A poem a day...

We occasionally get a wild idea to make ourself do something we have no time for. Here's one we had recently: write a Twitter length poem every day.
Given the restriction of only 140 characters I thought I might be able to do this, giving myself a little daily brain exercise. Here goes:

11/24 –
The mist is rising
This Autumn morning
As sun warmed breeze
Caresses night chilled Earth.

11/25 -
Morning dog walk.
I see, she smells, the day.
We both know
Cattle trucks have passed this way.

11/26 -

Rise early to prepare,

Food and kid projects,                                 

Music and lodging.                                    

Thankful we have it to share.

11/27 –

Family and friends

Are the mirror

Showing people are connected

One to another.

11/28-

Deep frost, like snow,

Crisp, bright,

With sky ice blue.

A day of clarity.

11/29-

Old sheep shed torn down.

Rotted wood and timber

Burns furiously

Its story now flame and ember.

11/30-

Lichen streamers

Wave from fir branches

Riding a canyon breeze

No one else sees

12/1-

December dawns

Bright and chill.

Yearling fawns

Nosing the frosty earth.

12/2-

Ducks drop from sky with a splash!

An aeronautic comedy.

No grace to this crash,

But it gets the job done.

12/3 –

Night wind howls.

Sings in the trees,

Roars through the canyon.

Liberating the last autumn leaves.

12/4 –

Too much to do!

Still at my desk working

As the full moon rises.

Hoping to finish one more thing.

12/5 –

Highest tide I've ever seen

On Humboldt Bay.

Sloughs are rivers, flats submerged,

Islands melt away.

12/6 –

Bitter cold night.

Ducks paddle

In frozen pond

To keep open channel.

12/7-

In the teens,

The pond a solid icy mass.

Poor ducks! They huddle
In a single liquid puddle.

12/8 –

Sunrise starts above

With pink-edged cloud.

Then pours light down mountain,

Through trees to ground.

12/9 –
Another freezing day.
We brave the wind and chill
Taking pup out for a walk.
Now must thaw: That wind could kill!

12/10 -
Where did the water go?
Vanished dead of night,
Temp. around 20
Buried pipes, no leak in sight.

12/11 –

The wild mallards return

On ice bound pond alight.                  

Slide, flapping, skating, skittering,

To onlookers delight!

12/12 – Precious elixir of life,

Water from the sky.

Without it follows strife,

We fear the well run dry.

If you like these, follow us on Twitter and get a poem daily, as well as information on special online sales and environmental and other news.

Frost on the Pumpkin...

We saw the first migrating geese fly over last week. I start to become anxious waiting to see them this time of year. It's easy to miss them if I'm in the house or shop - you cannot hear them then. But outside their presence is heralded by such a commotion of honking you hear them long before they are in sight, even when they fly so high you can barely see them. I don't think they can flap their wings without commenting on it! This annual migration is one of the great hallmarks of the turning of the seasons for me. More than anything else it signals the coming of long nights and cold weather.

And now we have had the first hard frost. It dipped into the 20's last night, putting an end to all the watering and much of the work in the garden. Also an end to the basil and tomatoes and such – after we eat all the ones that are now ripening in the house! We are still trying to finish all the pre-winter list. Cleaning gutters, coiling hoses and removing filters that keep the drip irrigation from clogging. There is still firewood to split and stack, projects to wrap up, hammocks, folding chairs, and such to put away until next year.

The business prepares for what we call the "Holi-Daze", when we work hard to ship gifts on time for our customers while we ponder when we will get to do our own. All the soap for Christmas has to be made long before Thanksgiving to be cured and ready in time. Woolie soaps must be felted and gift assortments figured out, baskets ordered, flowers dried, all well ahead of November. The economy is bad in many ways, but we must prepare as if everything is the same. We cannot afford not to be there for our customers.

We love putting together the gift assortments. We try to anticipate what might be most fun, most useful, most attractive to each of you when you see the gift in a store display. For the gifts that are sold via the internet store we try to give each a personal touch to compliment what you have chosen to put in the basket. The dried flowers we add are from our, or a friend's, garden. A few are wild everlasting flowers that we gather locally. Our feeling is we try to make each gift as if it is for our own best friend.

We hope our soaps and other products are the personal gift that pleases all who receive them. See our offerings on Simmons Natural Bodycare's gift pages.