When the World is Mud-Luscious

in Just-

in Just-

spring             when the world is mud-

luscious the little

lame baloonman

whistles           far             and wee

and eddieandbill come

running from marbles and

piracies and it's

spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer

old baloonman whistles

far          and             wee

and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's

spring

and

        the

                goat-footed

baloonMan        whistles

far

and

wee

~e.e. cummings (1894-1962)

Barnyard Bath House

Ever wondered how chickens take a bath?

Yesterday we let the ladies out to roam around our place, and a group of them made a beeline for the dry spot beneath the eaves of the house. I figured there must have been something really exciting going on over there to compete with all the bugs and tender little weeds out in the field, so I went over to check it out.

They all lined up like they were waiting their turn for a facial at the salon.

Pretty soon one, then another started rolling around and ruffling their feathers.

It was an all-out dust bath extravaganza.

"Excuse me!" "Pardon me!" "Don't mind if I roll over on you?"

These girls really know how to kick up their heels!

Bringing the Seasons into Your Home

With the increasingly indoor lives us modern folks are living, bringing a little of the outdoors in can really help us tune in to the natural world. I have always been the sort of person who fills up my house with rocks, sticks, feathers, nests, pinecones and whatever little things I collect on my walks and adventures. When my kids were little, I got the idea for a nature table somewhere, and I went with it enthusiastically. We started keeping a little low table where we put seasonal treasures from nature, and little things to remind us to welcome Spring, Summer, Winter and Fall into our lives.

When I first visited our local Waldorf school, I was drawn to the seasons tables right away. They were elaborate and incorporated whimsical little faeries and elemental beings associated with that season. I loved how soft silks and wool in the colors of the seasons were used as backdrops, and little stones, flowers and pinecones were lovingly displayed like little works of art. The importance of rhythm is a huge part of Waldorf education, and the idea is that strengthening a child's connection to the rhythms of the seasons and the days is very healthy for their development. It's reassuring to know what is coming next, and potentially unsettling to always wonder.  I adopted many of the Waldorf seasons table ideas right away, and got a little carried away with a giant driftwood gnome village that took up most of our living room. We scaled back with our move to this old farmhouse, but I still have little nooks and crannies that are changed out every season.

I wanted to share some ideas on how to bring the wheel of the year into the home and lives of our children. The more we can connect them to the outside world, the more they will be drawn out into it, to enjoy it and feel responsible as caretakers of the earth.  

This is a tiny season table I made for the kids in Kindergarten. I felted them some little bunnies and chicks from wool, and we made little Spring gnomes. I put small vases of budding branches and daffodils out that I refreshed every few days or so. They really loved it, and looked forward to changing it for each season.  I noticed them talking a lot more about what was going on in the natural world.

This is our Spring seasons table from last year with a Lady Spring and baby chicks I needlefelted from wool, vases of pussy willow branches, abandoned birds'' nests I collected, a wooden bird, a hatched out goose egg we found camping by a lake, pictures of rabbits, and pale green silks to match the colors outside this time of year.

Here is a Fall seasons display with a needlefelted wool harvest maiden I made, some vases of wheat, vine maple branches, little pumpkins and kernels of colorful Indian corn.

In the Fall I like to collect bright colored leaves and hang them up around the house. Our candle chandelier  above the dining room table has always been a good spot. In college a friend showed me how to make strings of pressed dried leaves to hang above doorways, and I've always had fun going on leaf gathering walks to make these. I like to put branches of vine maple leaves from up in the mountains in vases, and I do the same things with pussy willow branches in the Spring. I try to snag a few handfuls of dried wheat stalks from the edge of fields on late summer travels and these make nice arrangements around the house during harvest season.

Another seasonal thing we change throughout the year is the kids fairy treehouse. I saw one in the Magic Cabin Dolls catalogue that I really wanted, but couldn't afford, and my creative father built us one as a gift. I made little seasonal flower fairies to live in it for each of the four seasons, and we started changing out our little toy animals to ones we would see around for that time of year.

We used dyed wool roving and budding branches or fall leaves to make the tree look like the right season.

