The Geese Are Going South Again
(and people call me predictable)
Occasionally you could hear and see the geese moving south in the fall in Northern California, but it was a rare and joyful noise. Up here in Northern Oregon you can hear them coming long before you see them and it seems that our house is directly in their flight plan every year. I love seeing them brushing themselves across the sky while making their brash conversations. What do you think they talk about during the long trip to the lower longitudes? I imagine there's a lot of gossip going on among the ranks "Oh yeah, that patti is always taking up the rear...she doesn't want anyone to see that she's molting at the wrong time- AGAIN!" "Shhhh, don't cackle so loud or she'll hear you!" "Hey, how bout them forty niners?"
I don't know how many minutes it's going to last, but that sky is what my morning looks like here in the north. Although I was super happy it rained last night, because I love rain, I don't mind a little blue sky framing my pretty maple tree.
My pretty maple tree.As most of my friends know, I have a huge prejudice in my garden towards plants and trees that produce either food for us, food for the beneficial insects, or flowers for cutting. The kind of maple trees I have perform none of these jobs. They do offer a nice place for birds to hang out, and I like birds. But I have three maples in my yard. A little weeping ubiquitous Japanese maple that I would like to give away, a biggish small leafed maple that stands between my front and back yard that I feel indifferently about, and this big one that is lovely and is a really nice established feature of our back yard. I see it from my studio and from the room that used to be my dining room but which will come to be known as the "rain room"* in the very near future.
We're still debating between walnut or pine for the food featured tree. We love pine nuts but I'm concerned about how long it will take to get them, and how likely it is that planting one in the same yard with members of the Ribes family will endanger it. In spite of the fact that nothing grows underneath walnut trees, I think they're beautiful. Especially in the winter when they drop their leaves and their stark branches are framed against a slate sky. A pine tree (the kind that makes edible nuts) is evergreen and rather pretty. I'm not a huge fan of pine or fir trees in the suburban garden as they usually seem more suited to forest environments...
But I really love pine nuts and there's no local source for them. Unless I could find some stone pines growing in the woods somewhere around here. If anyone local knows of any I can forage, please spill the information.
I have some exciting news I'm just agitating to tell you:
Whipup is going to publish a tutorial I wrote about scenting your own bath salts on December first!!
I really enjoyed putting it together and taking pictures for it so it's gratifying that they liked it enough to accept it. I will provide another link to Whipup on the day it's published. If you haven't ever checked out their website and you are a crafty person, you should mosey on over there as soon as you have a chance-you will probably really enjoy yourself. They publish craft tutorials as well as articles about crafting.
But I really love pine nuts and there's no local source for them. Unless I could find some stone pines growing in the woods somewhere around here. If anyone local knows of any I can forage, please spill the information.
I have some exciting news I'm just agitating to tell you:
Whipup is going to publish a tutorial I wrote about scenting your own bath salts on December first!!
I really enjoyed putting it together and taking pictures for it so it's gratifying that they liked it enough to accept it. I will provide another link to Whipup on the day it's published. If you haven't ever checked out their website and you are a crafty person, you should mosey on over there as soon as you have a chance-you will probably really enjoy yourself. They publish craft tutorials as well as articles about crafting.
It seems that I have about a billion things to do and as usual there is almost no time for anything. Strangely, I'm not that stressed about it at this minute in time. Not sure why. It'll probably wash over me in the next couple of days in choking waves of panic...but I'm enjoying the calm mode I'm in right now. Do you think it might be because I've spent half of this week sniffing smelling salts?
Hey, wait a minute...smelling salts...was that really just scented salts? Vinegar was often used to revive faint females, but they always mention smelling salts in books of the Jane Austen genre and I can't help but wonder if it was salt soaked in strong revivifying scents like peppermint or eucalyptus? I sure feel more awake when I open up my little bottle of rosemary oil and inhale deeply. I've been sniffing a lot of oils that are supposed to be calming and regenerating.
It's time to get going in my day. Lots of cleaning up to do to get ready for more projects. The boys are going to go somewhere to give me some space to get busy. Max really needs to get out in the fresh air and I really need to have an empty house with blasting music.
Then I have a cabbage to introduce to a pie shell and the oven.
Hey, wait a minute...smelling salts...was that really just scented salts? Vinegar was often used to revive faint females, but they always mention smelling salts in books of the Jane Austen genre and I can't help but wonder if it was salt soaked in strong revivifying scents like peppermint or eucalyptus? I sure feel more awake when I open up my little bottle of rosemary oil and inhale deeply. I've been sniffing a lot of oils that are supposed to be calming and regenerating.
It's time to get going in my day. Lots of cleaning up to do to get ready for more projects. The boys are going to go somewhere to give me some space to get busy. Max really needs to get out in the fresh air and I really need to have an empty house with blasting music.
Then I have a cabbage to introduce to a pie shell and the oven.
*A back-water cousin of the more popular "sun room". We live where there's lots of rain. We moved here because we actually love rain. And lots of it. And grey skies. Misty mornings. So the one room in the house that is ideal for watching the rain come down is what used to be our dining room but which we will be making into a comfortable cozy spot for rain gazing. It is the lightest room in the house so I suppose we could watch the sun shining from it too, but why would we want to do that?!