Life Does Go On

I've been sick this week....and so I've spent a lot of time watching the news....learning more and more about the landslide in Oso....hearing reporters talk about the river I grew up on....floated down on....taught Charley to swim in....and my heart broke.  I didn't directly know anyone who lost their home or life....I didn't have to evacuate all our creatures, or wonder about what happened to Charley, but living in a small town you learn very quickly that what effects one effects all....I know it even more now that I live on an Island which is like a small town wrapped in a small town.

Today I went outside to muck the girls' house....and get some fresh air....to let the dogs get some fresh air.  I sat on their milking stand watching them, I noticed all the new growth that has started since I was outside earlier this week....I noticed the lilac bush Gordon planted on Layla's grave is starting to bud....our apple and pear treas are waking up.....the nettles are bigger.....life here is moving on.

And that is what came to my mind...Life Does Move On....next year the road to Oso will be fixed, the river will continue to flow.....people will still have lost loves of their life....they will live somewhere else.....things will never be the way they were before.....BUT life will move on....and there will be other disasters in other places, and we will rally behind them....but because we are who we are we will flow....like the river....different but with the same intention.....maybe even stronger.....wiser.....but we will flow on.

He's a TV Star Too

Well....we have a local TV station....Whidbey Telecom TV.  Today they did a show where Gordon was given baskets and was judged by a local celebrity.....David Ossman.  The show was called "The Chef and the Comic".  It was so much fun to watch and to try and stay out of the way.

All of the baskets were ingredients which were locally sourced, including oysters the size of my head.....lavender honey from Lavender Wind Farm....Glendale Shepherd Cheese....and stinging nettles...even MY Green Tea Jelly and Dave's wife's Smoked Tea Plum jam.

I didn't do a very good job of documenting the event because I was in awe....and I was trying to stay out of the way.....but it was so fun.

And I realized how proud I am of my chef....and what he can do in 3 20 minute increments.....and I am proud of the bounty of our Island you can even find in March....we live in such a beautiful place.

Lavender Jelly

 When Gordon and I were planning our wedding, we decided to have jams and jellies for each table as gifts for our guests.  And so I spent a year and a half making jelly and jam.....and what I discovered is that I LOVE making jams and jellies.....and more than that I think I'm pretty good at it.

The wife of Gordon's mushroom guy suggested that I make lilac jelly because that was what my flowers were going to be.....and I found a recipe on a website and I made it....and I had one of those moments I've been having a lot of since I met my sweet husband....the moments that I find that little bit of passion.

My friend and goat mentor suggested that I maybe start making botanical jellies....and that planted a seed....and I'm sure to her frustration.....I waited....and let the thought fester......and then I met another friend who rekindled the "maker" in me....and I made some Green Tea Ginger Jelly....which I shared with people (used them as beta testers) and the maker in me grew even more.

This morning I woke up to sunshine....and when there's sun and the feeling of Spring.....and Spring is 3 days away.....I decided I wanted to make some botanical jelly.

But alas.....March in Western Washington is not known for having flowers growing....except for daffodils which I can't imagine would make very good jelly.....and so I raided my pantry....and what I found was...

 Lavender Wind Whole Culinary Lavender.....and so I soaked the bag of lavender in 4 cups of hot water for about 6 hours

And then I strained the lavender into the cooking pot.

 And I added 2 packets of liquid pectin.....and brought it to a boil.

And then I added 8 cups of sugar and brought it to a boil for 1 minute

And then I put the jelly into jars and put in my hot water processor for about 20 minutes.....and voila!!!  Lavender Jelly from Wabi Sabi Hill using local Lavender.  

What I have learned is that it is very sweet....so I think we will cut it lemon next time...but here it is....Lavender Jelly.....look at that color!!!!

Wabi Sabi Afghan

So....I threw my back out last Sunday.....I'm 86% sure I did it because I danced to C+C Music Factory....but it was bad, and I experienced the most back pain I have ever experienced in my life, and I have had back surgery.

Of course....I did this during the most beautiful week we've had this year, and it killed me.  I was home from work and had nothing to do but sit and watch TV.  The first day I didn't leave my bedroom because I didn't want to know it was such a beautiful day.  But my soul was aching....I wanted to be out in the sun planting or digging....or being with my creatures.  I couldn't even climb the stairs to my "Making Room" so I could do something up there, or at least water my veggie starts that are growing up there.

BUT....I have a basket of yarn....yarn from projects like "cheater knitting" a hat and scarf for Gordon, or my niece years ago....yarn that I learned to crochet with and the yarn I used to crochet 2 scarves for me, after I began to learn to crochet.

I am a novice when it comes to crocheting, and so I really don't know how to do anything more than the squares I've crocheted or the 2 scarves I made, but I thought "I want to make a blanket out of my yarn"

And so....lying in bed.....and eventually sitting on the couch....I began my project using stitches I made up because they worked.....I still don't know the name of them....or if they are even stitches....but I did....I made a square using the pinkish yarn I used for my first scarf, and then crocheted around that using the orange yarn I learned to crochet with....and as I did that I realized my square was crooked (I didn't really count).

But I realized that the blanket was Wabi Sabi....Perfectly Imperfect....the whole philosophy Gordon and I base our lives on....and so I worked on this piece, realizing that everything about it was imperfect....but it was still beautiful....and it's made with yarn I have loved and kept over the years....even a small piece of the first yarn I ever spun....And like this life I live with my husband, our scary cat....or old dog and our little dog who doesn't know how to be a dog....and our  goats who really are perfect, but live in a house that is not, this blanket is also not perfect.  It would never win a prize at the fair....I wouldn't even know what to say the stitch I used was....but it's beautiful to me, because of the imperfections...there are missed stitches and I'm sure I connected the yarns incorrectly but it is mine....it's the work I started.

And yesterday, I used the last of the yarn I had, and I decided to not go to the craft store to get more yarn....I have decided that my blanket will be a work in progress, and when I find yarn for projects, or find fiber that I spin myself or other yarn that just speaks to me, I will add it to my blanket.....my Perfectly Imperfect blanket that is a reflection of me, my "farm" and the life I share with my husband and all our creatures here on Wabi Sabi Hill.

And it will join the afghan made by my Mother-In-Law....the one made for us by Gordon's Aunt Ida as a wedding gift and the one my best friend's girl friend made for him years ago that somehow wound up in my collection....and it will be proud and treated as well as any piece of art that adorns our little sunlit living room.

Daffodowndilly

She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,

She wore her greenest gown;

She turned to the south wind

And curtsied up and down.

She turned to the sunlight

And shook her yellow head,

And whispered to her neighbour:

"Winter is dead."

~AA Milne

It is with a joyous heart that I announce that our beautiful daffodils are blooming on Wabi Sabi Hill.  It is an important event in our little herd.....not only does it mark that Spring is on the way....and I plan to celebrate by planting potatoes in tubs this weekend....but it also is the 1 year anniversary of our sweet girls' life with us....the anniversary of when we truly became a herd.

Certainly we have learned a lot in the last year....and we are not in the place we envisioned when our girls first joined us.  We have no pregnant girls....or kids.....or Layla.  But I think we are on track of where we need to be....and we are wiser.....and in love with these girls in ways we never thought possible.  

And so on this Friday Night, I celebrate the daffodils in my yard....and now in my vase.....our beautiful girls.....our crazy cat, and this beautiful life filled with lessons and moments of sheer joy.