We also set up a little scene down below with a river and waterfall of blue silk. A couple of wooden trees added a very nice woodsy feel. Faeries dined on Fimo clay foods we made at their little branch table and chairs and their little animal friends joined them.

Here's part of the Spring fairy house scene with a daffodil fairy watching over a lamb. We made a lot of different sizes and colors of eggs from Fimo clay and put those around in little baskets. This is also the time we got out all our little toy rabbits and birds and put them all around.

Another thing I like to do is put out a seasonal selection of books on the Montessori style bookshelf my father-in-law built for the kids. I like how it's a forward facing shelf, displaying the cover art, so we can showcase the books that have to do with that time of year. I just changed it out for Spring with some of my son's new books about eggs and birds, and of course, gnomes.

You will find that it's very easy to find little ways to reflect the seasons in the home when you get in the habit of it. Just identify a few spots in your house that will change with the seasons, and collect a few little things from nature that appear with the time of year. Kids are naturals at this, and placing these treasures in a special place in your home gives them the message that nature is something to be treasured and treated with care. As you bring more of the outdoors in, you might just find yourself getting out of the indoors more often.

To an Early Daffodil

To an Early Daffodil

Thou yellow trumpeter of laggard Spring!

Thou herald of rich Summer's myriad flowers!

The climbing sun with new recovered powers

Does warm thee into being, through the ring

Of rich, brown earth he woos thee, makes thee fling

Thy green shoots up, inheriting the dowers

Of bending sky and sudden, sweeping showers,

Till ripe and blossoming thou art a thing

To make all nature glad, thou art so gay;

To fill the lonely with a joy untold;
Nodding at every gust of wind to-day,

To-morrow jewelled with raindrops. Always bold

To stand erect, full in the dazzling play

Of April's sun, for thou hast caught his gold.

~Amy Lowell

World Water Day and A Few Thoughts on News and Stewardship

Today is international World Water Day, and all over the world there are celebrations and people raising awareness for the appreciation and care of one of our most important natural resources. Wherever you are and whatever your day holds, I encourage you to think about water and your relationship to water. What does it mean to you?  Is there a favorite river, beach or lake that you have fond memories of or strong ties to? What can we do to take care of it and keep it clean?

In the wake of recent disasters both natural and man-made, I did something very out of character for me, which was tuning in to the news for a week. In letting the news into my life, there came along with it a lot of concern and sadness for the people of Japan, and for our earth as nuclear power plants were melting down and releasing radiation. The consequences of pursuing nuclear energy weighed heavily on my mind. A lot of worry crept in also, over things I heard about the possibility of nuclear drift and fallout reaching the West coast. It took a lot of energy to sift through all of the information and circle around the question of what I could do with it.

I will be the first to admit that I live under a rock. I don't have television, I don't get a newspaper, but I do have the radio and Internet, which can be as good a place as any to find out what's going on in the world if you're up for a little research and checking out the sources. The barrier I run into here, however, is that the news can be a lot for me personally to take in and process. I get so overwhelmed with the weight of all the troubling things going on around this wide world of ours that I find it very difficult to stop thinking about them and go on about my day. Thus, I have fallen out of keeping up-to-date on the news. I feel very strongly, however, that it is important for us human beings to strive towards creating positive changes in this world, so this creates quite a dilemma for me. How does one achieve a balance between staying informed and allowing in what we can handle? In pondering this, I realize that my news comes from conversations with friends and folks I run into around town, which is how news would have traditionally been spread amongst people for hundreds of years before radio and television came onto the scene. But is it enough in our modern world? I am still figuring this out.  

What I have found I can do is work away at making a positive impact (and reduce my impact) on this little piece of ground I'm living on, teaching my kids to take good care of the world they live in, and do my part as one person. Simple things like talking about water and the part it plays in our lives and our ecosystem may seem small, but just like tiny streams grow into larger rivers, so do our ideas and actions. When we break it down into our own piece, we can accomplish so much more than when we get bogged down in trying to take it all on. I will always have to work at keeping myself informed on a national and international level, but in the meantime I'm doing what I can to be of use right here.

In closing, here is a fitting song about environmental stewardship, a sort of conversation with the earth, by my favorite folk musician, May Erlewine. I gather a lot of inspiration from it when thinking about these things.

