Rebecca Sower

for the ideas (and the food)

Another snow yesterday. 

But here on our little 'farm', January is the beginning of warm and green too.

Why is this so exciting to me?  A small spoonful of soil and a tiny seed.

That will grow into something beautiful and healthful for our table and our bodies.

Even the books are exciting to me. And I spend much of my winter curled up somewhere, pouring over the pages and the photos.  Daydreaming.

If I close my eyes I can almost smell the good earth, feel the soil in my hands.

This year, a much bigger garden.  It's likely I'm over-achieving.

But I will be at home there, between the rows, letting my thoughts wander and meander as I tend the vegetables.

Why do I grow a vegetable garden?  The food.  Of course the food.  Straight from the earth to my family's table.  There is nothing so nourishing as that.

But also for the way my mind gets to run off and play while I'm out there digging in the dirt.  It's good for mind and soul and body. Why would I not do this?

Do you garden?

an october kind of love

Oh sun and skies and clouds of June...

and flowers of June together...

   
you cannot rival for one hour...

 
october's bright blue weather.

{ helen hunt jackson }

I use this poem here every year at this time.  Raise your hand if you are in love with October as I am.  And thanks for taking a little autumn stroll around the farm with me on this beautiful day.  My wish is that all is as it should be for you in your world today.

sea love

This morning I was sorting through some of my shells from our beach trip this year, as if I had time to do such things, and began setting aside the 'hearts'.  Wanted to share with you . . .

Aren't they pretty?

And speaking of love for all things sea...please visit Charlotte today.  She's selling an adorable sea turtle embroidery pattern to help our amazing sea creatures who have been affected by the oil.

May life be very good for you today, dear friend.

go earth!

Isn't it beautiful?!

This great big ball that we live on?

Sky and grass and wind and rain and dirt and trees and flowers and seas.

All of it.  I love every last little bit of it.

Wiggle your toes in the grass.  Dig in the dirt.  Hug a tree.

It's Earth Day!!

 

filler photo { no. 02 }

Close up of bird nest collage I created last year...

"Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news.

The good news is that you don't know how great you can be,

how much you can love,

what you can accomplish,

and what your potential is."

{ anne frank }

inspired by nature inspired

Every now and then, I open my mailbox and find a beautiful package from a beautiful person sending me something beautiful.  This time that beautiful person was none other than Tracie Lyn Huskamp.  Earlier in the summer, she sent me this amazing little hand-painted blue jay.  And I absolutely adore it.

No one paints birds and nature like she does.  

And the good news for us it that Tracie is just about to release an amazing book on being inspired by nature to create art.  Even better she sent me one to give away to one of you!

It truly is a stunning book.  So many details, thorough instructions, beautiful photos and projects.

The name of the book is, of course, "Nature Inspired".  So for those of you who would like the chance to win this autographed copy, please leave one comment here telling me what your favorite bird is.  The giveaway will end this Friday at noon, and I will pick a random winner.

And, speaking of nature, the sky is a most amazing blue with those puffy white clouds here today.  I'm heading outdoors.

chasing summer

Summer has felt like a butterfly fluttering by, and I the child laughing and running and never quite catching it.  But those are the best kind of summers.  A lot of time spent with my family, and a lot of that time right here at home humble home.

So while cobwebs have been forming in my studio, and dust bunnies are collecting under my furniture, and weeds are growing in my flower beds, and the sounds of television are not even heard, I have been...

...on a 9-day mission trip to Montana, desolately beautiful Montana...

 

...playing lots of marathon Monopoly sessions (only one single game have i won so far. one.)...

...swimming under the hot sun and evening stars...

 

...making frequent trips into town to visit here and sometimes here...

...and then camping out in the kitchen, canning for the pantry...

 

...making homemade pizzas and guacamole...

 

...baking pies and pound cakes (still getting around to that homemade bread)...

 

(obviously trying to make up for all those years of being a lame cook and lazy baker)

...I have also been catching up on some reading...

...nursing an injured stray kitten back to health.  meet henry...

 

...tending to our vegetable patch...

...canoeing the Red River and hiking the Big South Fork...

Well, I don't deserve a summer this good, but it's been just that.  Really, really good.

How are you chasing summer?  Post it on your blog and let me know...would love to know what your summer looks like so far.

sunshine is delicious

"Sunshine is delicious,

Rain is refreshing,

Wind braces up,

and Snow is exhilarating;

there is no such thing as bad weather,

only different kinds of good weather."

{ john ruskin } . . .

 

But today I confess...

 

...that I am happy, finally, to see a little sunshine...

 

...to go outside and find what is left behind from the

days and days and days

of rain and storm...

 

... to smell the damp green life

and listen to the teaming insects.

Yes, today I am happy for the sunshine, if but for a little while.

 

{ etsy note:  many of you have contacted me about the supplies I used to keep in my shop.  I relisted a few this morning.  Thanks much for checking in with me about this.  Have a wonderful weekend! }

whichever way the wind blows

When the winds of March blow through the limbs of my faithful old maple...

 

...she scatters her branches and twigs hodge-podge across the lawn, to be gathered and piled...

  

...and carried to the burn pile up to my studio... 

 

...where they will find their way into who-knows-which project...

  

Weekend blessings to you.

[loving her singing this song today] 

will I miss the melancholy?

I wonder, in my eagerness to usher in Spring...

 

will I miss the bleak mid-winter calm...

  

the comforting solitude of the bare landscape...

  

the sweet melancholy of the pure earth...

  

when it's gone, will I wish for Winter?