Books We Have Read
book club snacks
We had a major loss some time ago. Then I guess I have gone through a depression and have gotten behind here…. We have read several books. Including The Bone People by Keri Hulme, it was about 3 very damaged people and the way they damaged each other until they managed to heal. It was very culturally driven…. I have never read anything quite like it… It was absolutely brilliant. Rather than being plot, theme, or character driven, it was driven by character experience. It was hard to read and did not conform to what I expect in a book grammatically etc… So that made it maddening and actually hard since I am dyslexic. But, I got through it. if you can read this you can read anything. it was absolutely beautiful and sad. It was based in and on Maori culture in New Zealand. I would encourage everyone to wade through this book. it is absolutely fascinating.
Another one we read recently, was Under The Whispering Door by TJ Klune. I have to say this might be one of my all time favorite books. it was original, intelligent, broad minded, deep, hilarious, until something like the last 4 chapters when I started to cry. Then I just sat there weeping through the rest of the book. I absolutely LOVED it. The story is that a rather icky person a lawyer, dies. He wakes up dead, at his own funeral, his ex is saying her piece. His law partners didn’t think much of him, and this weird woman he doesn’t recognize can see him. No one else can. She is a reaper. She gathers the souls of the dead and takes them to a tea house a place of transition where a man named Hugo, helps them cross over. But he isn’t alone there, Hugo’s old grandad ghost hangs out along with one of his family pets that passed on. Together with the woman reaper they run and live at the tea house. This story is about unconventional love, how conventional it actually is. the writer did a great job. It was like living inside a hug for the week I spent reading this book. I could not put it down.
Another one we touched on was About Grace by Anthony Doerr. I can’t say much about it since I failed to read it. it was in may, planting season. i was so overwhelmed that month that literally everything that wasn’t getting planted in the ground stopped existing for a while. others read it. None of them particularly loved it. They all really wanted to because this writer has a history of writing brilliant books. but unfortunately this one just didn’t resonate with any member of the club. it was about a man that had a premonition of failing to save his daughter from a flood. So, he ran away to try to prevent the whole event. By not being there, what transpired couldn’t happen. That was the theory. Sometimes the biggest mistakes we make in life are made with the best of intentions… it’s nice someone wrote a story to remind us of this fact.
Right now, we are preparing to go discuss our next book, which I won’t talk about here till after we discuss it as a group. Ahab’s Wife, by Sena jeter Naslund. We will be discussing this book, Down The Cape, looking out over the same ocean that Nantucket, looks at from a little Cape beach much like the beaches of Nantucket. Once a year the book club heads to the Cape. We choose 6 new books and discuss the current book. We walk the sand flats together, and do other activities. Breakfast at Grumpies is common, a visit to any number of the activities on The Cape, are often part of the plan. We walk the strand, and we enjoy the water view. My busy season has come to an end. I haven’t stopped going 20 miles a minute running this farm doing the hard farm labor since May. This weekend, will be my first vacation in something like 2 years or more now… I think since the start of Covid. The Book club will be down for the weekend that kicks off my 8 day vacation by the ocean at the end of the busy season. I need this. I promise, I will write about this book after we talk about it as a group while I am on vacation.
Honorable mentions that have NOTHING to do with Book Club.
Eating On The Wild Side by Jo Robinson was absolutely an amazing read. it is going change what I am farming some.
If Women Rose Rooted by Sharon Blackie, every woman should read this book. That is all.
The Organic Country Home Handbook by Natalie Wise, I LOVE this book! it has changed the way I clean my house and I am super stoked with the results, and the inspiration it offers me to using the ideas here only modified to clean my house. Every woman needs this book.
Wildflower Farm, is a small New England homestead, B&B and AirBnB, in the Baystate. We came out here 7 years ago, when we returned from the better part of 10 years as peripatetic aristotelian nomads, for my husband's post docs. Upon our return, we had a plan. We had a lovely home. Everything was so clear. Then, I got sick. Things I used to eat all the time during our travels elsewhere in the world and even here before I left almost 10 years earlier made me ill. It took a couple trips to the ER and a trip to specialist... It became clear, something had changed in the way food is processed in this country since last I lived here. Some off label things was inevitably going to be my demise.
My husband and I looked around to see the clear path we were on, had exploded in front of us. We decided we had to create a new path for ourselves. We put children on hold. We found a small piece of land with a house we loved in a rural suburb in a right to farm area. I began researching how to do it ourselves. Grow it ourselves, make it ourselves, survive on our own as much as possible. We bought the property, and began plotting a new course. One that didn't involve off label chemicals. Closer to nature, with a lot more DIY, gardens, and animals for the products they provide. We created a life we loved though it hasn't always been easy and has of course come with compromise with each other, and even with ourselves.
Our family thought we had lost our minds. What were we doing leaving the city? We had no idea how hard this would be. They thought we would be back in 6 months. That was over 7 years ago, now. We have been making it work. They were not wrong, it isn't easy. But has anything worth doing ever been easy? And for us, avoiding as much store bought food as possible was simply necessary so I could live given how sick I was getting.
Then Covid hit.... We were lucky to have this place. It has allowed us a lot less need for public use territories which has kept us a lot safer and spared us much of the risk others face daily. This place, has given us a privilege through this of great meaning to us. To be of use in a difficult time. We have been able to help friends family and even strangers in need when things couldn't be found on store shelves. Or money was tight due to not working, rent being due and a child at home, or some other draining situation. We are so very grateful to have been able to not be helpless like so much of society through this miserable time. Our families, got used to it some time ago, us being out here. They made peace with it the day there was no bread and they had to ask me for some. Or when fresh vegies were rotten due to supply chain issues but they could find plenty in my garden.
Wildflower Farm, was a place I dreamed of. One of those sweet pastoral dreams a city dweller grows up knowing will never come true, that became unavoidable when I became ill. I never expected to get to do this. I never thought I had what it takes to make this work. I have learned pacing myself is important, compromise is critical, hard work never ends, burn out is real so breaks are just a necessary evil.
We are not fully self sufficient, but we work hard in that direction as we create a new path through life for ourselves, always reaching to do even more ourselves and to get closer to the ideal we envision. We are however far more self sufficient than many in this world. 7 years in, we continue to learn and grow in this homesteading lifestyle. We welcome comments and advice and ideas and questions.
We welcome visitors from all over to our home with strict covid policies in place. We spend our time learning to live all over again in a more environmental and sustainable way though even there we are far from perfect always learning and growing doing better as we know better.
This little homestead farm is a magical place named for the New England wildflowers that grow all around. A place where a physicist, watches the night sky on clear nights with the aide of mirror and glass, and a woman, works endlessly in the gardens, the kitchen, and a variety of projects to create and to keep a very unique life style running and functioning. Wildflower Farm, has become so much more than simply a piece of land we can grow a few vegetables on. The longer I spend here, the more alive the land seems, the more I learn about it's function and the more meaning it has. My place in the universe and the next steps on our new path become ever more clear.
We welcome you on this journey with us.
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