“After years of having a dog, you know him. You know the meaning of his snuffs and grunts and barks. Every twitch of the ears is a question or statement, every wag of the tail is an exclamation.” ~ Robert McCammon Once upon a time there was a naughty young pup called Harry. He […]
A Morning Dose Of Happiness!
“Morning is an important time of day, because how you spend your morning can often tell you what kind of day you are going to have.” ~ Lemony Snicket Something wonderful happened to me yesterday morning! I woke up with energy. After months of being unwell it was a precious gift. So we did […]
Meet Rufous – Brother to Harry Dog!
“ Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero.” ~ Marc Brown A little over a week ago I mentioned in a blog post that we had just begun to think about getting a new baby brother or sister for Harry Dog, who has been mourning the loss of Bert. Only a few […]
Unexpected Gifts – Nurse Bert!
“Acts of Kindness: A random act of kindness, no matter how small, can make a tremendous impact on someone else’s life.” ~ Roy T. Bennett It’s been a hard few weeks, with the loss of our precious dog Bert. It’s also been rough because I am still fighting the antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection that I […]
Death Of A Friend – Saying Goodbye to Bert
“We who choose to surround ourselves with lives even more temporary than our own, live within a fragile circle; easily and often breached. Unable to accept its awful gaps, we would still live no other way. We cherish memory as the only certain immortality, never fully understanding the necessary plan.” ~ Irving Townsend And […]
Mango-Misu – A Delicious and Easy Dessert!
“Take your pleasure seriously.” ~ Charles Eames Every New Year’s Eve we have a small party at the farm, to celebrate life, the ending of the old year and the coming of the new AND the birthday of a dear friend. What party of such calibre would be complete without dessert? Mango Misu (or […]
My Friendship Garden
“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you…I could walk through my garden forever.” ~ Alfred Tennyson I cut some hydrangea flowers this week, and placed them in a glass by my kitchen sink. They’re Angela’s hydrangeas, or at least that’s how I think of them. They have grown from cuttings […]
Crazy Wild Weather!
“Suddenly all the sky is hid As with the shutting of a lid, One by one great drops are falling Doubtful and slow, Down the pane they are crookedly crawling, And the wind breathes low; Slowly the circles widen on the river, Widen and mingle, one and all; Here and there the slenderer flowers shiver, […]
The Tawny Family Shows Off Baby!
“She had blue skin, And so did he. He kept it hid And so did she. They searched for blue Their whole life through, Then passed right by- And never knew.” ~ Shel Silverstein We have a family of Tawny Frogmouths that nest in the teak tree outside our kitchen window every year. They […]
Grounded Goodness
“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” ~ Rachel Carson Yesterday was one of those days when my […]
Why I love Friday at the Farm!
“Its always difficult to keep Fridays confined within themselves..they tend to spill over..” ~ Parag Tipnis Fridays at our farm are my perfect kind of day. There was an early-morning walk to say hello to the cows and check the vegetable garden. After that I spent a little time finalising my Year of ME […]
Stormbirds
“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” ~ Leo Buscaglia I heard a stormbird yesterday, just after dawn. It’s so early in the season […]
I’d Be Blogging But… Farm Emergency!
“Our bravest and best lessons are not learned through success, but through misadventure… ” ~ Amos Bronson Alcott Oh dear! Poor little Frida has the molasses bucket stuck around her head. We’d hoped she might figure out how to get it off all by herself, but no… So now we will have to chase […]
Five Things I Love About Being Home At My Farm
“To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter… to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird’s nest or a wildflower in spring — these are some of the rewards of the simple […]
I Will Not Be That Cranky Old Judgemental Lady!
“Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson Recently I blogged a list of ten things you probably didn’t know about me. To refresh your memory, here is number nine again: My first entrepreneurial exercise was a stall selling lemonade and […]
Fog and Woodsmoke
“Gee it’s foggy, Ben. That’s not fog Nic, it’s low cloud. How can you tell the difference? I’m just messing with you, babe. Fog and cloud are the same thing. The only difference is their altitude.” ~ Ben Phillips It’s Autumn here at the farm. Perfect burning weather. The local farmers all build burn piles […]
The Jesus God Mary Sky
“Even After All this time The Sun never says to the Earth, “You owe me.” Look What happens With a love like that, It lights the whole sky.” ― حافظ When I lived in the Kimberley many years ago, we would often experience the most amazing skies on a routine basis. One very early morning, […]
Snubby-Nose 1 : Mustering Team 0
“There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.” ~ Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice I was hoping to be the bearer of good news this morning. I was planning to tell you that Snubby-Nose, […]
So This Morning My Blog is Late Because…
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” ~ Allen Saunders I had every intention of writing a fascinating blog today. But then… Computer decided to do a massive update and locked me out After updating, computer froze While rebooting computer I used the downtime to chase calves out of […]
When the Bully Becomes Bullied
“Don’t turn your face away. Once you’ve seen, you can no longer act like you don’t know. Open your eyes to the truth. It’s all around you. Don’t deny what the eyes to your soul have revealed to you. Now that you know, you cannot feign ignorance. Now that you’re aware of the problem, you […]
Chop Wood, Carry Water, then Surf the Net!
“Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” ~ Zen Buddhism quote “When hungry, eat your rice; when tired close your eyes. Fools may laugh at me, but wise men will know what I mean.” ~ Zen Buddhism quote It has been a frustrating week. Due to a faulty landline I’ve […]
Autumn Garden
“Her pleasure in the walk must arise from the exercise and the day, from the view of the last smiles of the year upon the tawny leaves and withered hedges, and from repeating to herself some few of the thousand poetical descriptions extant of autumn–that season of peculiar and inexhaustible influence on the mind of […]
Quiet, Tea and Dogs
“A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbour — such […]
Quiet Time
“I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.” ~ John Muir It’s rainy here at the farm this morning, and cooler. You can truly sense autumn in the air. My Accelerated Channeling retreat starts tomorrow, and I can feel […]
Watching The Afternoon Fade to Grey
“On this road where nobody else travels autumn nightfall.” ~ Matsuo Bashō Late yesterday afternoon I wandered through the back garden, and then up the hill toward the old orchard behind our house. My word for the year is ‘home’ and I truly allowed myself to feel into that space yesterday. Close to […]
Misty Morning Wonderland
“An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.” ~ Henry David Thoreau It’s so good to be home. The dogs and I went for a very early walk. We have six new calves and the unseasonably warm weather means that our paddocks are lush with dewy grass, and the dam is still […]
Farm Life
“The first supermarket supposedly appeared on the American landscape in 1946. That is not very long ago. Until then, where was all the food? Dear folks, the food was in homes, gardens, local fields, and forests. It was near kitchens, near tables, near bedsides. It was in the pantry, the cellar, the backyard.” ~ Joel […]
Autumn in the Air
“At no other time (than autumn) does the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is in no way inferior to the smell of the sea, bitter where it borders on taste, and more honeysweet where you feel it touching the first sounds. Containing depth within itself, […]
The Thrill of Anticipation
“The excitement of dreams coming true is beyond the description of words.” ~ Lailah Gifty Akita I may have done something stupid last night. I may have asked my husband Ben, just as we were going to bed, ‘Are we going for a walk on the beach in the morning?’ I may have said […]
An Afternoon with the Cows!
“Cows are amongst the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate tenderness to their young when deprived of them; and, in short, I am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these quiet creatures.” ~ Thomas de Quincey Late yesterday afternoon, after I’d finally finished the last of my psychic readings […]
Meet Our Latest Edition – Calvin the Calf!
