Springtime in Vermont (at our place, anyway).

April 19-24, 2020.

Well, spring has certainly sprung at our place, here in Vermont.

I have to say that our yard is cleaner then it has been, since its inception from dream to reality, two decades ago. With the Pandemic and Rich home from work, we've managed to rake, dig and hoe, our way around the 1/3 of an acre that we call our yard.

All of the early spring lovelies (with the exception of a couple of late bloomers) have sprung. We also set up some grow lights inside to begin some starts, which is a first. We usually buy starts but who knows if the farms will even be open, so we started them since we were all set up anyhow.

These are some bulbs of Siberian Scilla that a previous tenant threw out in the yard, which I rounded up and put in my memory garden. The bees absolutely love them!


Bleeding hearts making a showing up back........

Lots of garlic mustard growing and spreading quite willingly, which I am in favor of. Yes, I do know it's supposed to be invasive, but it's one of the best early spring greens in my mind. I don't love dandelion or burdock greens, and I suspect them to be bio-accumulators anyhow, so I would only avail myself of them in the deepest emergency(s). I have a soaking bucket of burdock root that I dug from my strawberry bed this year and will likely dry some of those for medicine making (Essiac).

This is a patch of day-lilies that has been here since before I came (in 2002); which, as I just found out a few years ago, are quite edible in the shoot stage (1-4"). 

I planted a bunch of False Solomon's seal on the edges of the DL patch. I rescued these from the neighbors horrendous knot weed patch, in early spring a couple of years ago. They appear to be keeping the DLs in check. I also just moved some up back, near some other volunteer DL's, to also keep them in check. They (the FSS), are great medicine and food, as well as the DL's. 

There's also two Korean pine nut trees, in the center of the bottom most DL patch (in the half whisky barrels). They have not begun to bear pine-nuts yet, but I am so very glad I planted them, as the price of pine-nuts has gone through the roof. Maybe this year, so here's to hoping!

I also planted honey berries several years ago; honey berries are a cross between honeysuckle and blueberry, and grow in Siberia, from what I'm told. Even the late-blooming ones are a bit early blooming for our area, though, as there aren't many pollinators around in late April, but they have borne fruit b4. Unfortunately, we've never covered them, so the critters have eaten them b4 they can even ripen. We're hoping, based on the flowers on this one (the largest of 8) that it will bear fruit that we can harvest, since I aim to cover them as soon as the fruit sets. The flower is not a showy one and resembles honeysuckle more then a blueberry, in my mind.

We also have bloodroot that I transplanted about 3 years ago (another rescue from the neighbors knot weed). It's the loveliest little thing, isn't it? So pretty and medicinal. I have not made anything from it, as yet, as I want it to get well established. It does seem to be filling in quite nicely in front of the lone birch tree which makes a nice centerpiece in our yard. There's also clematis in the bed, but that is another late bloomer. So stay tuned for that!

 This is a cold frame that we built about 10 years ago. We had over-wintering spinach this year......it looks just fine. :) Another early spring green that I just love!

 It's been so cool that I've had to literally start my ladies three times, as they died the first time from damp rot, and the second time, from squirrels feeding(in the attic) . They are downstairs now, with me and doing quite well. I forget from year to year, just how much care and nurturing seedlings require........ah, well. So it goes. So many plants, so little time! lol.

Friday, April 17, 2020.

Well, here we all are, in the middle of a pandemic. Whewy! How much fun can you have in one year? lol.

To start, I will say that I do not believe in Conspiracy Theory, ON ANY LEVEL. To do so, I believe, is imparting far too many "smarts" to the powers that be. Are they psychopaths? YES. Are they smart? YES. But, I believe they spend so much time touting their own images, that they have very little time to get together on ANYTHING, much less create a pandemic. They just aren't THAT smart! To think they are, is just another behavior of giving your personal power away. It's not a good place to stay mentally. There's too many psychological reasons for folks to behave this way, which would require an entire thesis to expound upon, so I won't do that here. I will cover one example only.

The example I will use, is Lyme disease. Did the feds allow Lyme diseased ticks to get off Plum Island? Yes, yes they did. Was it a conspiracy? Good Gawd, no. Was it gross incompetence? Why yes, yes it was. Not much to be done about it after the fact, though, is there? When these things happen, there's no easy or good way, to get the genie back in the bottle, is there? So, it doesn't really matter the where's and why-for's, does it? It's here, now we have to deal with it.

Us Americans are so self-righteous and self entitled, that we have looked at the Chinese wearing masks, for decades, and thought it was beneath us. Turns out it wasn't. I do know the impulse that makes folks want to believe in CT, but by engaging in this sort of behavior, all we are actually doing, is distancing ourselves from each other, and polarizing any possibility of working together to confound and stymie the corporations, continually puking all over this big, beautiful, planet. So it's boomeranging, isn't it?

If this pandemic has taught us nothing, it should be that we CAN stop climate change. Because of the pandemic, and the subsequent SAH (Stay at home) orders, the earth has rebounded, big time. The skies are clearer then they have ever been, the fog has lifted from much of the world, and the ozone destruction has plateaued. Looks like WE were the biggest threat to the planet, after all, hey?

Turns out that all of our energy we have used on CT would have been better spent on ensuring that we work together and do not go back to the previous Status Quo. But people who tilt at Windmills (CT), need to STOP doing so, in order for this to happen. You can't come together with others, until you've gotten yourself grounded firmly in reality. Tilting at Windmills in the guise of having an open mind, is more fodder for the masses to use as a distraction, in order to excuse themselves from getting anything actually done. It's also a super lazy way of not having to do anything that would discomfort us, personally. As my therapist is wont to tell me, "those brain tracts run deep". 

That's why I don't do CT. There's really no point, when you think about it. It's just one more "escape from reality" impulse, and the only purpose it serves, is to make one feel more powerful then others. At bedrock, it's a control issue, springing from deep, deep, insecurity and lack of self-esteem and/or feelings of helplessness. Not helpful when the impetus should be to make sweeping changes to our political system(s)!

We really need to work on our own backyards (our minds, emotions, education level, spiritual level, etc. etc.), b4 we can dictate to others, how, or what, to think. I mean, that's really the minimum we should be doing, i.e., fixing ourselves, first, if we want to be taken seriously, isn't it? WE NEED to walk the walk, and talk the talk, There's no room for lazy thinking in that scenario, is there?

Well, that's my take on "THE" whole thing, and remember, even when I'm wrong, I'm right. LMAO!