Solstice

 

     I had my fingers crossed all day yesterday for a clear evening to sit and bask in the full solstice moon but no luck. I basked in the glow of half-hidden mountains while harvesting linden flowers so I can never complain too much. The lovely, ambrosial scented blooms have been bringing out honeybees during the day-- I've been worried all spring having only seen a handful total. Like the bumblebees, it seems their populations took a hit this last winter. My farming mentors and a few other believe that hobby bee keepers are playing a role by not offering supplemental food in the winter, so not only do they introduce awful molds into the grapes on the vineyards trying to get at a source of fall sugar, they starve in the winter. Anyone who spends winter underground this winter certainly stood a chance of drowning, but there are many possible reasons yet, and that is a discussion for another day, for I should be discussing linden flowers!

     A wonderful member of the basswood family, these trees are a fantastic source of heart and soul healing. I had two growing at the house I grew up in and their scent was always a source of joy in the early summer-- a mark of school ending and countless hours watching bees and hummingbirds flit around the backyard. I have plans for a winter mood-lifting elixir pairing it with rose, lavender, calendula, monkey-flower and local honey; as well as a mead concoction that should happen in the next couple of weeks.

   

     Lately it feels like all I've had time to do is work (farm & regular), sleep and eat. In college I learned the importance of movie days once a month or so as an effective means of relaxing, so I gave myself last Sunday off. Otherwise here I am, 10:30pm after work and then designing my new business cards, writing about farming and life in the Salish Sea. It has it's perks though. Every day I get to eat delicious food, see bald eagles (above my freshly-hoed bed in the photo to the right-- look in the upper left corner), and grow fun crops like Hungarian Blue Poppies to flavor winter quick breads and cakes.

     Weeds certainly are job security. In my herb/misc beds I regret ever direct seeding anything. Only the already "weedy" California poppies are doing well. The dill is floundering (actually bough more seed to try transplanting my next succession), and the valerian/feverfew/leftover lemon balms/ whatever seeds all got lost in a tangle of bindweed and some solanaceous plant I don't care to let flower to more readily identify. I hoe my long bed once a week to keep it clean, but this other area needs to be combed through two or three times a week just to keep my little plants afloat.  

     In exciting news though not only are my luffa and futsu squash perking up, the first calendula are budding and I'm expecting a lot of flowers. Any recommendations on good herbal soap recipes? If there are too many for salves and lip balms and other delicious but non-sellable items I'd like to delve into soap-making as another way to gain some profit from these plants I've put so much time into (Waste not, eh?)

 

Predawn birdsong

forest

misty eyes, cloudy ears

blooming trills &

sweeping songs akin

to branches in wind

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