Mountains to Sea and back again
Sometimes you need to get away to come back ready to begin. The quick getaway to the South Carolina shore for Mendy’s birthday, besides being great fun all around, was just what this gardener needed. The warm breezes reminded me that spring is working its way slowly (very slowly) but surely up the mountains.
Read MoreBeginnings & Transitions
Artists avoiding the studio. Gardeners avoiding their gardens. Songwriters writing no songs. Writers willing to wash every dish in the house rather than sit down with the empty page. Photographers who have let their camera sit in a drawer so long the batteries run down. Bloggers who haven’t posted in they don’t remember when.
When I’m shying away from my long-time creative passions, that’s a pretty good sign something is up. Or down. Maybe there’s something troubling me just enough to keep me from starting on that new idea. Maybe I’ve allowed myself to get so busy there’s no time—there’s a classic trick to avoid all kinds of realizations, temporarily. I may be sounding a bit like Mendy’s creativity blog, but over and over I see that when I’m avoiding time with my favorite muses—the garden, writing & photography—it’s as good as a blazing neon sign over the psyche that says, “Dig Here!” Not that I still don’t busily manage to put that all out of my mind for long expanses of time! But in my experience, creativity practiced regularly and with an open heart will keep you honest in a way that nothing else does—short of a really challenging therapist perhaps…or AA I’m told.
For many months now, I’ve known that we will probably be leaving these Ozarks in a couple of years and moving back home to the Appalachians. Health issues worsened by dry heat, family members transitioning to different states, and just a strong missing for those blue hills of home have all played a part in the decision. The decision has made it difficult for me to face the page, and the garden, for some time. (Oh and an oppressive heat wave most of the summer compounded by severe drought didn’t exactly have me rarin’ to go either, I must confess.)
We want to go slow and plan for moving—lord willin’ etc—in early 2014. We recently returned from an exploratory trip to check out the lay of the land in Southwest Virginia, which has the mountains we love, but also has a bit more open sky and rolling land than our previous home in the steep Black Mountains of North Carolina. Living on the edge of Oklahoma for seven years will give you an unexpected taste for open sky after all. It’s close to old friends but less crowded than Western North Carolina. Washington County, Virginia seems to have most of what we need—nice people but not too-too many, great farmers markets, some arts and cultural venues and goings-on, a local-foods group, decent topsoil and good rainfall. What they don’t seem to have is people moving away and freeing up a house for us! 🙂 But that could be a good sign overall, even though it could take us a long while to find a new little farm.
The thought of leaving this home and the incredible friends we’ve both made here in the Ozarks is nearly enough to make you forswear moving-boxes for the rest of your life. But the reasons to head back home are real. There is sadness in a leaving mixed with the excitement of a new beginning. Wherever we end up, I’ve warned Mendy that I’m going to be looking for a trophy-wife caliber stretch of topsoil without a blade of bermuda grass or a rock to be seen!
Honestly though, as much as I’ve fussed about the rocks here at Larrapin Garden, taking this hillside from then to now has been one of the greatest joys of my life so far. I’ve learned things I never would have known in rich bottomland. We took a somewhat barren expanse and spent years cultivating and growing and creating and cajoling it into this amazing landscape filled with songbirds, woodpeckers, raptors, butterflies, bees, toads, tree frogs, salamanders, lizards, and more. Yes there are snakes and wasps too, but you’d be hard pressed to find three-acres as bustling with beautiful life as these. There are flowers, herbs, fruit trees, shade trees, blooming shrubs for medicine and for pollinators that will grow on even after we leave. There is a large garden with soil rich enough for a family to grow most of their own food where before there was only bermuda grass on compacted dirt. For me, it’s a legacy to pass on to the next gardeners who live, dream and grow here as we have.
In upcoming posts I will share what comes up as this idea moves forward. We’ll see what happen! Thank you so much for being a reader, even when I haven’t always been reliable about my end of the conversation. As always, I’d love to read your comments and hear what’s going on in all your creative gardens!
