Hey All

I spent all last summer making rugs, and didn't get enough time to soak up the intensity of a Northeast summer. This year is a different matter. I watch every little bit of it happen, and mark it's passing.

The first berries have come and gone. The first garden greens are pretty much past. The cool, rainy weather brought on everybody's broccoli with a vengence. My daughter and I froze 3 bushels.

The blackberries are just starting. They will be lush this year with all the rain. Fine wine and vinegar makings. Elderberries too. Aside from freezing a goodly number, ( Elderberry pie at Thanksgiving is always pleases,) we'll be having Elderberry wine and vinegar.

I have to build a new potato bin not only for the potatoes, but it looks like there'll be lots of squash onoins and garlic.

I feel so rich when I look into our full wood shed, and my full freezers, and I've just started. This winter it's all gonna look like gold.

So, I'm gonna put on my blackberry picking duds, and head out. I hoep everybody's summer is as good for them as mine is for me.


The Maker's Blessings
Joy

Wow! It's cold for the Fourth of July. I was set up at the Farmer's Market yesterday, and had to wear a jacket. The wind blew so hard nobody could set their market tents.

I heard the wind subside overnight, and while it's on the cool side today, there is only a breeze. Now I have to decide whether to mow the lawn, or stack the last of the firewood, or pick the first picking of Black Raspberries. It'll probably be berries.

The Elderberries are nearing the end of their blossom phase. I've been keeping track of Elderberry locations for my wine project. I'm going to need more gallon jugs than I have, or else find suitable substitutions.

Last year, I froze about 20 quarts of E. berries, and was going to make a little bit of wine from my neighbor's E.berries. I wanted to pick them myself, because for me it's kind of a meditation. As it turned out, he picked them, and I couldn't use any of them. My neighbor had probably 40-50 ducks that propagated at will, and wandered the same way. One needed to wear boots to walk their property because duck-doody covered every square inch of the place. When my well-meaning neighbor picked, he gathered a large cardboard box of berries that came from the branches that had bowed down to the ground,--into the duck sh--. They smelled of duck sh-- so bad, there was no berry smell at all. I suppose I could have made a version of Cold Duck. Duck-Dropp wine with its diSTINKtive bouquet.

I love to gather. I gather things for teas, and things that I can sell, (Ginseng.) I have seen so much going on in the fields and hedgerows, and woods while gathering. Your posture, and rhythms, and silhouette are altered to where you are pretty much hanging with whatever is out there. And there's a deep stillness within when you are gathering, ( if you're into it.) When my Dad was an old man, he told me that I was likely concieved while gathering. He and my Mom were gathering Blackberries. The way Dad tells it; he said that he felt someone looking at him, and looked up to see a nude woman just beond the berry patch looking back. My parents used to giggle about picking Blackberries when I was a kid.

Andway, I'm sure the grass is dry enough for me to venture forth, so I'll wish Good Things for all.

Joy

Summer is getting more serious about itself. The strawberries around here, anyway, are beginning to ebb. My black raspberries are just on the verge of ripe.

I put up lots of berries. This year I also intend to make some wines and vinegars. Wild blackberries are common, as are elderberries. I'll freeze a bunch of them, and my black raspberries for jams and jellies that I'll make later on, and I'm not sure how much wine and vinegar I'll make. It depends. The wild blackberry vinegar is one of my favorites, and I've never made or tasted elderberry vinegar.

I rescued a baby bunny from my cat yesterday. Before it revived I took advantage of it's stupor to cuddle it and swoozle it. It had a small white blaze on top of it's sweet head. I wonder where that came from? I released it far from my cat's range. Now it only has to look out for hawks, and owls, and coyotes, and foxes, on and on. It's Hell when you are the favorite food supply for just about everything you share a world with. My mother used to tell me that when I complained about whatever--"You think you've got problems, try being a rabbit."

Anyway, I've got to get moving--
Adios, and Blessings
Joy

My rug-in-progress has a, "force field," around it. I just can't touch it. I can't stay in the house, and I can't sit still long enough to pick up where I left off. It's the summer. It needs me to be an active participant. I suppose I could bring my work out to the back porch, but that doesn't seem to work for me. This year I need to wander through the summer. I mosey around the place and monitor summer's progress on a slow loop. I waited so impatiently for my retirement for just for this. I am fortunate to have one of my deepest needs met so well. Thanks Be.

Blessings
Joy

Finally, a sunny morning. I love the way the slanted rays illuminate, and how they add a golden color to the morning. Thanks be.

I have an unstacked pile of fire wood around the bottom of the Bass Wood tree outside my bedroom window. I stood there digging the morning beauty, and making silent promises to get the stuff stacked---Soon, Honest! Down the trunk came a little red squirrel, and hopped onto the wood, and commenced to sample the different bark flavors. I watched him for quite a while, and left convinced he, liked Yellow Birch best.

One of these days, I'm gonna' "Get a Life." 'Eh, maybe not, this stuff makes me so happy.

Blessings,
Joy

I'm just back from our tiny Farmers' Market in Canajoharie, N.Y., where I sell my rugs. It's a bit early in the year for homegrown produce from upstate, where we are, but there were Strawberries. Those who arrived too late for them had to content themselves with a large assortment of greens.

One of the regular customers is a fellow that dresses Native American. He has moccasins, and head band, necklaces, wrist bands. All of his accessories are decorated with porkupine quills, crystals and feathers, etc. Today, he brought with him a ream of poetry, and read 20 or so pages aloud. I wasn't quite sure how folks were going to react to all this, but about 1 1/2 stanzas into his work, I was spell-bound, as were others.It was so relevant to the world we live in today. He made one salient point after another gently and with his own spiritual insights. 'One of the nicest surprizes I've had in a long time. I found myself feeling moved several times,and noticed other listeners reacting to his words. I wonder what next week will bring? It could turn into an interesting market place this year.

I wish pleasant surprises for all
love, Joy

Late Spring

I have to thank Tammy for setting up my Blog. I think she did a beautiful job. I am grateful.

This late spring weather so enchants me. I live rural, so the evening carries the scents of the blossoms that are everywhere. Everything is bursting with blossoms. I think it's Glorious, and it kind of makes me feel that way. I love to sit on the back porch in the evening and hyper-ventilate on Earth Mother perfume. ('Old Hippie.)

The Chamomile has been, "coming on," for a couple of weeks. I want to try to break a personal best record for Chamomile gathering. Of course, I can't really remember how much I picked last year, but my back will tell me when I'm getting close.

I'll close with Blessings
Joy