"I said what can I do?

I am only just me.

She said don't do it all,

just do something,

Please."

~May Erlewine

Look Ma! It's a Double-Yolker!

To my utter amazement this past week, one of our hens layed this! Now, I've seen plenty of double-yolkers in my day, but this one was downright HUGE.

Note how much larger it is than this other egg, and my son's hand!

And it cooked up very nicely too. Nothing like a fried egg to start the day out right.

Spring Equinox

In honor of the first day of Spring, our family had our annual Equinox egg hunt with natural plant dyed eggs.

I looked through this book we got at our Waldorf school store a couple of years ago called "Decorating Easter Eggs" by Thomas and Petra Berger, and got all kinds of elaborate ideas involving dried flowers and leaves, but in the busy pace of life, decided to stick to our traditional vegetable dyes. I simply boiled the eggs for six minutes in the dye bath, then took them off the heat, poured in a little vinegar, and let them sit in there to soak up the color for about 20 minutes. I was very pleased with the rich colors that came out.

Yellow onion skins with turmeric for golden yellow.

Beets for pink.

And purple cabbage for blue.

These didn't look colorful enough to me, so I added some frozen blackberries and they turned a lavender purple. You can see the one blue one in the middle there, and there is actually quite a difference in color.

Last year I did a few more colors, and you can read the post I wrote about it here:

 Plant and Veggie Dyes for Colorful Spring Eggs.

The kids woke up to an egg hunt in the house for eggs nestled in these little chicken egg cozies made by my great grandmother. We've got nine of them in a rainbow of colors, and they come out every year to hold treats and treasures from the Spring Faeries. I'm not much of a knitter, but this looks like a really fun project to me.

Then we went outside for an egg hunt around the yard, ending at the Spring bunny's nest. This year it was in our wheelbarrow, which seemed very fitting with how well-used it's been lately. All these eggs are going to make some delicious egg salad sandwiches and devilled eggs in the coming week. With the shift in the season, and longer days for our chickens to roam around eating bugs, we should be having a lot more eggs all around!

Welcome Spring!

The Joy of Nettles

Nettle season has come around once again, and I couldn't be any happier about it. Just about the time I'm starting to wonder when Winter will finally take its leave, these wonderful green heralds of Spring come up all over the woods, offering a nutrient-rich, rejuvenating food source with seemingly endless health benefits. They may be prickly, they may have an unpleasant reputation with some, but I can't deny that I LOVE nettles! Give them to me steamed, steeped or sauteed; in soups, in stir-fries, in scrambles or in tea. I've even heard talk of nettle beer and nettle pesto, which sound delightful to me!

I went picking with some friends one morning this last week, and we set to work with gloves, baskets, bags and scissors harvesting some fresh, green goodness and catching up on chatting.

With gloved hands, we gingerly collected the young plants popping up among the brown leaves of last Autumn. When gathering nettles this early in the year, mostly all the plants are just perfectly tender, but if you go later in the season, be sure to look for the new ones and leave the old, tough stalks alone.

The patch we picked in stretched out as far as we could see along the edge of the woods, so we filled those baskets pretty quickly without having to wander around. When you go out wildcrafting, it's good to follow ethical practices, like picking from a large patch with no risk of being wiped out by your harvest, snipping or snapping off the top part of the plant while leaving the rhizome undisturbed (do not pull up), avoiding high-traffic or fragile areas like city parks, and leaving plenty behind to grow. You want to make sure your patch will be there when you come back next year and when your children want to pick there someday.

I went home happy with a full basket of nettles; plenty to cook fresh this week and dry by the woodstove to store in the pantry for the coming year. With a few more harvesting expeditions I should be set with my years supply. You can see it written all over my face, I'm just a nettle lovin' fool.

There is much to smile about, for tomorrow is the first day of Spring!

Saturday Morning Baked Eggs

Baked eggs were always a weekend favorite my mom made when I was growing up, and with all these chickens we've got, it is still a favorite in my house today! It's very easy to get going when you wake up, and you can serve it with toast, fresh fruit, sausages, or whatever makes your breakfast complete. We eat a lot of eggs, so it's always good to change things up a bit from the scramble or good old fried egg.

