by Krista | Mar 28, 2017 | Autumn
It’s been hot and still this week with nary a hint of the autumn we’re supposed to be in. I love the cooler seasons, but this extended summer is rather splendid, especially for my gardens and the mama goats who look like they’re about to give birth any second.
Each day I’ve been harvesting something new: purple string beans, tomatoes, asparagus, and fat green capsicums that are wonderful sweet, juicy, and crunchy. Yesterday I filled a basket and chopped them up for the freezer, ready to be added to chili, soup, and casseroles this winter.
Today I’m harvesting herbs, collecting great bundles to be hung and dried for beautiful teas and tisanes.
I started with one of my very favourites: pineapple sage. The smell alone makes me happy, a luscious blend of tropical fruit with a hint of spice.
Native to Central and South America, pineapple sage is used in traditional Mexican medicine to treat anxiety and depression and level out blood sugar.
I love making iced teas with it in summer, and hot ones in winter, sweetened with a bit of honey or real maple syrup.
The gorgeous flowers make a beautiful and fragrant addition to salads and desserts, and look especially nice scattered over whipped cream or used to decorate the top of a pudding like Russian Pashka.
When I have an abundance of pineapple sage, I like to use the leafy branches in bouquets. They make my kitchen smell so good.
Now I’m going to make a few cuttings so I can add a lot more pineapple sage plants to my gardens in spring.
What is your favourite herb to make tea with? xo
by Krista | Mar 24, 2017 | Autumn
It’s dark and still this morning. The air feels thick and heavy, with barely a breath of air to stir the leaves in the trees. It’s a day for quiet contemplation, for gentle pokings and proddings as I examine my life and work again to make sure they’re reflecting what I value most.
As I look I see need for course correction, a little nudge here, a screeching halt there, and it’s good, scary, always scary, but always good.
Change is an unsettling thing, but one I’m getting better at embracing. I picture Change as a new friend, someone you have a feeling is going to be a kindred spirit, but you’re still at the get-to-know-you stage and things are a bit awkward. This week I’m sitting quietly with the latest Changeling to come into my life, asking questions, being vulnerable, figuring out how to work together in a way that’s nourishing and good, doing the things that always help me in these situations.
Meet with the Trusted Ones
This week I arranged meetings with people I trust and respect, people who know me and can see my strengths and talents when I feel wobbly. It was so good to toss around ideas and list options and get their advice and insights. I’ve found that some Changelings can be a bit blinding, as if you’re staring blankly into a glaring spotlight and can’t see things clearly. It helps to have others sit with me and be honest and supportive until the glare subsides and I can see what they can see.
Meet with the Healers
Change, even good change, can shake my foundations, and I need to get settled again before making decisions or moving forward. So this week I met with my healers, the people who have proven themselves trustworthy in caring for my physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. We talked and laughed and worked through the wonky thinking that was keeping me stuck in fear and distrust. We did physical therapy and chiropractic and as my body unclenched itself and released the pain, I was able to think clearly again. I ate nourishing things – grapes and tomatoes and cucumbers and lovely soups and herbal teas – and my body received the support it needed.
Meet with Nature
I get restored by green grass and wind in the trees and early morning sunshine and afternoon rains. Running my hands over rosemary and lavender calms and settles me and gets the ol’ brain working better. I’ve loved getting outside this week, even in the rain, pinching flowers off the basil to keep it from going to seed, harvesting and roasting radishes, scratching pig backs and goat heads and dog ears. There’s something about connecting to living things that restores my spirits and gives me courage to press on with excitement into the unknown.
Meet with Myself
I’ve spent extra time sitting quietly with myself, letting the fears bubble up and dissipate, acknowledging my strengths and weaknesses, and figuring out my next step. I’ve slept more and given myself permission to stop worrying, gone for drives and taken walks, read books and listened to other people’s stories, brainstormed and wrote lists, researched and let my imagination run wild – all those things that help bring clarity and purpose.
I know my next steps now, and I’m excited, truly excited. It’s just a quiet little life with very small happinesses and tiny dreams, but it’s all mine, and I’m so thankful for it.
