Signs Of Spring, Goodbye to Winter

Yesterday, it was warm enough to lay out in the sun. Winter really feels like its on its way out. The time for reflection and planning is switching into a time of activity and excitement. Sap is running up and down the maple trees--- one of the first, and sweetest harvests. The ground is beginning to thaw. The scent of the earth is becoming unfroze, and starting to travel with the breeze. The harsh, biting north wind has relinquished to the a warmer, softer southern wind. I remember the night that it happened- or at least the night I noticed it, a while back in February. I was driving at night, and saw it was windy.  I prepared for a cold blast from the north, and was surprised to feel the warmth on my face, instead of the usual chill. 

 It is winters bite that makes spring and summer embrace so welcome- a pattern repeated in the natural world many times over. 

Preparing for Snow

Well, we are getting ready for our Weekly Wednesday Blizzard.  We got firewood ready today:

Some members of the group did not understand priorities:

However,  we were able to get things accomplished:

By golly, stay warm these next few days!

Work and Joy

"When the sun rises, I go to work,
When the sun goes down, I take my rest
I dig the well from which I drink,
I share creation, Kings can do no more."
 Chinese Proverb- 2500 B.C


Sometimes, it seems to me that there is a basic threshold of what people need to feel fulfilled:  A warm place to live, good healthy food to eat, clean water and air, friends and community to share their life with, inspiration, and real connection with their world. ( or at least least that is what I need, and I am assuming that I am not that unusual of a person.)
I think about the drive to accumulate consumer goods to which a false emotional expectation has been attached at times, and wonder about it, how it has effected me, others and, how much energy can I spend on worrying about that kind of thing verses simply observing what brings joy into my life, then trusting that.   

For the time being, I feel secure in accepting that  a life which is full of  the actions of living; growing and gathering what you will eat, preparing it, all the various activites of firewood. These actions create a seamless world where work and leasuire all have a definative satisfaction of being something that is very necessary to the day.  Its action that clearly needed to be taken or else a undesireable situation would arise.  There is a very simple and honest satisfaction in that kind of work. It is subtle, and sneaks into the day in scattered, beautiful moments, then rushes away again as the demands of the day rush on through.  The familiarity of living within seasonal and daily rhythms has an intimacy which blossoms within it between the land and its caretaker.  Though that relationship is a hard one, its literally laboring; it is a labor which bears a special fruit in the heart of the one who does it. And is a strong, secret thing, that has the unique capability of endlessly being shared, yet never being taken away.

2011 Update!

 New Years Day was a great start to the year.  A wonderful group of folks got together to watch the first day break of the year and share a nice, big breakfast.  The New England winter  is time for enjoying the rewards of the hard work of the past year, reflecting on the work that has been done, planning for the year to come, and winter activities.  Recently, I went for a hike, and came across some particularly adorable housing arrangements...

Imagine my surprise to find housing for magical woodland people.

Above are some examples of the type of development one generally will see in fairy housing zones.

Treacherous icy cliffs.

These areas are not available for Fairy housing.

Snowing In Harpswell

Happy Holidays!

 Its starting to look like winter here. The cove is starting to freeze, animals aren't stirring around as much.  Its nice to be able to slow down in the winter, like most of the other forms of life that we share the planet with.










                                          

We gathered feathers, berries, horse hair, and vines to decorate the tree. Its came out looking wonderful.

Trees and Forests

I have spent a reasonably large amount of time outside and around trees, but I recently learned about something that is a relatively big deal to me that I never had thought about before.

When a hardwood gets cut down, new saplings grow out of the stump, and this makes the tree have a few trunks that grow up together.  The tree on the far right is hardwood and the tree on the far left is softwood.

Most of New England was clear cut, so as the  forest grows back, it grows back differently because of this characteristic of hardwood. It struck me as a really big impact that we have made. Even though we have a lot of forests, we have a lot of altered forests. I would like, personally, to be able to go somewhere near here, and see really old trees- a whole forest of them, but its something that can't really be done... ( as far as I know.)

In other news, here we have a good example of lack of foresight.

Living With a Peaceful Mind

One of the challenges of being an environmentally oriented individual is the complete and utter confusion of growing up in this era of mass production, mass consumption, thoughtless action toward each other, and general neglect of relationships between human and the non-human world.

However, I believe that there is a great deal of momentum towards a more balanced and meaningful relationship with the earth and the resources we are provided. There are more and more people who do not want a "piece of the pie" seeing as it is an irradiated, GMO-filled, cancer causing, libido-killing, diabetes causing, homogenized, mess that is not actually something designed for eating.

Winter = resting

Summer = growing

Moving away from the familiar, regardless of how painful the familiar might be, is always hard. The makings of a meaningful life is an entirely personal matter and the feeling of being alone in your convictions can be exhausting.  I do think that for many people, knowing their place within a larger, beautifully functional system heals us of this mistaken loneliness. The very presence of the ground promises us that we will be fed, the sky promises us water, the forest promises shelter. Through our gentleness, respect for and care of the earth we are endlessly provided with what we need to survive.   I have found living closely to the earth to be my greatest joy. From the wisdom and sanity of  its natural rhythm we can learn to live as if this world before us was not chaotic and dangerous, but as though it is symphonic in nature, punctuated with great joy, and great loss, with understanding and confusion, with love and death, all with its own place, all with its wisdom, and all of this resounding with the energy of simply being true. The greatest benefit of knowing that something is true is the ability to trust it.

Owl

Yesterday, I was walking and heard all kind of commotion in the woods. A blue jay was calling over and over again, in a really serious way.  I stopped and looked around for a minute, and saw the jay was defending its area from this  beautiful owl.
The owl flew right by me, about 7 or 8 feet off the ground and landed in this spruce tree. his wing span was at least 3 feet I estimate.

I have been wanting to see an owl in the woods for a while. The last time I saw owls was in a program at a public library, but the owls all had a sad story about why they couldn't be released.  It was amazing to see this one.
Hopefully I  will meet up with him again.