“The apple does not fall far from the tree.” ~ Proverb Here’s our cheeky heifer Daisy Mae with her young bull calf – her first ever baby! We’ve named him Calvin, after Joelle’s suggestion. When Daisy Mae was a young ‘un she’d crawl under the fence, romp through my vegetable garden, and play with […]
One of those mornings…
“Nic, you should know by now – nothing ever goes to plan!” ~ Ben Phillips. Husband. So, we’re on our way to breakfast with cafe dog. Later than usual. Because it is raining. I slept in. Worse, the cows got into the house paddock and were eating my garden. My agapanthus! My parsley! My fresh […]
Green Grass, New Mums and Other Exciting News
“When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound… I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their […]
Koala Concerto
“I want to go to Australia and take the same goofy picture of me holding a koala that everyone else takes.” ~ Jessi Klein Our little farm here in Byron Bay is a koala sanctuary of sorts. We have plenty of them living here, and we see them daily. Cute, huh? As I stumble around, bleary-eyed […]
Feathered Friends Come Visiting
“What use is care? What good is watching for that matter? People are forever watching things. They should be seeing. I see the things I look at. I am a see-er.” ~ Patrick Rothfuss As I sat at my desk on my little office veranda yesterday I had many visitors. First a kookaburra flew down […]
Santa’s Unhappy Helper
“How long do I have to wear these stoopid things? Where’s my Schmackos and Scoobie Schnacks?” ~ Nurse Bert I tried for a cute shot of two dogs in reindeer ears. Harry ate his. Or rather, ripped them to pieces. Bert was slightly more well behaved, and stoic in his misery. It’s beautiful here […]
Pretzels and Early Morning Strolls
“I can’t think of anything that brings me closer to tears than when my old dog—completely exhausted after a hard day in the field—limps away from her nice spot in front of the fire and comes over to where I’m sitting and puts her head in my lap, a paw over my knee, and closes […]
Crazy Wild Farm Life!
“Patience is the calm acceptance that things can happen in a different order than the one you have in mind.” ~ David G. Allen Behold the beautiful flat space where my new vegetable gardens shall go. It seems so peaceful, doesn’t it? Part of that peacefulness is derived from the fact that the excavator […]
Riding Out The Heatwave
“Dawn, then, was a time where things changed element for element. Air ran like hot spring waters nowhere, with no sound. The lake was a quantity of steam very still and deep over valleys of fish and sand held baking under its serene vapors. Tar was poured licorice in the streets, red bricks were brass and gold, roof tops […]
A Message From Harry Dog!
“Sometime you just gotta get out of the house, breathe the clean morning air, run around like a mad thing, and bark at some waves.” ~ Harry the Cafe Dog Hello! This is an action post, because this morning is an action morning. Everyone has been stuck in the house for days because of the […]
Big Brave Bert And The Terrifying Fly!
“Courage is found in unlikely places.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien Summer is fast approaching here at our little farm, and with summer come the March flies. March flies are big flies. Big. Did I say big? Some people call them horse flies too. Besides being big they are also bullies. They bite, and their bites […]
An Afternoon Concert for My Cows
“Ah, music,” he said, wiping his eyes. “A magic beyond all we do here!” ~ J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone The first time I heard Albinoni’s Oboe Concert #2 in D Minor I was seven, a little girl sitting in the music room of her primary school, eyes closed as instructed by the […]
Weekend Roasts, Owls and My Email Address!
“Are you still forgetting things?” “I don’t know, I can’t remember,” I said.” ~ Stephen King, Duma Key Last night Angela’s husband came around to the farm for a roast dinner. It’s only a week since Angela passed away, and everything is so hard and new for him. Before her breast cancer diagnosis Ange had […]
Bush Lemons And Farm Strolls
“Lemons. He liked lemons. They made you make funny faces when you bit them, and a very, very long way in the future there was a really amazing planet where they’d evolved into people and lived in harmony with a variety of hyper-intelligent bee. Evolution. Thousands and thousands of years of tiny changes could turn […]
Keeping Bert Quiet…
“The way you help heal the world is you start with your own family.” ~ Mother Teresa Nurse Bert is healing well from his cruciate ligament surgery. Next week he’ll have an x-ray to see if the bone has healed. If it looks good, the vet says Bert will finally be allowed to run free. He’ll […]
Feeling Better Every Day!
Hi everyone. It’s Nurse Bert reporting from Mum’s phone cos we have no power. This bed’s a little crowded! We’d like to be blogging but actually, we all slept in because of the blackout. It was lovely. We are here at the farm and today I get to go for a very short walk on my […]
All Things Green In My Garden
“A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in–what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.” ~ Victor Hugo, Les Misérables Yesterday I arrived home at my farm to find the gardens green and lush, and everything budding or already in flower. The air was […]
Late blog because… COWS!
