Did you know that today is Oceans Day? Set by the United Nations, each year on June 8th a theme is designated, one that celebrates the marvels of ocean life. This year's theme is "Wonder: sustaining what sustains us."
Some of you may wonder why I call this compilation of daily posts "Ocean." Some of you may remember: when I began writing here, now more than twenty years ago, I called this blog "The Other Side of the Ocean." It seemed fitting: I saw myself as frequently thinking about what I left behind, in my country of birth. And when visiting there, I surely felt myself to be firmly wedded to my American life. My perspective seems to shift, depending on which way I am looking. But the blog title got clumsy and, too, I thought it sounded a tad dramatic, so I shortened it to just Ocean and I thought this to be appropriate since you'll find here a jumble of ideas about events, trips, family, friends, farmette happenings, Ed and our life together. Any profound thought is buried in the stuff that comes to the surface. Like in an ocean, no?
Anyway, I know the world is not celebrating this Ocean, but I did smile when I read about all that is important about honoring the true oceans of the world, because so much that is written about the value of ocean communities can find resonance in our daily lives. It's humbling to know that in essence, we are but one planet, one community, one set of of guiding to principles: to preserve, love and respect life in all its beautiful forms, aquatic or otherwise.
Once again, we wake up to hazy air, with an index that's hovering between Moderate and Unhealthy For Sensitive Types. Despite that, I spend the entire day outside. Nearly twelve hours, without interruption. Why? Oh so many reasons! Let me list them:
1. Because of course I have to do my morning walk to the barn, to feed the animals.
2. Because Ed once again sweetly agrees to a breakfast on the porch.
It's an early one. We have a date with our CSA farmers.
3. Which brings me to the next reason: because our CSA farmers at the last minute decided that a few of their strawberry rows have enough ripe berries to open them up to just a few pickers. I happened to be on my computer when they made the announcement. I snatched a spot for us.
This is simply awesome. I love their annual strawberry picking and I did think I would miss it this year because I'm leaving just as the berry season heats up. Which brings me to the next one:
4. Because I'm leaving on Wednesday and I'll be away for nearly two weeks. I chose this mid-June period for the trip deliberately-- usually there is a gardening lull then. But not this year! I got so ambitious and set my sights to such great heights of flower care that I doubt that I will have even a moment's pause this whole growing season. Nonetheless, the trip is set, and so I am hurrying to finish up my clean-up of all the fields. Today I tidy up yesterday's weeding and then I spread a million pitchfork-loads of wood chips -- for appearance, for weed suppression, and for long term soil improvement. It is of course a given that the weeds will slowly come back. But they wont take over the beds. Unless it rains a lot, but that's unlikely, which pushes me right to the fifth reason for being outside so long:
5. Because I looked at the weather forecast and it appears to be a mostly dry one for the next two weeks. At the last minute, I decided to hose down nearly all of the flower fields. That took several hours, but after all that weeding and wood chip work, I found watering with a hose to be truly calming.
6. And one final one: a friend of mine is going to Poland in a few months and wanted advice -- what to see, where to stay, that type of thing. I didn't want to bother Ed who was alternating between reading and napping, so I Zoomed from the porch. Meaning outside!
I'll leave you with a photo of something very sweet and a little bit disconcerting. I owe this one to Ed, who spotted it and called me over; in our crab apple, on a relatively low branch, a bird had built a nest and she had obviously laid eggs because she was not going to leave, even though she saw us hovering not too far. Why disconcerting? Well, lets hope the cats don't find her. (They used to climb trees in their younger days, but that's mostly a thing of the past.)
(And one of our girls who also decided that the crab apple is a fine place to take a short nap.)
Am I tired? Incredibly so! Sunday dinner had been moved until tomorrow, nonetheless, it's been a very full day! Just don't ask me if I am at all ready for my trip because the answer is no -- not at all.
with love...
