We are eating pumpkin tart, and sowing seedlings. Doing rain dances, watching the skies.
Playing with sticks (for better or worse), and listening to the bees hum…
Danni’s latest lunchtime creation – herb labneh and cinnamon pumpkin tart We have entered the sword phase. Oh the joy. Heather and Filipe – awesome future growers Intercropping broadbeans with brassicas (it’s an experiment) Peas ready to rise Rocket, cima di rapa, spinach and lettuce coming along nicely Farmer Mike, in the mornin’ The remaining green manures are humming – photo by Floyd Constable And more shiitakes are still coming on – image by Floyd ConstableIn two weeks we’ll be holding our Spring on-farm Permaculture Design Course, which is a huge bust of energy for our farm.
There’ll be students everywhere designing and learning and thinking and doing, constant cooking, harvesting and eating from the market garden, and books in hammocks and guitars around the campfire at the end of each day.
It feels a little like the calm before the storm, this week.
Not forgetting that between now and the PDC, we’re all headed to Sydney to talk all things design, green and growing at the Permaculture Piazza for Gardening Australia Live – which is going to be huge, and magnificent, and crazy.
But hey – it’s Spring. A time of frenzied growth, and doing, and being.
My solution to all this activity is to get up early while the stars are still in the sky and the east is lightening, make a pot of tea, and sit.
Before my family wakes up, before the emails start pinging, before the daily list is on the table and before the must-dos are galloping through my head.
What do you do in busy times to find a small patch of calm? I’d love to hear…
Reblogged this on MissBlue Blog.
Ha-ha, I like to listen to a good CD with my headphones on and laying in bed, or if I’m feeling particularly restless, I’ll listen while riding my exercise bike! Music and exercise are great de-stressors for me.
Have fun over this busy season.
Go Milkwooders!
In my case it’s usually staying up too late reading. Early mornings are still on the good intention list. Must work on that. Inspired that you’re managing it during the ‘sword phase’ 😉
mmm sword phase. Hoping that this is, at least, in lieu of gun phase…
I’m similar to you, Kirsten……the stillness of the early morning assists in gathering thoughts and ideas for the coming day. It’s such a joy to see the morning light brightening the eastern skies, hearing the magpies start the dawn chorus (then the kookaburras and grey shrike-thrushes join in) and giving thanks for the beautiful and abundant world in which we live.
Love your posts 🙂
What about encouraging scythe phase in lieu of sword phase. At least that way the lawn will get mown. 😉 (Stick scythe for now though of course.) I can get up at the crack of dawn for peace and quiet too – reading blogs and researching before the craziness of a 2yo, nearly 4yo and 5yo and daily life strikes. However, my mornings are usually interrupted by one or more of the above joining me. I take time in the mornings to just enjoy life when I feed the chooks, ducks and goat, water the greenhouse and wander the veggie… Read more »
In the mornings I sit with a cup of tea, catching up on twitter if the internet will stay on long enough. In the late afternoons I sit in the doorway with my sketchbook or embroidery and work quietly while looking out at the bees and butterflies on our new vege garden. It’s the first time we’ve properly grown anything and being able to make dinner with stuff from just outside our front door is still exciting. We are in the recovery phase after creating frantically for the market we have a stall at every 6 months and a bunch… Read more »
I hide in a book for a little bit of peace.
Mmmmm yes feeding chooks and ducks in the food forest gives me that standing still time. Watching what is evolving around me as the spring energy cranks up! Listening to the bellbirds chiming (Korimako here in Aotearoa/NZ and a different bird all together).By the by can we have the recipe for the herb labneh and pumpkin tart?
That little bit of calm before the storm is extremely addictive. It has seen me go from a night creature to getting up at 3am to find time for myself, to get organised, centred and as full of tea as I dare to get before the mad rush to enlightenment and doing it all begins.