I live on a farm …

When my husband and I married two years ago, he flew to Los Angeles to pick me up. We stuffed my Ford Explorer full of as many of my belongings and as much of my clothing as we could possibly get it to hold, secured everything else in my storage unit and headed off toward New York on a nine-day cross-country honeymoon drive.

We arrived at the farm in Western New York in the evening on May sixth, where our new life together began with a relaxing night of sleep with the sound of peepers in the background as I drifted off, and song birds in the morning as I woke.

Though we were tired from the cross-country trip, my husband hoped I would go with him to church because, as he said, he wanted to show me off. Mind you, he had not told anyone other than his sister and other immediate family members, that he was getting married. No one where he worked knew what he was up to on his “vacation”, nor did anyone at his church.

His church, our church now, is a small tight-knit congregation of the most loving people you could ever hope to know. He has known them since he first started going to church many years ago and they are like family to me (to me now as well). The congregation is predominately older than we are, and the ladies there all loved him as if each one and all of them together were his mother.

When we arrived at church that morning, we began mingling around in the fellowship hall and I came to know something about my husband … he doesn’t introduce me to people. He has very good manners, but he is a quite and private man and is not accustomed to introducing people to one another. So, I started introducing myself as people came up to welcome me … “Hello,” I would say and then I would give my first name and my new last name. One lady in particular, Grace, said, “Hello …” and then her mouth dropped open and her eyes became about as large as Florida oranges as she said, “You mean … ????” “Yes, yes … I am his wife. We were just married a few days ago.”

Well, that started quite a hub bub. Private man though he is, he was smiling and chuckling at the effect he had created on his church family by lobbing a surprise wife right into the middle of them all. I fell in love that dear group of lovely country people that morning and now, some two years later, it feels as if we have been good friends for years and years.

Back at the farm, later in the morning, I started the long process of getting to know my new home both inside and out. Outside of course there was the barn, and then I came to realize the grandeur of our huge willow tree out toward the north east end of the lawn. My husband pointed out the various trees on the property and told me the names of the varieties and gave a bit of a rundown on when any flowering trees would be displaying their wares.

Centered in the midst of everything between the barn and the outlaying trees was a scrumptious delight … a flowering crab apple tree. Tall, full, and lush it was the epitome of life abundant and beautiful. The flowers don’t last very long–only a week or two–but my, oh my what beauties they are.

The petals are a deep pink-red, with a richly divine texture that makes me want to eat them. I fell in love with all of the trees around the farm, but I have to say the flowering crab apple won an especially dear place with me.

Last year, just as the crab apple began to show opening buds we suffered a hard frost and the tree made almost no showing of flowers at all. It was sad, and an unfamiliar experience for me because in the Los Angeles area you can pretty much depend on a flowering tree to flower each year.

This year I hoped and prayed each day of spring as I saw the crab apple begin to show her buds. The tree was literally covered in wall to wall buds and I hoped, hoped, hoped and dreamed that this year a frost or freeze would not come take them all away. Please, please, please …

My prayers were answered and the crab apple, as you can see from my photos, is lush and deliciously covered with scrumptious blossoms throughout her abundant canopy.

I have actually noticed that all of the flowering plants this year have many more buds and blossoms than last year. Rhoda, the tree peony, has close to thirty buds this year (I might have already told you that in another post).

Our lilac tree out behind our barn is also showing signs of being heavy with blossoms. Everywhere around the area lilacs are beginning to show in wanton abundance.

I even have an abundance of flowers inside. My husband brought home the most wonderful bouquet of flowers I have ever received. A while back I gave him a list of flowers I like, and some notes about flowers for me indicating that I most love wild flowers. He took the list to the one florist shop in the village where he works and this past Valentine’s Day the girls at that shop did a fantastic job of creating a bouquet just for me that matched me to a “T”.

For our anniversary he went back to the same florist and said, “It is very important that there are daffodils in it … and, add some other stuff too.”

The result was a magnificent bouquet that was even better than the Valentine’s Day bouquet, and it could not have been more perfect for me. Delightful bonus of all — the bouquet stayed fresh and beautiful more than a week. Though some flowers have of course faded there are still many in there that look as fresh as the day he brought them home, almost two weeks ago. Sometime I have to stop in at that florist shop and thank the ladies for their craftsmanship.

