Colleen's friend Susan (who was married the same day as Lindsey) came to visit with her husband Curtis on Friday and spent the weekend with us. Our first guests!!! And they brought a 6 pack of Graeter's Ice cream on dry ice for Colleen. Gaelen was also with us for the weekend and we all went up to the falls a 1/2 mile north on Rt. 12. We skipped rocks and built stepping stones in the creek. Gaelen and I worked a bit earlier on our dams in the backyard creek. I showed him the beaver method and he took to finding the sticks and tossing them in while I piled on sod and stones. We backed the big hole up a good 6 inches before being in the cold water got old.
I am constantly amazed at the 2 beautiful kids I have. Gaelen and Ambiana play together very well and here they are together in Gaelen's special spot he found on our walk. Gaelen I am sure looks forward to seeing and being with Ambiana much more so than to seeing me. They invite each other into their little worlds bouncing together on the bed, 'fishing' in the creek, making 'dinner' in Ya's 'kitchen.'
Gaelen loves to build forts out of blankets and pillows. This weekend he built a library stocked it with all our books and then made both me and Ambiana library cards so we could check them out. Outside he is either in the creek or in the forest or in both.Gaelen didn't want to go on the walk to the falls but when he got there he
loved it and even explored a little rivulet by climbing up it alone to where he found this special spot. At night we had a fire again and looked at Jupiter thru my telescope seeing 4 of her moons as well. It was cold outside the circle ofwarmth, the stars glittering crisply overhead as we sat by our fire by the pond. Gaelen entertained us with his twirling fire stick and later with the plunks of big stones tossed in the pond.
Ambiana wants to do thing by herself now, such as washing her hands and face, getting up and off the toilet, weeding or raking leaves. She is such a little person, toddler no longer applies, her vocabulary is a nice size and she tells tales to herself about all the things she has done and places she has been. She loves to have music class and be Debbie Wyle (her Music 2gether teacher back in South Hadley) and sing songs to us. She acts out her favorite books, the latest being Blueberries for Sal in which we are either mama or momma bear and she is alternately little Sal or the little bear. Our trailer does not have a porch but it does have a mudroom which I have designated a Red Sox Mudroom by virtue of a radio and a wall covered with newspaper photos of the Red Sox in action courtesy of Gamma who gave me a shopping bag full of them at Colleen's birthday party 2 weeks ago. Ambiana also keeps her rake and hoe out here as well as our shoes. Gaelen wants a sofa and a chair but it's not that kind of mudroom.
Colleen has been in the garden harvesting and the occasional weeding since we got here. Yesterday she weeded a whole bed and the shape of the underlying garden suddenly emerged like a lost pyramid in the jungle. Suddenly the raised beds underneath the abundant growth was discernable. Today while Colleen and Ambiana went to a playgroup I went out into the garden and got on my knees in the warm morning
sun and began to pull out the weeds. The earth was cold, it got down into the 30's last night, clear and cold but no frost. I am thankful that Curtis and Susan came to visit because the sight of them emerging in the morning fully clothed with jackets and hats was finally enough to get Colleen to relent and let me turn on the heat. It is still warm during the days especially when there is sun.
As I pulled green plants the activity recalled all the farm experiences we have had over the past year and a half, from our work on our CSA in Massachusetts through farms in new Zealand and our own garden beds we built in Hawai'i and working for Teleion Holon with Bonnie and Oliver. I looked up at the warm sun floating over the pines and at our pond and the upper meadow and another piece of home fell into place. We have been here 4 weeks, a new moon cycle has begun and we will not be moving on from this garden I am re-claiming anytime soon. Saturn is making it's way out of the 12th house, the last 7 years a journey through the Collective action and becoming and next it will be time for another go at my individual expression but this time informed by the previous 28 year Saturn cycle. Our farm dream becoming; beginning here in this garden upon my knees in the earth.
Summer 2008
