Waiting For Dandelions.
The first Dandelion!
Quarantine continues here in Boston. Each day, the air gets cleaner. We have had weird weather freak snow storms…. At one point we lost power due to weather. But today, though a bit cold, is beautiful. The sun is shining and the cerulean sky seems to be laughing. As if the light breeze had told a joke to the trees overheard by the expanse of the sky causing it to giggle just a little.
Soon little purple violet flowers will appear.
It isn’t just the sky that has the giggles. The earth herself is laughing at the same joke. Her laughter looks like dandelions, and little patches of violets, both of which can be collected to produce a beautiful jam in the new water bath canner. I find myself mildly infected by the giggles also…. Due to the way the sun hits me when I walk outside. It feels so good after the long icky rainy winter we have had.
Blooming Fruit Trees.
The earth is waking up… The fruit trees are starting to bloom which means fruit later in the year which is a relief, given how hard some stuff has become to get in this crisis. I have no doubt even more will be impacted long before this is over. So I am thrilled to be greeted by so many flowers, or giggles from the earth. I am grateful to her for showing up for us even in one of the worst crises we have ever faced. She is still here stepping up to feed and support us even as we destroy her. We aught to be ashamed. And when this is over, we must take action together to fix this for her.
Jonquils
The jonquils in my yard pay homage to the sun just as I do. Somehow seeing them makes me smile. I know off my property and all around there is death and horror. Strange men with guns are terrorizing the masses in places like Michigan, demanding to open everything up again… Let me be clear…. If you are weilding a gun by the standards of Wildflower you aren’t a protester. You are just a violent goon being a violent terrorist. I am not afraid to call terrorism terrorism and I don’t feel that being white exempts you from that classificiation. If you are out there witha gun rather than a sign you are a terrorist. But here, I am unaffected. Here, I have peace and flowers. Here I offer jonquils to she who hears the earth’s cries, (Kwan Yin,) as she stands at the center of my yard and at the center of my heart and who I want to be during all of this.
Kuan Yin, listening to the cries of all…
I suppose even I am falling back on faith just a little during this crisis. I do it, because I have hope. I refuse to let go of hope. In that respect I am a bit like Pandora with her box…. We need to round up the ugly we have unleashed and set it back in that box or we are going to see more times like these shortly. Climate scientists have been predicting it for years.
But today, I will try to focus on what is beautiful and on making it grow.
Thank you for reading
Amanda of Wildflower Farm
Tags: acreage, agriculture, agro, airbnb, B&B, BnB, environmental, environmentalist, farm, farm blog, farm wife blog, farmer, farming, farmstead, flowers, garden, homestead, homestead blog, homestead farm, homestead wife blog, homesteader, homesteading, homesteading blog, house wife, housewife, housewife blog, inn keeper, inn keeper's blog, lifestyle, lodging, massachusetts farm, Massachusetts homestead, nature, new england, new england farm, new england homestead, old fashioned house wife, old fashioned housewife, old fashioned housewife blog, Quarantine, quarantine blog, travel, wildflower farm
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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