Reflections on Organic Horticulture, Kitchen Alchemy, Herbalism, Art, and Spirituality.
Wild (adj): (1)untamed, undomesticated, living freely in a natural habitat; (2)enthusiastic or eager; (3)lively and showing a disregard for rules; (4)unconventional; (5) visionary; (6)extraordinary; (7)excellent
Welp, it has been forever since I posted; can you tell I am building a house? Lots of the things I used to do, and plan to get back to, have fallen to the wayside in order to focus on this massive project. It's an interesting phase in life, a all-encompassing hiatus, sorta like getting a degree or having a newborn.
Nonetheless, I just had a much-needed vacation and went to Georgia for the American Herbalist Guild Symposium and also got to explore some of the surrounding mountains of the Chattahochee National Forest. It's gorgeous down there! The vibrant, yet gentle, light and color of the changing leaves soothed my soul. I want to share a few of the highlights here; may they soothe you too.
First, a minute-long video for you to pause and take a deep breath and center yourself.
This was taken near a large waterfall which you will hear. Just breathe as you watch; that is all you need to do. Let the water wash away your tensions, your cares fall away with the leaves.
"Tension is who you think you should be.
Relaxation is who you are."
- Chinese Proverb
“You drown not by falling into a river,
but by staying submerged in it.”
- Paulo Coelho
"I planted my self in the middle of a great many Glasses full of Dew, tied fast about me, upon which the Sun so violently darted his Rays, that the Heat, which attracted them, as it does the thickest Clouds, carried me up so high, that at length I found my self above the middle Region of the Air." - Cyrano de Bergerac
Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding
that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy.
The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.”
- Terry Tempest Williams
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes,
but in having new eyes."
- Marcel Proust
“A Woman in harmony with her spirit
is like a river flowing.
She goes where she will without pretense
and arrives at her destination
prepared to be herself
and only herself ” - Maya Angelou
“The most common form of despair is not being who you are.”
the ancient law of life.” -Hermann Hesse, 'Wandering'
“Poetry is what happens when nothing else can.” ― Charles Bukowski
“Whether you try too hard to fit in
or you try too hard to stand out,
it is of equal consequence:
you exhaust your significance.”
― Criss Jami
“your life is your life don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission. be on the watch. there are ways out. there is a light somewhere. it may not be much light but it beats the darkness. be on the watch. the gods will offer you chances. know them. take them. you can’t beat death but you can beat death in life, sometimes. and the more often you learn to do it, the more light there will be. your life is your life. know it while you have it. you are marvelous the gods wait to delight in you.” ― Charles Bukowski, "The Laughing Heart." from 'Betting on the Muse'
We hold fast to tenuous threads as though to let loose would be to fall, to fail, to lose when in actuality the emptiness and lack are all and everything needed in its nothingness there is nothing missing. liminal, numinous, sentient it, us, I all is becoming all is complete if only yet I cloak myself in this delirious madness and hope for morning.
The Road before me tree-lined, meadow-flanked and upheld by blue mountains that shift and fade to blue sky. My Mind before me expansive as sky clouds roll by I watch Truth beheld intermingling, twinkling like pinpoints of starlight exposed. Sky goes dark then one can see what could not be seen in daylight. It alludes, best seen when not looking directly simply being shows it all, gives it all. Like the mountain I sit, though moving. The Universe casts her spell upon me Knows Herself through me holds opposites at one time. The convoluted truth touches our skin but briefly and is gone. Transfigured. A black cat in the night eyes twinkling.
how we could take up so little space and yet contain it all,
the vast demands, the amplitude of love."
- Marisa de los Santos
Brood comb is darker than honeycomb mostly because some of the cocoons that the bees develop in remain and merge with the comb. This comb is from one of my four hives that died over the winter (the one the bear got into this past summer). All these provisions (3 and a half medium supers) will be used for the other hives and any splits I make. I will make at least one split to replace this loss.
The other three hives are doing well and all have 60-140# of honey on them each. So I may harvest honey in the Spring once a good nectar flow is on and there is no expectation of any super cold stretches. My fingers are crossed that I lose no hives in the next couple months with this strange warm weather. (78! degrees today!).
The bees are bringing in loads of pollen which stimulates brood rearing. Once there is brood in the hive to keep warm, the bees may prioritize this over leaving the brood to die, even if it means starving to death because the nectar stores are just a bit too far away to get to because of cold temperatures. The bees are clustered in a ball, and move and work as a unit in the hive, when the temperatures are in the 40s; in the 30s they will not break cluster. The queen is kept in the middle of the cluster to an amazing 95 degrees regardless of outside temps!
So, strangely warm weather in winter can jump start Spring processes with the bees, just like it does with, for instance, fruit trees. The warm spell makes the creature think spring is here, and their cycle changes, then we get a cold snap...and flower buds freeze - meaning no fruit for the year, or bee queens lay eggs that metamorph into larvae that then need to be kept warm.
Ariadne, pollen laden landing
Stella, full pollen baskets
These two above hives are of genetics in their 8th winter, with no treatments, no re-queening... These are hives whose genetics are what I've been working for - bees who can do their thing without my coddling or manipulation, just gentle support, those who can withstand mites, etc. without my propping them up with artificial inputs or anthropocentric meddling - and will continue working for as I go into my 11th year of beekeeping... I knew when I began that this had to be possible and I am finally feeling vindicated in going against what I was taught (ie: you must put pesticides in the hive to control mites, you must kill the queen and replace her every two years, etc.)
The call The caw It issued forth from the Crow's mouth but it was prayer on my lips. It pierced the morning separating night from day. I clung to its echoes the way a bird clings to a ferocious wind no choice as it cleaves its space from the air. Slicing the indivisible the way a moment slices future from past yet changes in each instant always different, always the same.
I knew the day'd be bright whether or not the sun shone for I'd spent my ~time~ in the blackness of that night.
"The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with
nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the
soul." - Alfred Austin
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