont.
I’m reading The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin. It’s been recommended to me by several people, and so I bought a copy. Wow, wow, wow. It is wonderful.
Do you know of Merchant and Mills? I’ve got two of their patterns and I plan to sew a dress or two this spring, embracing my word “devotion”. Something just for me, from some lovely fabric that helps me feel like celebrating daily life. Something that makes me want to twirl. Because goodness, isn’t that what we need right now? Delight in the present moment?
THE DEPARTMENT OF HOPE…I appreciate all of your kind and gentle thoughts as I’ve been finding my way through a medical diagnosis. It’s a genetic disease and at the moment, I do not need treatment, but I will be carefully monitored from now on. Am I happy about this complication? No. But, gosh, given all the possibilities of where this could have gone…I am delighted! And I am EASING into a new future. Sobered a bit by reality, but inspired and refreshed and hopeful about my future. Because each and every day that we wake up is filled with possibility. (Are you tiring of my mantra, dearest readers?)
I’m headed to Detroit tomorrow to see family and when I come back I’m going to make a few lists of things to do this spring. A “to do list” and a “bucket list”. Chores and fun. Twirling and reading and planting and sewing and putting in screens and washing windows and loving and learning.
What would you put on your list, friends?
xo