“How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before it’s afternoon. December is here before it’s June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?” ~ Dr. Seuss While enjoying a late afternoon session at the Byron Bay Writers Festival yesterday my phone went nuts […]
Signs of Spring
“It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want—oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!” ~ Mark Twain The days are slowly getting longer. Nights are cold, but the […]
Unwelcome Visitors
“The sheriffs are completely outnumbered and outgunned. And we don’t have enough border patrol agents.” ~ John Culberson Harry Dog was jumpy all day yesterday. It started as we came home from an early breakfast. His ears went up. His hackles went up. He started a low growl. We couldn’t see anything. We had no idea […]
Nurse Bert Reports…
“Hoping to get a head start on the next day, I eat breakfast the night before. That way I can sleep in until two in the afternoon.” ~ Jarod Kintz Hello, Peoples! It’s cold here at the farm this morning. Brrrrrrrrr! Too frosty for paws just yet. There’s ice in my water bowl, and every […]
Morning Rituals To Greet The Day
“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.” ~ Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays It’s cold this morning. Four am meditation finished, the house still silent with sleep. Last night’s fire rendered down to ash. I push the back door of our little farmhouse open and am […]
A Break In And A Hullabaloo
“Rule number one of farm life is that the cows get out or in to the wrong paddock at the most inconvenient time! You should know that by now, Nicole. Go put your boots on.” ~ Ben Phillips There was a heck of a commotion outside our house gate this morning. Just as I […]
Restful Rambles
“We need the tonic of wildness… At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.” ~ Henry David Thoreau, Walden: […]
Air In My Lungs
“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” ~ Thích Nhất Hạnh I woke up in my own bed here at our farm, following a long trip home last night in our ute packed high with the things we will need for our coming retreat. After our city stay, this country morning […]
My Kind Of Nightlife
“I love the silent hour of night, For blissful dreams may then arise, Revealing to my charmed sight What may not bless my waking eyes.” ~ Anne Brontë, Best Poems of the Brontë Sisters We’re home again at our little farm, for a while at least. It rained on and off from late in […]
Autumn At The Farm
“There is something incredibly nostalgic and significant about the annual cascade of autumn leaves.” ~ Joe L. Wheeler The last of the summer grass is long and lush and sweet. The wind by turn blows warm and then cold. The leaves are tumbling down, making a pretty carpet upon the lawn. The air is rich […]
Simple Pleasures
“I’d rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.” ~ Emma Goldman Here we are, home at the farm. Such a healing space for me. While I’m soaking up the magic before we head back to the city again to support our beloved family, here’s a taste of our last few […]
A Very Hurried Post Because…
“Tantrums are not bad behavior. Tantrums are an expression of emotion that became too much for the child to bear. No punishment is required. What your child needs is compassion and safe, loving arms to unload in.” ― Rebecca Eanes, The Newbie’s Guide to Positive Parenting Thanks for your understanding as I write this post […]
Terrible Horrible Good
“You can avoid having ulcers by adapting to the situation: If you fall in the mud puddle, check your pockets for fish.” ~ Author Unknown Suddenly it’s cold again here at the farm. Yesterday we dressed Harry in a dog coat. Last year he was so cold in winter, but there was no coat […]
Sunshine and Apples
“As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness — just the pure air to breathe and the […]
Coming Home
“Now, on this road trip, my mind seemed to uncrinkle, to breathe, to present to itself a cure for a disease it had not, until now, known it had.” ― Elizabeth Berg, The Year of Pleasures I’ve been in the city so long this last stay. It was necessary. Bert needed surgery. Then Harry. […]
Crazy Wild Weather
“From where we stand the rain seems random. If we could stand somewhere else, we would see the order in it.” ~ Tony Hillerman It’s crazy wet in the Northern Rivers right now. It has rained, and rained and rained, and more rain is coming. Yesterday we moved the cows and baby calves from […]
A Morning Cup of Tea With Friends
“Think thoughts that make you happy. Do things that make you feel good. Be with people who make you feel good, and who cheer you on. Eat things that make your body feel good. Go at a pace that makes you feel good. Embrace Life… live!” ~ Angie Karan Shhhh… Just sit quietly for […]
The Noisy Visitors
“The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson All last night we were serenaded with the thumping and screeching of possums running along our tin roof and jumping noisily into the adjoining trees here at our little farm. Poor Bert was having conniptions! It’s no wonder they […]
Cafe Dog’s Bluesfest Protest!