 Here's my super easy, extra tasty family recipe.

Mountain Hearth's Saturday Morning Baked Eggs

a dozen farm fresh eggs

Worcestershire sauce

hot sauce

salt and pepper

grated cheese

diced fresh herbs

Grease a muffin pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Crack one egg into each cup, sprinkle with salt and pepper.

 Dash with Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce.

Grate cheese on top and sprinkle on chives or parsley.

Bake for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Birds for May

I have a sweet little story to share with you of childhood dreams come true. The other day, my daughter Rosemary painted a picture inspired by her favorite folksinger's song about a pair of tin birds in love. It was a beautiful watercolor of two red birds facing one another, and in my opinion was quite good. She asked me if I would send the picture to Daisy May. I told her I didn't know the address but I would try my very best. Little did I know that in a little over a week, we would meet May and give it to her in person! Life works in mysterious ways.

May Erlewine has been Rosemary's folk singing hero for about a year now. I discovered this Michigan musician when I won a beautiful peyote stitch necklace from Su Smith of StarSunflower, and along with it she sent me a live recording of May and her partner Seth Bernard playing a show at a brewery. I immediately loved Seth and May's music, for the beautiful instrumentals, folk harmonies, and messages of stewardship, sustainability and peace.  With each of their albums we listened to around the house, they really grew on my family, especially my daughter. She started taking "Mother Moon" up to her room and listening to it over and over. Since appreciation of good music made on real instruments by down to earth people is something I have worked at imparting on my children, I was very pleased and counted this among my parental successes.

When Halloween came around, Rosemary announced that she was going to dress up as Daisy May. More specifically, as the cowgirl in the songs from her first album, "Sleepless." She talked her best friend into dressing up with her, and we threw some costumes together. I sewed them some faux buckskin skirts out of an adult sized skirt from the Goodwill, and they made quite a pair in their boots and hats. I loved that she came up with such a creative idea all on her own, rather than being a witch, ghost, or princess like most other kids. Her brother was Smokey the Bear, and last year they dressed up as chickens, so I guess that's just the way our family rolls.

So, back to the present and the painting. I wasn't quite sure how I would get this piece of original art to May, but I didn't have to wonder long because a few days later I found out she was coming to play in Portland at one of our favorite spots, Edgefield. It was short notice, mid-week, a couple of hours away, and we were busy, but it was so serendipitous that I didn't care. I told Rosemary she was going to deliver that painting in person. Not only that, we were going on a just-us-girls getaway. When I was growing up, my mother used to take me to Seattle once a year or so, just me and her. We went to museums, took in ballets, canoed around the arboretum and ate chocolate croissants. There was always something very special about having my mom all to myself and going on adventures together in the city, and I figured it was about time I did that with my daughter. She does have a twin after all, so undivided parental attention can be hard to come by.

So, Rosemary and I took off on an adventure. I took her out of school for the day and we went to the big city. We did some thrift shopping at the Goodwill bins (these are literally bins in a big warehouse where you dig through for treasures, and buy clothing by the pound!), visited Powell's used book store, and re-affirmed that these things are fun, but we are happy to be country folk.

We made our way to Edgefield, where we spent a good part of the afternoon just wandering around seeing what was in bloom in the gardens. I'm usually not one for hotels, but the McMenamin's establishments are something special. Edgefield was a county poor farm built in the early 1900's, which the McMenamin brothers transformed into a hotel destination with a pub, a 3$ movie theater (where you can have pizza and beer - Ruby Ale is my favorite), winery, brewery, distillery, creamery, restaurant, saltwater soaking pool and 74 acres of organic gardens and vineyards. As new hotel and restaurant construction can be fairly un-sustainable, I am quite impressed with the McMenamin's model of fixing up old institutional and historical buildings and turning them into establishments that celebrate that building's history. They try to use every structure on the property and give it an exciting new life, and they are committed to sustainable operating practices. One of my favorite things about Edgefield is the art everywhere you look. They turned a team of 12 artists loose with paintbrushes, old photographs of residents, and stories about the poor farm and the local area. The history is literally all over the walls. Needless to say, it's a place I thoroughly enjoy visiting.