I wasn’t keen on this Changeling when it first arrived, but now I’d happily leap back in time and give it a hug and say, “Thanks, luv. You were just what I needed.”
by Krista | May 11, 2016 | Autumn
I’m taking advantage of a lull in our lovely but chaotic week to have a coffee, a bit of coffee cake, and a new episode of Midsomer Murders. It feels so good to sit awhile and catch my breath, think through my errand list for this afternoon and relax knowing dinner is in the crockpot and will be ready by the time I get home.
Although it’s dark, cloudy, and cold today, we’ve had spectacularly gorgeous days of late, clear blue skies, hot gold sunshine, and delectably cool breezes blowing in from the South.
When I’m not working, I’ve spent as much time as I can outside, gardening for hours and heading to our bush for hikes in the late afternoon.
I head out across the fields, wading through nodding grasses that glisten and dance, past prickly pear strung with spider webs.
I love entering the woods, the flickering dance of shadow and light that is both mesmerizing and invigorating.
Luna runs hither and thither sniffing in hollow logs, bounding eagerly after wallabies and kangaroos that pop up from their hidden napping spots in the grass.
I love how the late sun reveals so many layers of color and texture in the gum trees: papery white, shimmering silver, rust and grey and pale yellow.
We usually have a herd of our neighbors cows roaming our bush, keeping the weeds and grass down as a preventative measure against fire. But they’ve returned to their home in the outback and our bush is quiet again.
My sacred grove is as beautiful as ever, the trees grown taller, branches stretching out to each other across the circle of grass below until they’re nearly touching.
It’s such a lovely place to wander, birds overhead, wildflowers underfoot, leaves glowing lime green in the setting sun. With the sun on my face and the wind in my hair, a deliriously happy dog running up to me for cuddles and pats, well, it’s all rather wonderful.
Where do you like to go for a wander on a gorgeous afternoon? xo
by Krista | May 6, 2016 | Autumn
As we packed up our rain-drenched camp, Bear and I were sore and tired, not looking forward to 3 hours in the car to get home. As we loaded the last few items and tied down the tarp, our friend Adam made our day by inviting us to his place to rest our bones on his squishy couch and have a cold drink or two before heading home. We were delighted to accept.
Adam and Joy live on Bribie Island, a jewel of a spot only a few minutes down the road from where we were camping. We were welcomed with hugs and set down under a fan and served iced tea and it was all so wonderful after such a gong show of a night. We chatted and laughed and looked at Adam’s new sword and before long all the stresses of collapsed tent and soggy gear were gone.
And suddenly we realized we were ravenous.
So off we went to the Bribie Island Surf Club for some lunch. We got a table overlooking the ocean and basked in sea breezes and ice cold ciders. We shared a hot, buttery, garlicky damper (an Aussie style of bread) then tucked into all sorts of good things: towering burgers, salmon and mashed potatoes, chicken Parmesan.
Bear surprised us at the end with a fabulous cheese platter and we tasted and savored our way through until we couldn’t eat another bite.
With our spirits and bodies restored, we got back in the car and Joy took us to the beach.
With hot sun and salty breezes, I couldn’t imagine a better place to unwind.
I could’ve stayed there for hours, perched on a sand dune, mesmerized by crashing waves and swooping birds.
One of my favorite things about Bribie Island is how wild and natural it feels. While there must be some crowded areas, Bear and I have never experienced them. Even on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, there was hardly a soul to be seen. That’s my kind of beach.
We got back in the car, windswept and salt-tinged, happy and peaceful, our good spirits restored. While our medieval camping trip didn’t turn out as we’d hoped, it ended even better than we could’ve planned.
xo
by Krista | May 3, 2016 | Autumn
Sometimes the best laid and dearly loved plans run thoroughly and utterly amok.