Yesterday we hung the two new paintings I completed at Zambistro Restaurant. The chef loved them, and they do love very nice on his walls. I also completed a smaller painting (10″ x 10″) which I am calling “Corner Bistro”. I’ll post it on my painting blog later. For your info, I recently started an Esty shop as an experiment in yet another venue for selling my art and related products. I listed the “Corner Bistro” painting there this morning as well as some note card sets I put together featuring some of my artwork. You will see note card sets with paintings from the “Beginning with Barnum” paintings, some of my newer pieces and even a set featuring the monochromatic painting from last year of beautiful “Rhoda”.

Speaking of flowers, I am now going to shift gears and paint two large paintings of sunflowers for the restaurant. I also plan to do some watercolors as well as oils of some of the flowers around here on our place. It should be a beautiful adventure.

Hope you have a beautiful adventure this weekend, coming up.

Most importantly, happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers who read my blog. May you always be treasured as the beautiful flower that you are. I dedicate today’s blog to my dear, sweet mother … she is the loveliest rose I have ever known.

~firefly

The summer of my seventeenth birthday I was invited to attend my best friend’s older sister’s wedding. My friend was named Rudy, and oddly enough he was the younger brother of the guy who had been my boyfriend the year before. I was a senior, Rudy was a freshman and for some reason we just really hit it off as friends and continued to be best friends for a couple of years–an entirely platonic friendship. Some of my best times in high school were with Rudy, and hopefully the same was true for him of the time he spent with me.

When he invited me to attend his sister’s wedding and reception, I was very excited: they were a very large Mexican-American Catholic family and the reception promised to be one of those big, noisy, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” type receptions. There was a snag, however. I needed a somewhat formal dress to wear, but I didn’t have any extra money at the time to buy one. Without a new dress, I felt I could not attend the wedding.

Sitting with my father one afternoon, I lamented my problem and he listened very kindly. He and I have been very close ever since I was a little kid, and I could usually share my problems and thoughts about life with him and get some good feedback or at least a patient ear. I did not want to ask him and my mother to buy a dress for me, in fact I would not have thought to do so. From when I was a young teenager my sister and I baby sat for spending money and always bought our own clothes. Putting a drain on family finances for something as superfluous as a new dress to wear to a wedding was not anywhere on the radar in my mind.

After hearing me out my father came up with a suggestion which I cherish to this day. He asked if I happened to already have a dress that would suit the occasion, and I said I did but that I had already worn it a couple of times and it no longer felt special. He said, “Well, one thing you could do is breath new life into the old dress.” Hmm. Breath new life into the old dress. What an interesting idea. I told him I would give it a try.

A day or so later, I took the old dress out of my closet and hung it on the door of my bedroom. I stepped back and looked at it for a couple of minutes and then I got the idea — created the idea — that it was in fact, brand new. The interesting thing is that a feeling did wash over me just like the feeling I would get when I did in fact have something brand new. That was a very intriguing phenomenon. In fact, it felt so good that I did it a couple more times until I completely had the feeling all inside and out of me that the dress I had already worn a couple of times and owned for at least a year was instead brand, spanking new.

The day of the wedding, that wonderful feeling of “the new dress” continued through the day and the long, happy party afterwards. I danced all afternoon and into the evening in that “new” dress, and I felt pretty and happy and full of magic the entire time.

Today, yesterday, and for some of the tomorrows ahead, people have been and will be talking about how bad the economy is. Things are so expensive. Gas prices have soared. Food costs too much. Money will not go so far. It is and will be in the press, and believe me the press will not rest on this subject no matter how discouraged the population gets … they will “press” onward and remind you and I constantly of just how bad things are and will be.

Okay. Fine, the cost of gas has gone up, food prices have gone up, some people will not be able to buy some of the new stuff they would like to buy in the months or year ahead. Sometimes it will be me, sometimes it will be you. It will affect us all and it seems we have no choice in the matter.

The fact is, however, we have a considerable amount of choice. The most important choice any one of us can make is how we choose to regard our lives and the economy. Is something being taken away from us, or are we being given an opportunity?

Personally I have this little rule that adds to my own happiness in life: If the press is promoting an idea, I do my best to think the opposite of that idea. If they promote the idea that life sucks because money is tight, I am bound and determined to create my own attitude that life is wonderful in new ways because expenses are shifting.

I would not be the spiritual being that I am, the artist or creative person I am, if I allowed my attitudes about life to be sculpted by merchants of fear who would have me think that all of the dresses in my closet are old and that no new dresses are on the horizon. (I’m speaking figuratively, you get that right?)
It does not have to be bad news that gas prices have gone up and affected the cost of other goods and services. We can all create whatever attitude about gas and food and heating and so forth we choose to.