“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr. “Get up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, Don’t give up the fight.” ~ Bob Marley We’re attending Bluesfest over the Easter Break – five days of music, music and more music! On Thursday morning […]
It’s The Little Things…
“After all,” Anne had said to Marilla once, “I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.” ~ L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea Yesterday was […]
A Cleansing Storm
“…I don’t just wish you rain, Beloved – I wish you the beauty of storms…” ~ John Geddes, A Familiar Rain I came home late yesterday afternoon to our little farm. The heat and humidity were oppressive and you could feel that rising tension that always signals a storm. Sure enough, after nightfall a […]
The Long Drive Home
“When anybody honks at me in traffic, I blush, wave, and shout, “Thanks for being a fan.” Being a celebrity is a 24/7 thing.” ~ Jarod Kintz It was a slow trip from the country to the city yesterday. It didn’t take long to pack the car, but the detours and delays, they were […]
Red Bull’s Beautiful Babies
“To country people Cows are mild, And flee from any stick they throw; But I’m a timid town bred child, And all the cattle seem to know.” ~ T.S. Eliot Do you remember Red Bull, our miracle calf? That’s him in the photo above, taken about eighteen months ago when he was just a […]
One of Those Non-Webby Days
“Floyd could imagine a dozen things that could go wrong; it was little consolation that it was always the thirteenth that actually happened.” ~ Arthur C. Clarke Here at the farm we’re experiencing a technological glitch. Our usually reliable phone network, which also supports our internet, is grinding along at a pace slower than […]
Home at My Farm
“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” ~ Albert Einstein I’m home, at our beautiful farm. The dogs and I have just gone for a ramble to check on the cows, and to see if we could spy the platypus down in the river. There are branches down everywhere after the […]
A Day At the Farm
“I’d rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.” ~ Emma Goldman I slept in yesterday. Til nearly eight am. Pure luxury! I’ve had a month of restless nights thanks to Lyme disease, so to sleep so deeply and completely was bliss. Our farm is a hive of activity right now. […]
Adapting to Change
“When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: if you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the […]
Here Comes The Sun
“As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness — just the pure air to breathe and the […]
Sleepy Morning
“I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty.” ~ Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time I woke to the sound of rain. It was soft at first, a comforting patter of drops on the old iron roof. […]
The Harry Emergency
“After years of having a dog, you know him. You know the meaning of his snuffs and grunts and barks. Every twitch of the ears is a question or statement, every wag of the tail is an exclamation.” ~ Robert McCammon, Boy’s Life Something’s not been right with Harry these past few days. He’s […]
A Social Kind Of Day
“In Ireland, you go to someone’s house, and she asks you if you want a cup of tea. You say no, thank you, you’re really just fine. She asks if you’re sure. You say of course you’re sure, really, you don’t need a thing. Except they pronounce it ting. You don’t need a ting. Well, she […]
Slow Trip Home!
“The road that leads to nowhere for others might just be the road that leads to somewhere for you!” ~ Mehmet Murat ildan The power is back on, the river is down, and so yesterday afternoon we headed out to buy a few supplies. On the way back home, on a meandering one-lane bitumen […]
Washing Away 2014!
“…the great floodgates of the wonder-world swung open…” ~ Herman Melville, Moby-Dick The early hours of 2015 brought the most fantastical storm to our little farm. As I sat with my tarot cards at midnight, doing my traditional reading for the year ahead, the sky lit up with enormous bolts of blue-white fire, and the thunderclaps overhead […]
The Frog Choir
“Then the singing enveloped me. It was furry and resonant, coming from everyone’s very heart. There was no sense of performance or judgment, only that the music was breath and food.” ~ Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith It’s been a magical few days here at our little farm. We had a […]
My Christmas Eve Gift to Myself
“Just imagine becoming the way you used to be as a very young child, before you understood the meaning of any word, before opinions took over your mind. The real you is loving, joyful, and free. The real you is just like a flower, just like the wind, just like the ocean, just like the […]
A Refreshing Pause
“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.” ~ Bill Watterson, The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book “…I don’t just wish you rain, Beloved – I wish you the beauty of storms…” ~ John Geddes, A Familiar Rain I’m so glad that we went and […]
Sowing Seeds
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” ~ Robert Louis Stevenson Yesterday afternoon the sky over the farm grew heavy and dark. The air was hot and humid, with not a hint of breeze. I had finished a busy day of phone readings and retreat […]
Harry Dog Update
“Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon.” ~ Dag Hammarskjold Young Harry is feeling a little brighter each day, and if we get the all-clear from the vet today we will take him home to the farm tonight! He’s still quite tender and sore, […]
Afternoon Magic at the Farm
“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by […]
Where’s My Cheese?
