still plenty of farm land

even though not as much as when we first moved to town.

homemade wrappings

I bought a pine cone and a chickadee stamp, and Cyndi gave me one for these trees and a couple of other things on my birthday. The snowflakes were borrowed. I also bought white and charcoal stamp pads. I'm determined to use my *free* wrinkled brown packing paper for gifts as much as I can, which means actually ironing it sometimes, but I'm doing that two or three times a week, anyway.

One difficulty I'm having is finding ribbon to match. This stretchy piece of silver came in handy. I have a lot to learn, and will get more practice later.

just a funny story

"If you read all the signs", said Dick at breakfast, which is the time we always take for leisurely conversation, "you realize they work the caretaker with rigid discipline."

Did he mean church, cattle, or children? We had been discussing all three. I waited while he drank the milk out of his glass, poured cream and then coffee into the glass.

"They don't want a lot of loud talk and conversation. They won't tolerate changes. They don't want to be driven; they just want to be served." The church, I decided.

"You try to get them in, and they'll stand in the doorway, blockin' the way...." Yes, the church certainly. His words exactly described the Maple Grove congregation pausing between the old stone wall and the front steps to talk plowing, tractors, crops, and beef prices, reluctant to break it up even when the old upright piano starts clanging: Bring them in, bring them in. Still, it might be the children; sometimes it's hard to get them in to meals.

"And if one of 'em has horns, she's got things her way. Now horses will go right in and kick the slats out of everything they don't like, but a cow will just stand there, lookin'..."

It was a relief, finally to know.

                                                        -   Rural Free, by Rachel Peden

affirmation for Val

I just was reading Val's post here, and then picked up my book, Rural Free by Rachel Peden.

"Do the winter fields look pretty to you? asked Dick (her husband) as we stood at the front window watching the children get on the school bus.  I thought the view of bare trees and snowy fields, through John Fielder's living room window, was just simply beautiful. John's window looks out on a faded red barn, a nice-sized creek, and a stony hillside with two dead elms at the foot of it. Actually, if the rain's not running down your neck, and your feet aren't cold, any winter day on the farm is beautiful, he added. "

This book was written in sixty-one, and was recently withdrawn from our library collection. Well, we have to buy new things, and we have to make room for them! But, I love these kinds of writings. This woman was no Gladys Taber, but any journal type book of farming or country life - from the past, especially - is so appealing.

[About Dick]: "A year at the Purdue University did not change his farm way of talking, any more than a comb could take the curl out of his dark hair. But a man can be poetic by nature and yet express himself in the handy, accurate language of farmers. 

He has prejudices and strong personal opinions. He is left-handed, tall, slightly stooped, and now wears bifocal glasses. He likes to read; prefers the sophisticated New Yorker magazine...to the farm magazines, which he finds depressing. "

a wedding in Vermont

There and back again in twenty six hours.  A foliage tapestry in the hills everywhere you turned on the way up; a pretty backyard plot at the inn where we stayed with a flower and corn shack right next to it;  a simple and lovely ceremony at an old meeting house with a string trio playing lots of Handel beforehand, and a bagpiper playing afterward in the town green; the bride and groom driving themselves off to the reception in an old Ford; a rustic but charming and well organized reception venue which was "decorated" outside with an antique car. (Model A?)

Back home to one kitty who was so excited to see us (Dolly), and one kitty who surprisingly hadn't thrown up from eating too much (Henry).

beautiful greens

organic from the farmers' market. They gave too much to my friend Debra, so she shared.

a nice idea

I've been reading a lovely book, recommended to me by a co-worker, New England Year: a Journal of Vermont Farm Life by Muriel Follett. She and her husband had two children, and apparently when one had a birthday, they would get a small present for the other, too. 

There's something nice about that idea, although I'm not sure I can say why.

I was going to link to a photo of the book, but I can't find an image of it online!  Not on Google, not on Amazon.  I found the book on Alibris for .99, but no picture of it.  But I recommend it.  I think she was ahead of her time in having this published; if she were writing today, (this is from 1938), I imagine she'd be blogging, wouldn't she?  There are also very lovely woodcut illustrations in it.

Community Supported Agriculture

We are in week seven of our participation in a cooperative with a local farm; we pick up our veg every Monday, not knowing what we'll get!  This week, our haul was:

• 3 onions
• 2 carrots
• 2 beets
• 2 large radishes
• a small head of lettuce
• a nice bunch of basil
• 2 yellow squash
• 14 - !  pickling cukes
• 5 tomatoes - 3 regular and 2 plum
• a head of broccoli
• 2 jalapenos and 2 little other hot-ish peppers
• 3 green bell peppers and 1 Italian frying pepper
• a sprig of dill

I think that's it!  So, we've already used the lettuce. The basil is in the freezer. I made broccoli soup the other day and also used the carrots and squash. I gave half the cucumbers to a neighbor who has 3 house guests.

We find ourselves eating things we don't normally buy.  Sugar snap peas, for example. Beets. I was getting weary of the way I was preparing beets, (steamed, with tarragon), so now I peel them, slice them thickly, steam them and cool them.  Then, serve with a honey dijon type dressing.  Much better!

We never eat hot peppers, but we're gonna try.  It's a challenge!