Happy Spring!

Vernal Equinox, 20 March 2009 07:43 (EDT)

Today marks the "official" beginning of the spring season.

Now is a time of balance, of equal light and dark,
when all the elements of the earth and within us
ask to be brought to peaceful harmony.

Spring Equinox is one of our favorite times of the year --
days are longer than nights, it's getting warmer,
the trees are budding and the air has that expectant
stillness before the full bursting forth of summer.

Now is the time to plant the seeds that will grow and
bloom into our hopes and dreams. Let us be fearless --
and wise! The world will reap what we sow. And
remember the Native Americans, who consider the
effects of their actions for seven generations to come.

Despite the above quote and popular belief, the equinox is not necessarily the day of equal light and dark. That day generally happens slightly before the spring equinox (or after the fall equinox), the exact date depending on your location on Earth.
Technically the vernal equinox occurs when the center of the sun crosses the Equator, rising due east and setting due west. It really means the "center" of the sun. Sunrise is defined as the moment the very top edge of the sun appears to peek over the horizon. Sunset is when the very last bit of the sun disappears below the horizon. Those astronomers get pretty precise about these things.

But for millennia humans have given much more significance to this day. It is celebrated as Alban Eilir, Eostar, Eostre, Feast of Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Festival of Trees, Lady Day, NawRuz, No Ruz, Ostara, Ostra, or the Rites of Spring among others.
While Winter solstice truly marks the beginning of the return of longer days, Spring Equinox embodies the return of light and warmth and renewed life, giving rise to traditions of life, resurrection, fertility, and feasting in many cultures.

We celebrate this time of renewal here with work on our garden-to-be. With snow forecast for the weekend we are not doing much outside, but there are seeds to start and young seedlings to tend. We do cultivate in a greenhouse to extend our season here and this weekend will be sifting dirt and compost and planting greens and cool hardy crops in large tubs.

For anyone, the easiest, most cost effective vegetables to grow to extend your food budget are greens. From lettuce to Swiss Chard, all grow happily in containers. They are very quick to mature and you can have fresh, organic vegetables and salad year-round with little effort. We grow ours in reused large storage tubs we scrounged. Drilled a few holes in the bottom and Voila! Free 18 gallon planters. I generally grow lettuce in succession for a constant supply. I start new seed within a week of transplanting out my starts. $3.00 worth of lettuce seed will keep you in salad most, if not all, year. Add to that radishes, other types of greens, beets, carrots and such and you can grow a large amount of vegetables in containers, easily, for a very small amount of money.

We mix our own potting soil with about 1/3 of our clay-ey soil, 1/3 compost and 1/3 mixed chicken or steer manure and bought potting soil. Often the latter is actually really old potting soil I have reclaimed from other planters. We never throw any out as it is a nice amendment to loosen up our clay soil here.
The nice thing about all these vegetables is that they are also beautiful. Even if you only have a couple of planters of lettuce, with maybe a dwarf marigold in them, they can double as landscaping. So start your own salad bar as a way to celebrate the spring season, and remember to garden organically. It's easy.

Rolling Along...

I originally wrote this Nov. 18, 2008. There was a little tremor that evening. A small earthquake about 20 minutes before I wrote the post. The computer USGS Site told me it was a 4.4 situated 17 miles out to sea, about 92 miles southwest of us. I didn't feel a thing. But Dennis, he felt it, and immediately went to check our hanging lamp which doubles as an earthquake detector. Sure enough, it was slightly swaying.

Earthquakes are one of those things that reminds us earth is not just a solid rock, but a geologically active structure. Reminds us that we humans are just a part of a very big picture, of which humans and other living beings, even the multitudes of microbes, are only an element.

In southern California there are raging fires accelerated by strong winds. Tearing through communities without prejudice for wealth or age or rank these fires are very destructive of homes and businesses and those parts of the infrastructure in their path. In 2007 terrible floods ravaged the area around the great rivers of America's heartland. And lest we forget, weather, earthquake, volcanoes and tsunami continually shape the entire planet and affect the lives of all the worlds peoples.

And while all these things are able to disrupt, destroy, and fill us with fear, at the same time they are the actions of change which have created the habitable planet. Out of tumult comes the future: fertile; strong; and different.

In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences. -Robert Green Ingersoll, lawyer and orator (1833-1899)

I think we can get caught up in seeing these things as "good" or "bad". View them as actions to be tamed or conquered... as if we could. I think we have pretty much discovered that the forces of nature are without judgment and cannot be manipulated for human purposes. So we are left with the mission, as the inhabitants of a volatile planet, to learn to prepare for what may happen without fear and accept courageously the challenges. This is our opportunity to show our humanity by working as a community, local, regional, national and world-wide, to support each other in times of need.

Of course, this can translate over into the hardships of our own creation as well. The tight economic times also extend world wide. Each of us will have needs and/or ways in which we can contribute to others. It will be a time to see if we stand as a community and come to each others' aid or retreat to protect ourselves from the perceived need of others.

All things will pass, the elders say. All things are temporary. Change is constant and our strength is in how we choose to work with it. It is opportunity to work for the better - no?

Time Travel... into spring

In the northern California mountains where we live, the climate is often determined by elevation. Enough so that the seasons are accelerated (or decelerated) going from one altitude to another.

For us, town is on the coast and as we travel over 3000 feet down to sea level, we drive visibly into the future. I may drive out of snow and ice bound winter into blooming cherry plum and daffodil springtime! There is about a 3 week difference between and we get a sneak preview into the coming season. In autumn, the reverse is true.

So, this most recent trip to town was full of spring glory, including one of my favorites: frolicking lambs. They always remind me of this little ditty my mother used to sing and that I learned as a nonsense song as a small child "Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey" - only much later to learn the real meaning:

Mares eat oats and does eat oats,
And little lambs eat ivy.
A kid'll eat ivy too, wouldn't you?

My first "commercial" craft was hand spun yarns and hand knitwear. We raised sheep for years and the spring lambs, with their buoyant antics, were an annual delight. There is nothing so pastoral as sheep out grazing. I love their mellow demeanor and, of all our livestock, they were probably the easiest to tend.
However, of the larger livestock, they were also the most vulnerable to predators (only poultry are more delectable to a broader range of varmints). From Mountain lion to coyotes, they were targets, but dogs were the worst. After 15 years of sheep raising we gave up due to a particularly persistent pack of dogs in the neighborhood who thought running down sheep and maiming them was a grand sport. Sigh.
So now I enjoy the lambs in other people's pastures.

But I do I keep my hand in the wool work, spinning and knitting for my own pleasure and family.

So, what do you get when you mix wool and soap? To perpetuate on a small scale my earlier business, "Sheep Thrills", we craft felted soap!
A soap in sheep's clothing, our Woolies are the perfect travel soap and help me meld my two favorite crafts. Check them out.

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Update: Speaking of time...
Remember to set your clock forward this Sunday morning for Daylight Savings Time!