Country Mouse Monday: what (not) to wear

I mucked up my freshly-laundered bathrobe (again) this morning, so impatient to be outside that I didn't change into my usual gardening garb.

From the sidewalk, I'm sure I was a sight: bed-head, flannel robe and tevas, gloves and clippers -- but probably all the passers-by are used to it, expect to see us in various states of (un)dress, happily playing in the dirt.  I like to think they give us the Eccentric Green-Thumbed Neighbor pass, in return for the glory of this plot of land, cultivated and shared year after year.

Click to read more ...

Country Mouse Monday: endings, beginnings, sweetness

One week ago today, my youngest sister passed away after years of cancer and illness. She was a brilliant person who changed dramatically in the final years of her life, away from the person we knew into some other creature with a different family and a desire not to know us.

To say the last four years have been painful is an understatement.

And so her death, finally, was a relief in many ways -- relief that she no longer suffers, relief that her 6-year-old daughter no longer witnesses her wasting away, relief that my family at last grieves in earnest instead of wracking our brains for how to fix the broken.

For me, the Country Mouse, naturally on that day a week ago, I found solace in the dirt.

Click to read more ...

Country Mouse Monday: good eatin', no effort

asparagus now, apricots laterAs much as this Country Mouse loves to work (and boy, do I), there is also something so wonderful about the food that just re-appears, year after year, without us doing a thing.

Just walk out, take a bite.

So it goes with the asparagus, generally the first tasty morsels of the spring, and so it will be again this summer with what looks to be another bumper crop of apricots.

And while we're in the As, the artichokes aren't far behind, either!

Click to read more ...

Country Mouse Monday: aaaah, seeds ordered...

The Baker Creek seed catalog is seriously my most favorite garden-porn -- 211 whole pages of luscious photos of gorgeous food and flowers, a feast for the eyes.

Garden dreams like these illuminate every dark winter.

The catalog's been been sitting on the coffee table for a couple of months now.  I gobbled it as soon as it arrived, page by page, imagining this summer's garden,

Click to read more ...

Country Mouse Monday: welcome back, girls!!

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, I want to shout it from the rooftops:

It's Spring! It's Spring!  

And to celebrate, we spent a few hours at Rebecca's apiary on Saturday, splitting hives, and bringing some new girls home to our house.

Welcome home, girls!

May you be happy here long time.

Click to read more ...