We looked around the garden a little to see what they had going on there. Now, I have to tell you that this garden was our inspiration for the garden we are working away on today. When my husband and I first visited Edgefield nine years ago, we were blown away by this 1/4 acre spread of veggies, berries, and espalier fruit trees. We had the good fortune of talking to the head gardener that day, and learned all kinds of things about organic gardening they didn't teach us in school, sheet mulching being one. If you have been reading this blog, you know what an avid sheet mulcher I am today. It all began at Edgefield.

We walked around the hallways looking at all the murals to pass the time before the concert.

Being a mama of twins, I always was partial to this one.

No exit sign, pipe or stairway is left un-decorated.

Enough about the art and the gardens though, we came to hear Seth and May! The show was in the winery, so Rosemary sat in a chair right at edge of the arched doorway entrance to the rest of the hotel, and I sat at a nearby table with our friends Erin and Julia who moved to Portland a while back. When Seth came in he immediately shook Rosemary's hand and gave her a high five, and May came back to meet her during the set break. She also shook Rosemary's hand and introduced herself. Rosemary, who was beaming by this point, gave her the painting along with one made by her brother, and May said she loved them and would hang them on her wall at home. She asked if she could play Rosemary a song, and the request was the one that inspired the painting. May started the second set by dedicating "Celia and Wendel" to her young friend Rosemary and showed off the painting to the whole room with a round of applause. Two more times during the show they called for a round of applause and cheers for their friend in the back who just grinned and looked as pleased as pie.  I'm pretty sure it was one of the biggest highlights of her young life, and definitely worth missing school for.

So, that is my story of dreams coming true. It was a good reminder to me that spontaneity and fun are important parts of life, and when we allow time for the un-planned and seemingly impractical, some of our most treasured memories are made. This is the stuff that we tell stories about in the rocking chair when we're old and gray.



Here's a video of May and Seth singing one of our favorites at the Wonder Ballroom in Portland, just a couple nights after we saw them, called "Greens."

And a handful of links to some other Daisy May favorites:

 Heartsong, Seeds, Rise Up Singing, and

Please (protesting water pollution at Michigan's capitol). 

And here is a short video about Seth and May's recent community supported music project, Project Ethiopia, and them singing My Family with a group of school children in Adis Ababa.

Red Zeppelin

I had already planted a bed of red storage onions, but how could I NOT get a bundle of these with such a name? I planted the Red Zeppelin onions in their very own raised bed, and look forward to some rockin' recipes this summer! In honor of these onions, all the rain we've been getting lately, and a band I have enjoyed listening to many a time, here are the words to one of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs.

A love song to onions on a rainy day in March. Maybe it will help them grow.

The Rain Song

This is the springtime of my loving - the second season I am to know

You are the sunlight in my growing - so little warmth I've felt before.

It isn't hard to feel me glowing - I watched the fire that grew so low.

It is the summer of my smiles - flee from me Keepers of the Gloom.

Speak to me only with your eyes. It is to you I give this tune.
Ain't so hard to recognize - These things are clear to all from
Time to time.

I've felt the coldness of my winter

I never thought it would ever go. I cursed the gloom that set upon us...

But I know that I love you so

These are the seasons of emotion and like the winds they rise and fall

This is the wonder of devotion - I see the torch we all must hold.

This is the mystery of the quotient - Upon us all a little rain must fall

~Led Zeppelin

Meet the Peeps!

There are many paths to happiness in this wide world of ours, but right here and now, happiness is holding a baby chick. This week we brought home nine more balls of fluff. One Buff Orpington, two Bantam Frizzles, three Bantam Cochins, and three Bantam Silkies were added to our chicken menagerie on Thursday.

One of my favorite things about bantam chicks is how they seem to be even tinier and thus more adorable than your average baby chick. They're just so stinkin' small!

They seem to be getting along well with our two week-old Americaunas, and following them around like a couple of big sisters. One can't help but feel happy deep down inside watching them waddle around the brooder box, chirping away.

What can I say. I'm a crazy chicken lady.