I can walk out in my yard, stroll around and see one beautiful little thing after another that delights my heart no end. I can gather pods and twigs and feathers and nuts as I go along and make pretty little things to hang in my windows or sell in an Etsy store.

I saw a piece on Good Morning America today featuring people living in cities or suburban neighborhoods who are turning their little pieces of lawn into vegetable and herb gardens. One lady and her husband grow all kinds of lettuces and other vegetables and supply them to a local restaurant. The restaurant gets a better price from these folks than he would from a commercial outfit, plus the produce is as fresh as can be and organic. The couple earned about $100 per week last year on their back yard garden and hope to double that amount this year. It is an inexpensive side business requiring very little financial investment and only about ten hours of work each week.

Right there you have an example of a couple of people who could be discouraged by economic news, but instead looked toward economic news as an inspiration and an opportunity. Perhaps they looked out at their lawn one day, maybe that lawn was old and tired and shabby looking … an eyesore even. Perhaps it was too small for their dreams and there was no lovely view beyond it. And yet, for some reason they looked at it in an entirely new light and breathed new life into that lawn. I don’t know if it worked that way, but maybe it did.

What about you? Do you need to breath new life into your marriage, your job, your relationship with a friend or loved one? Could you stand to breath new life into your own home, an old faithful family meal, the neighborhood you live in, your relationship with God? What little piece of life could you breath new life into today?

Jen, one of the owners of my LYS (Local Yarn Shop), said to me of my blog, that I have a way of making the ordinary seem extraordinary. If that is so, I am certain it is because my father gave me that idea of breathing new life into my old dress. So now I pass the gift of his advice on to you. I hope you can put it to good use.

Today is our second wedding anniversary and I am off to the kitchen to make up a big batch of his favorite cookies before he gets home from work. What a trip, I have a husband and I’m making him cookies in the middle of the afternoon. Standard issue for some people, completely unexpected turn of events for me in the middle of my life.

Breath in, and …

One more thing: Recall the painting I was working on recently of two golden Bosc pears? I completed it and have put up a photo at my One Painting a Day blog. This is my favorite painting I have ever created. The day I finished it I told my husband I was sure I was in love with my painting. I could not stop gazing about it or thinking about it when I was not gazing at it. It felt just like love. We are going to hang it, and another I just finished, at Zambistro Restaurant later in the week. It is going to be very difficult to part with this one.

~firefly

The world changes swiftly from the gray-brown of a lifeless, after-snow-melt winter to the earliest burst of green liveliness that comes in spring. Golden light filled mornings and evenings cast long streaks of brilliant, reviving light cutting through tree limbs and shrub branches, glowing with fresh little pale green leaves.

Dandelions are already blooming in the yard, the flowering crab apple tree out near our barn is covered in deep, dusty red leaves and tiny buds. Rhoda (my heirloom tree peony) is crowded with more than thirty buds amid abundant new growth. And I saw my first rainbow of the year this morning, just as I stepped outside into early morning light with Blu.

Ahh … the changing of the seasons, the rebirth of life, the beginnings of a new year. Why is it that New Year’s Day is in the middle of winter rather than the middle of spring? Yesterday felt like the beginning of a new year to me; perhaps I’ll readjust my thoughts regarding the timing of that particular celebration.

Precious gift of all, two healthy baby kittens were born on our front porch yesterday afternoon. Cat-Cat, the magic cat that adopted us last October, turned out to be a girl and showed up pregnant this winter. She had a litter of three, sadly one was still born. The other two, however, are lively and healthy and strong. Cat-Cat is one of the sweetest tempered little cats I have ever been introduced to, and she has been a welcome member of the farm family and now we will have the joy of two little kittens tumbling around and entertaining us over the next couple of months.

This winter we had several cats living in our barn, but now they all seem to have disappeared. Cat-Cat, however, had a special little hut on our front porch and was allowed to come in the house often. She is a very well mannered, petite tuxedo cat with a perfect moustache marking on her face. She is here to stay, and we are very happy about the arrangement. Of course, we will have her spayed now we know she is a girl and we will find good homes for her little ones if we don’t end up keeping them here as well. Well mannered cats are a perfect addition to an old farm house and barn for many reasons.

Speaking of barns, we have been working on a fun new project related to our barn. My good friend, Lora Partyka (Partyka Farms in Kendall, NY) started the Country Barn Quilt Trail of Western New York a couple of years ago … I don’t recall if I have mentioned that before. We wanted very much to join the quilt trail this year and now we officially have. Last weekend my husband, daughter, and I prepped and painted our quilt block and yesterday my husband and I mounted the quilt block on our barn.

