tumbleweedsandthyme

Creating with earths bounty

Today I was honored to arrange flowers for a memorial/dedication of a fountain service that would be held this evening for the wife of a dear friend to my boss. Lynn diligently picked bucketsful of weedy grasses and greenery from the farm early this morning, before rushing home to prepare and cook much of the food that would be served also for tonight celebration of life... (Lynn is an angel that always lends a wing or both when needed by others). I offered to help by doing the flowers so she could concentrate on all else she had to do timely without feeling rushed and frantic. 

I did not know this dearly departed wife, mother and friend to many, though I felt connected to her family and those she loved as I worked. There are two of the above arrangement both with the center sunflower facing upright towards heaven. Rosemary is tucked in each for remembrance. 

A real pumpkin cleaned out and stuffed with beauty and blessings of the season will be the centerpiece for a table. Long stem lavender is added for love.

And one other bouquet for the house

the petals on each of the sunflowers in this one are still cupped, ready to open and come to full life...thoughts of the family, that they may begin anew with living as when someone we love dies life changes...life is never the same but life is life...for living.

The nicest part of creating these today was that Lynn trusted me to do them when I know in her heart she wanted to do them but time was of the escense and there wasn't enough of it for her to do it all. thank you Lynn for letting me be part of your friends celebration of a loved ones life.

Tomorrow I will walk my zinnia field and pick a couple bouquets of the last of my pretties. I will hold gratitude in my heart for what the field has given this year to us in beauty..I will sing to them one last time as I pick and I will whisper thank you as I walk away. Monday the zinnia will be gone and in their place collard greens and kale will be planted. SIGH...to everything there is a season...a time to live and a time to die.

I'm getting ready to take some pictures of the fall lot overflowing with abundance of the harvest season, so check in on me soon to have a look at Fall at Stoney's.

Until then...look nto the eyes of someone you love and tell them, "I love You", because we don't have each other forever in this lifetime, make the most of the earthly life you have otgether while you have it close, comfortable and tangible.

Endings always bring new beginnings

The urge to play with paper comes more often than I have the chance to do it but I made this card the other night to send to a friend along with a litle present I have had for over a year and never mailed to her. As summer drapes her shawl over her now fading flowery dress and readies herself to step aside allowing fall to have a grand entrance I thought the words of Dickens on the inside appropriate for the time of year and my feelings of summer soon leaving.

 

 

 

"Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own."

Charles Dickens

 

Summer has been beautiful and wonderful, and although it is always hard for me see my beloved summer leave I know it is soon time for change and I welcome it with arms and eyes wide open.  It is only days away until the summer lot takes on a whole new look of fall and abundance. I can hardly wait to see the pumpkins arrive with their colors and textures and to begin to make displays. Its alot of work but its GOOD hard work. How can anyone not love the site of a fairytale or cinderella pumpkin...there is something magical about how a tiny seed can grow something with such character. 

I hope that each of you who read me here will buy yourself a pumpkin this fall and enjoy the proicess of doing so. Pumpkin time is how local produce markets and garden centers stay in business once the bulk growing season for local veggies and fruits dwindles. Please support your local farm stand markets in your area for your fall needs, Yes you can pick up a pumpkin and put it in your metal shopping cart (and probably for cheaper) but if you appreciate the wealth that the American farmer gives to your life in summer support the farmer by visiitng a local market not a box store, or a grocery store for your fall pleasures. Treasures that what pumpkins and gourds are!

Speaking of leaving, Nik who came again this year and worked with us at Stoney's along with his friend K have now gone back to Russia. As I write this they should be landing on the soil of their home country... two fine young men whom I had the pleasure of their company this summer.

I took this photo of them in lhe last minutes before we all said our goodbyes. I will rememeber them as this...Nik with his great big beautiful smile and i will always remeber his words when you said Good morning Nik, how are  you? He would answer, "Good, always good!"  Nik and I will write now and then to one another and touch base with our lives, I hope. He will always have a little place in my heart with his name on it and I will always think of him kindly as my friend in Russia.

KL spoke little English upon arrival but his friend NIk helped him along in the very beginning translating if need be in Russian, and by the time KL left he spoke fluently our native tongue. He too is a fine young man and I enjoyed getting to know him as the summer went on. Both boys weeded the zinnia field for me and I know they didn't enjoy doing it :-) but I thank them for keeping the field in good order. I will miss them and I hope that in this lifetime our paths with cross again. Bless you both with all good things in your life Nik and KL.

It's almost time for the zinnia field to be where collards will grow this fall through winter. I still pick daily but the flowers are getting smaller and fewer and the plants are getting tired now. These are pictures from yesterdays pickins' so you can imagine how beautiful they were in their prime. 

In the language of flowers zinna means, "thinking of friends."

I'm thinking of Nik and KL and how good it must be for their family and friends to see them. And I think of all the friends I have met through blogging. Thank you all for what you bring to my life by visting here.

As one season comes to an end I look forward to new beginnings. Fall to me is the season in which we are reminded to be grateful for our abundance.  In these troubled times for many and the mess our country strives to rise above I hope that you will take time to measure and appreciate your abundance. For me it will have nothing to do with monetary value, but rather with the joy of friendships, the blessing of good health that sustained me today and hopefully will tomorrow and for the bounty of the harvest that fall will soon bring. May the bright orange of a pumpkin cheer you, the many textures of the season serve to add depth to your being, and your heart be lightened with inspiration.

Abundantly yours,

Carolyn