It took three days (after my return) this time to reclaim a slower pace. The transformation came this morning when I stepped out to pick raspberries. I wanted to pass some on to my daughter, and to have some for breakfast with Ed, and to have a bunch for baking.
Standing out there in the thick of berry bushes, I understood two things: I will have picked off a good portion of the ripe berries and if I leave the rest (for now, forever), life wont end. And secondly, looking at the weeds around the canes, I saw that yes, they grew enormously in my absence, but actually, I have the rest of the month (or summer) to clear them. We got the raspberry fields well covered with mulch earlier in the season. Weeding them wont take forever and it doesn't have to happen right now.
And so I stopped looking nervously at my long list of things that require my attention. They don't require it today. Or this week. Or at all.
It may seem like such an obvious point, but it was pace-changing for me.
So first, a longer look at garden highlights from this morning:
And then, the usual leisurely breakfast (that's a constant; if the pace of breakfast ever picks up, I know I am doomed):
And then a moment with the cheepers as they enjoy their morning snack:
And when I agree to go with my girl to the downtown farmers market, I don't, as in the past, just meet her there, I moped over to her house and we walk over together. There and back. Past Madison's skyline...
...and then of course slowly around the Capitol Square.
At the farmhouse, I glance at my list dismissively and sit down to read a little bit, ignoring the laundry stuck for two days in the machine, ignoring the beetles in the rose bushes, ignoring the grass that Ed only half mowed last night (I will help him... sometime... maybe later).
Though I did bake the raspberry lemon cake later in the evening.
I use yogurt instead of cream, and less sugar than it calls for. The stars, after all, are the berries inside. All two cups of them, picked just a few hours before baking.
Standing out there in the thick of berry bushes, I understood two things: I will have picked off a good portion of the ripe berries and if I leave the rest (for now, forever), life wont end. And secondly, looking at the weeds around the canes, I saw that yes, they grew enormously in my absence, but actually, I have the rest of the month (or summer) to clear them. We got the raspberry fields well covered with mulch earlier in the season. Weeding them wont take forever and it doesn't have to happen right now.
And so I stopped looking nervously at my long list of things that require my attention. They don't require it today. Or this week. Or at all.
It may seem like such an obvious point, but it was pace-changing for me.
So first, a longer look at garden highlights from this morning:
And then, the usual leisurely breakfast (that's a constant; if the pace of breakfast ever picks up, I know I am doomed):
And then a moment with the cheepers as they enjoy their morning snack:
And when I agree to go with my girl to the downtown farmers market, I don't, as in the past, just meet her there, I moped over to her house and we walk over together. There and back. Past Madison's skyline...
...and then of course slowly around the Capitol Square.
At the farmhouse, I glance at my list dismissively and sit down to read a little bit, ignoring the laundry stuck for two days in the machine, ignoring the beetles in the rose bushes, ignoring the grass that Ed only half mowed last night (I will help him... sometime... maybe later).
Though I did bake the raspberry lemon cake later in the evening.
I use yogurt instead of cream, and less sugar than it calls for. The stars, after all, are the berries inside. All two cups of them, picked just a few hours before baking.
I want some of your cake...
ReplyDelete(hi to Cheepers!)
Photos: I can never tire of your happy garden! I also have planted bee balm and coneflowers for years, and coreopsis is always such a little shower of sparklers! and what is the fine, intense blue perennial that you have in bloom right now?
ReplyDeleteMaking me hungry: I don't bake often now that the boys are grown, but I greatly desire a taste of that lemon raspberry cake. Would it be too much trouble to type out the recipe? If you do, I promise I'll really make it. :)
Motherhood: Love the photo of your daughter's hands on the little bump! Proud, protective, tender.
While you're typing out that recipe for Joy, why don't you just type it out here on the blog? I was going to ask, too, as that sounds like a lovely cake. I don't think there is a thing you can do wrong with a raspberry.
ReplyDelete