“What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?” ~ Bertolt Brecht “Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.” ~ G.K. Chesterton, Alarms and Discursions I was sure I put a wedge of cheese on the kitchen bench last night while I was making dinner. I popped outside for a moment to […]
A Very Good Day!
“I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it’s the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It’s probably the most important thing in a person.” ~ Audrey Hepburn What a wonderful weekend it has turned out to be. Good friends have come to stay at our […]
A Little Bit of Normal
“Get yourself grounded and you can navigate even the stormiest roads in peace.” ~ Steve Goodier I’ve spent the last twenty-four hours offline and disconnected from the outside world, so that I could reconnect with my husband, our dogs, and the beautiful place we call home. I needed that, after five days holding the space […]
Me And That Misbehaving Technology!
“All human plans are subject to ruthless revision by Nature, or Fate, or whatever one preferred to call the powers behind the Universe.” ~ Arthur C. Clarke, 2010: Odyssey Two It’s been a crazy fortnight for me, technology-wise. This time two weeks ago my computer died, and no matter what I did, it […]
The Return of Bandit
“Now they return home, their bones bruised and their spirit slightly broken, but they’re still alive, and they will be well sometime soon.” ~ Hannah Nikka Bryan, Soldier’s Descent It’s been blowing a gale all night. The wind chimes have been ringing furiously, and the rustling of the leaves sounds like an orchestra. Add […]
A Little Light Rain
“The first supermarket supposedly appeared on the American landscape in 1946. That is not very long ago. Until then, where was all the food? Dear folks, the food was in homes, gardens, local fields, and forests. It was near kitchens, near tables, near bedsides. It was in the pantry, the cellar, the backyard.” ~ Joel […]
Exhausted, with Aprons…
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” ~ Albert Einstein What a lovely weekend I’ve had. Our friends and their children visited the farm, and to my delight I found that these particular children had a […]
Around the Campfire
“So, I looked up and we were in this giant dome like a glass snowball, and Mark said that the amazing white stars were only holes in the black glass of the dome, and when you went to heaven, the glass broke away, and there was nothing but a whole sheet of star white, which […]
Frosty, Frosty… Penguin!
“If a solution fails to appear … and yet we feel success is just around the corner, try resting for a while. … Like the early morning frost, this intellectual refreshment withers the parasitic and nasty vegetation that smothers the good seed. Bursting forth at last is the flower of truth.” ― Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Advice […]
Who’s Bad?
“I can learn to live with guilt. I don’t care about being good.” ~ Holly Black, Red Glove “All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. For after all, he was only human. He wasn’t a dog.” ~ Charles M. Schulz Someone has dug up my entire new vegetable garden. […]
Roadside Bounty and Shared Harvests
“We must give more in order to get more. It is the generous giving of ourselves that produces the generous harvest.” ~ Orison Swett Marden On the back roads around our own little farm, many farmers and those folks with large home gardens have set up roadside stalls to sell some of their surplus produce. I […]
The Wild Life!
“Connecting with the wilderness allows us to live in the flow of a meaningful, joyful life. Embracing this state of connectedness or oneness with other living beings including animals, as opposed to feeling an “otherness” or “separateness” brings a sense of harmony and enables us to be at peace with oneself and the world.” ~ Sylvia […]
Signs of Life
“Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch.” ~ Orson Welles There have been some signs this week that my world is beginning to extend beyond the farm, my pyjamas and bed, as I edge ahead in my battle against Lyme disease. We had to get a new radiator installed […]
Blog Hijack!
“All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. For after all, he was only human. He wasn’t a dog.” ~ Charles M. Schulz This is Bert. Me and my brother Harry have taken over this blog. Writing is dumb. Especially on a very lovely morning of rain and […]