Beekeeping Hint: “Nurse” gloves
Now that it’s hot summer, beekeeping enters a quiet season again. The spring swarm frenzy is over, honey is bottled and sitting like treasure in the pantry. Hive inspections can be on an as-needed basis instead of every week as in the Spring.
Now the bees are just busy keeping the hive cool and looking for nectar in this dry, dry weather. Meanwhile, I’m watching what trees and shrubs are still producing nectar in the hot summer months, because I want to add more of those to my landscape. At the moment, I’m interested in the Chinese Golden Rain tree, which has bloom I’ve read are full of nectar during the hot summer months….still researching all that. I wish I had the site and the soil to plant basswood, seeing the bees on those flowers earlier this year on an ENORMOUS tree in front of the E.R. of the Fayetteville V.A. Hospital was amazing. If you do have bottomland, plant basswood!
Anyway, speaking of hospitals, one of the tools of my nursing career —the ubiquitous blue non-latex gloves that you can also buy at any big-box store — have turned out to be a wonderful beekeeping tool as well. The heavy leather gloves they sell in the beekeeping catalogs are just crazy to me. I couldn’t pick up firewood in those honkers, much less sticky heavy frames. Not without crushing a bunch of girls, and that’s not ok with them or me.
I’ve worked gloveless, which is a kind of badge of honor among the crunchy beekeeping set, but I’m easily distracted by the aversion of getting stung. Yes I have tender hands despite all the gardening, but I wear garden gloves! I only got stung once during my gloveless phase…and that was because I accidentally pinned a bee while moving a frame, still those little pokey bee feet constantly trotting over my hands as they investigated skin pulled my attention from the inspection. Not to mention I got the sticky, dark propolis on my hands then left brownish fingerprints all over the handholds of the bee boxes. Not so great.
Enter nurse gloves. The bees don’t seem to count the glove as skin, so are disinterested and stay out of the way a bit more. They probably could sting through a single glove, but none have so far. The gloves are very thin so there’s no cumbersome feel. I put on two layers of gloves just so I can strip off the top pair if they get too covered in propolis, start getting messy or sticky or get alarm phermone on them and begin to attract unpleasant attention from the guard girls. Yes, they are sweaty if you have to work in the heat, but I change gloves between hives if I’m sweaty, cool off my hands and start with a fresh pair. (Note: you CANNOT get fitted gloves on sweaty hands…this is why I take off a pair vs putting another on in mid-inspection.) It’s not perfect, but better than any other solution I’ve found so far, even if they look kinda weird in pictures. (Thanks to Marianne for the photo from early May, 2012.)
Thanks for stopping by Larrapin Garden, even in the July heat.
Read MoreThe Cowboy & Farmer Tank
With the heat and drought beginning to take a toll we’ve been busy watering the garden, young trees and the wildlife. Thank goodness the garden has a t-tape irrigation system in its second year that is simply wonderful. Especially after discovering that the minerals in our well water will clog a soaker hose in one season, making them quite a waste around here.
It’s not just the land that needs water in Arkansas these day. As you can see from the pic above, a good dunk in the stock tank that is filled with icy well water can put your day going in the right direction after hot and sweaty hours in the garden. We use it as a dunk-&-relax tank for several days, then hook a hose to the clean out drain and water trees and shrubs with the water. Refill and repeat as necessary to keep the mood cool and the outlook hopeful, regardless of the weather.
Read MoreRoses & Springtime
Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all. —W. Somerset Maugham
I think WSM speaks a truth, but forgot a few things too! This rose, for example, is a beauty to both smell and see. The petals feel like silk and make exquisite rose-infused honey. The thorny canes are sheltering a cardinal’s nest with three turquoise-sprinkled-with-chocolate eggs. The rose itself came from Austin, Texas and that springtime trip is a wonderful memory… The perfume of a rose, can hold a lifetime of memories..and yes, is indeed an ecstasy of beauty!
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