If you are unfamiliar with quilt trails, they started in Ohio and have spread to other states. Very simply put, the idea is for people with barns to put up hand painted quilt blocks on their barns and then other people pick up maps showing where all the barns are and drive around looking at them. The quilt blocks are usually 8′ x 8′ so they will show up well from the road. Quilt trails are a great way to encourage tourists to visit an area and also to raise awareness of the beauty of America’s barns and their preservation.

Since Lora began the Western New York Quilt Trail more than forty squares have gone up all around the county we live in. We chose the Double Wedding Ring pattern for our block, because of our recent marriage and also because the “ring” or circle of the design relates to the name of our farm and the history of this place.

Our barn is 200 years old, and in designing our quilt block I wanted to embody the beauty of the fabrics I remember from quilts my Grandma Johnson made in North Carolina, using feed sack cloth. Many other people who put up quilt blocks paint them in solid primary colors, but I wanted very much to use historic colors and to paint fabric designs rather than having solid colors. I knew that even if the details of the designs can not be seen from the road, the fact that details are there will give the impression of feed sack cloth.

We also wanted the quilt block to have an aged appearance so that it would look as if it belongs on our old, historic barn. My daughter has quite a bit of experience with painting and finishing techniques that give an appearance of age to a piece, so with her advice and guidance we were able to make our quilt block look beautifully aged.

Once the block was in place on the barn, we were all extremely pleased with the look and feel we had accomplished. It was a very enjoyable group activity … and now other people living closer to us want blocks on their barns so we will be working with them to create blocks that have a similar look and feel to ours (I think it would be very cool if all of the quilt blocks in our part of the county had this similar look and feel).

This is an exciting project because the quilt trail is expected to bring quite a lot of tourism to Western New York, which will be very good for the economy. The New York Department of Tourism has become very interested and will be doing quite a lot to promote the trail, journalists have written a number of articles about it, and the enthusiasm of farmers and others in the county is wonderful to behold.

Hats off to Lora for dreaming this dream and making it a reality. I am thrilled and honored to have an opportunity to lend my talents and some volunteer hours to help keep the dream growing and blossoming, just like the daffodils growing on lawns, roadsides, and riverbanks all around us this spring.

I am very, very close to completing two large paintings to add to those on display at Zambistro Restaurant; they just need to dry a bit longer so I can put some final touches on and then we will hang them (next week sometime) and I will photograph them to share with my readers here.

Due to the hours I have needed to put in on helping out with the quilt trail (I designed a rack card to promote it and designed and built the website for the trail), and some extra things I have needed to do to help my daughter over the past month, I am behind schedule with the Christmas Stocking designs for the book. Unfortunately, it means I will not be able to publish my book by the end of August. That is okay, because the quilt trail helps many people and the County at large, so my time was well spent there. And, helping my daughter get through her situation takes precedent over publishing as well.

However, what I have decided to do is I will go ahead and publish a few of the Christmas Stocking patterns over the course of the next two or three months as individual patterns. That way anyone who was looking forward to the book will be able to at least get patterns now and make some stockings this year. There will be plenty more designs and other supportive information for the book, and I don’t want you to have to wait for patterns if I had gotten you interested in making stockings this year.

I have a baby sweater for our pastor’s baby girl which is nearly complete … photos will be on my blog next week of the completed sweater and shortly after that I will publish the pattern (there will be a matching hat). It is looking oh so sweet and soft.

Three years ago, my oldest brother passed away. He was only 52 years old at the time, it was early April 2005. When he knew he was sick and that there was a strong possibility he would not live much longer he said me, “Life is for living, and that’s what I want you to do.” After he died I started reaching further out into life, being even more adventurous than I used to be and making sure to fully embrace with gratitude all that life has to offer.

In a few days my husband and I will celebrate our second wedding anniversary. The marriage is even more fun and more rewarding and full of even more love than I first imagined … and I have a pretty good imagination, so you know I imagined it being great. We are both amazed that it has already been two years, can you believe it?

Yesterday was a fine day, a day of life and living. It was a simple and straight forward day, marked by a pretty rainbow, the start of new game in the life of our barn, a day for dandelions, and the birth of two kittens. No fireworks, just life beautiful, clear, and simple.

Here I am Dan: I live on a farm. I live on a farm in New York and my husband drives a tractor. You helped me get here. I know you would love it here too, you would love my husband, and love to see me living this, my brand new life.

To my readers, I hope you have been having a great week, and wish you and yours blessings for the coming weekend.

~firefly