This past weekend for example. Bear and I had been working hard for months getting ready for a medieval reenactor’s weekend with swarms of our best loved medieval friends. We were looking forward to it so much. Even when my left hand swelled up black and blue after being kicked repeatedly by a feisty lamb, and my right hand swelled up after being pierced by a stray wire that jammed in there, and Robbie cut open both shins when he ran into a rogue piece of iron, and I pulled a muscle in my foot – we were still so excited and hobbled along and got all packed up and arrived in time to get mostly set up before dark.
All was well…until the rain started falling…and falling…and falling. And bit by bit the dirt turned to mud and the tent pegs popped out and in the middle of the night, after a particularly thunderous torrent, the tent fell down on top of our friends, braining them with tent poles and dousing them with water. We woke to their cries of alarm and stumbled out of our tent to find sheer mayhem. Everything was down, drenched, and streaked in mud. Humph. We stood there in the rain wondering what to do and realized…nothing. Our friends took refuge in their van, we spent a sleepless night wondering how to get the camp back together before acknowledging, nope, we simply couldn’t. The sodden ground wouldn’t hold the pegs and the pegs wouldn’t hold the tents and with another storm on the way we knew we’d just have to pack up and head home.
So we did. And it was sad and disappointing and frustrating, but it was the right call. For the rains returned and didn’t let up until Monday. We would’ve been stuck in sodden misery.
Thankfully we had some lovely moments before we left. Starting with sunrise.
Even after a soggy, sleepless night, the sun rising through the trees, shimmering through wood smoke, glistening on the dewy grass, well, it can’t help but lift your spirits.
And when you get to take a break from folding waterlogged tents, tarps, ropes, rugs, blankets, clothing, etc and sit down at a table with good friends and have homemade medieval fruit cake slathered with butter, the world feels rather wonderful.
And when you add a cup of coffee and some good stories and hearty laughs and commiserations from friends stopping by to moan and groan with us and give us big, squishy hugs, all the rumpled feelings and stresses untangled themselves and we made peace with our mayhem.
We were sad to leave, but thankful for the few hugs and visits we were able to squeeze in before we left, for one meal cooked over the fire – is there anything better than hot stew on a rainy night? – and for the chance to figure out how to make our camp storm/flood proof for next time.
Bear and I have learned that when disappointment hits, the best thing is to feel sad then replace it with something good. So we did. And I’ll tell you all about that next time. xo
by Krista | Apr 26, 2016 | Autumn
It was a jolly and exhausting weekend with our good friends, Sue and Vincent, as we worked hard and played hard in preparation for our first medieval event of the season.
There was new garb to model with whoops and catcalls from cheeky onlookers, menus to plan, and a new tent to set up in the face of fearsome winds that threatened to send Sue and I sailing off over the trees like Mary Poppins as we clung for dear life to tottering tent poles.
We sorted and packed, unpacked and planned, debated and decided, filled out paperwork, and finally collapsed in relieved, happy exhaustion, ready for some ginger wine and fire-roasted dinner as the sun set through the trees.
I lit a fire in our cute little pot-bellied stove and put sausages on to cook. They are the Hungarian sausages I told you about last time, flavored richly with garlic and paprika, salt and black pepper, and they were absolutely beautiful charred and smoky from the campfire.
Sue brought corn on the cob and first we cooked it in the husks, then set it right over the fire to get a wee bit charred. Pure bliss smeared with butter and dusted with salt.
We toasted Turkish bread and poured more wine and finally collapsed into our chairs in the last rays of the setting sun.
With a chink of wine glasses and hearty toasts we dug into our feast and rested our weary bones.
We visited amiably as the sun disappeared and the winds died down, sipped our wine, laughed at funny stories and thought how there aren’t many things better than good food with good friends on a gorgeous night in the country.
This week we’re back to bustling, working hard to finish last minute projects and arrange caretakers for the farm while we’re gone. Bear finished our 12th century bed, I completed my Bedouin garb save for the silk ribbon trim that just arrived in the mail this morning from England. We made linen sheets and pillowcases and hauled medieval gear in to get packed away in wooden boxes for the trip. Today I’m at last starting a medieval quilt for our bed. It’s a lot of work but so much fun. We’re both excited to get to camp and have a good ol’ visit with our friends.
What are you looking forward to this week? xo
