Gathering Nuts

There is row of black walnut trees surrounding the property where I live. Our parking lot out back is filled with smashed husks and skins that have fallen from the trees and been smashed by the cars coming in and out. However, our resident squirrels seem to truly appreciate the fact that the cars are opening the nuts up for them so they don't have so much work to do. As it is, they have been scurrying back and forth, up and down, collecting the nuts and storing them for the winter ahead. The daytime temperature outside may have been on the warm side lately ... like in the 70's for a week at a time ... but the squirrels obviously know something we don't. Personally, I'll take my cues from the squirrels rather than the weather folks every time.

While I don't collect nuts, I do take this time to start my annual cooking and freezing adventure. It starts with my going to the farmers market and the cider mill nearby and picking up several different kinds of squash, the last of the tomato crop, and the makings for stews and soups like carrots, celery, and onions. Then I spend a week or two cooking and freezing. Some squashes are mashed or roasted and freeze easily. The zucchini is cooked with onions and tomatoes for my mother's famous spaghetti topping and frozen in individual containers for several separate meals. One day will be devoted to all things soup and stew where the carrots, onions, celery and sometimes lentils come into play. Homemade vegetable soup, lentil stew and even a vegan chili all end up in containers in my freezer. Although I have a small freezer, I have learned how to pack a lot in it. If all else fails and I have gone overboard, I can always ask my dear daughter, she who owns a chest freezer, to rent some space. 

So what is it with our need to stock up for the winter? Are there no stores open out there anymore? Sure there are although recently we have been facing shortages on certain supplies due to the pandemic and a shortage of workers and ingredients, but storing for the winter has been something we humans have been doing since humans started walking upright. We took our cues from the animals, like the squirrels, and put food away to keep us fed over the winter. Even though I don't really have to perform this ritual every year, it is something I look forward to. I love hunting through the piles of produce in the market, enjoying the colors and the smells, and finding just the right squash or shiny apple. I love how my home smells when all the cooking is going on. I usually put on some nice, autumn-type music and light candles. Mostly, there is something therapeutic in the chopping and stirring that makes me feel self-sufficient and safe. What can I say? The squirrels and I are having a wonderful time!

And so it is. 

Make Me One With Everything

I'm sure you've all heard that joke about the Dalai Lama and the hot dog vendor where the Dalai Lama tells the man "make me one with everything." That's what meditation does for me. It makes me one with everything, and there is no better place to allow that into your life than outside in nature. In nature we are, truly, one with everything.

I didn't start meditating seriously until I was in my 50's after a brief acquaintance with it back in the 70's when everyone else was doing it. When I took up yoga for my health, meditation just seemed to follow along naturally and it has been my constant companion ever since. When I've "fallen off the wagon," so to speak, and not set my intention to practice every day, my life doesn't feel quite the same. I can set the tone for my entire day by starting it with quiet, breathing, and listening. Nowhere does this pay off more than doing it in nature, either outside if possible, or at least in front of a window where you can bathe in the sounds of the morning starting to stir, and the air kissing your face. My favorite morning music comes from the blue jays calling to one another, the crows cawing as they cross the sky, and even on a rainy day like this one is today, the sound of the raindrops on the window. The air smells fresh and clean, and it cleans my soul as well. Meditation and nature go together and make the entire experience more beautiful.

For those of you who swear you can't meditate, take 10 minutes early one morning before the noise and traffic of the day begins and just sit .... and breathe ... and listen ... and smile. If you can do that, you're meditating. There are as many ways to mediate as there are people who do it. So why not join the morning chorus and greet the day with bliss?

And so it is. 

The First Leaves of Autumn

One morning last week I was sitting in my usual spot, my desk that sits in front of the big window and overlooks the street and the hills beyond. Lately I've been immersed in working on a new book (my first real novel that I'm actually going to publish), when a movement from the corner of my eye caught my attention. I looked up bleary-eyed from the screen and saw a perfect, beautiful, gold and orange leaf float gracefully past my window on the morning breeze. It was then that I actually took the time to look up and out into the distance to see that, indeed, the colors of fall had arrived in my neighborhood!

I can't imagine that I let myself get so caught up in my work that I was missing what was going on right in front of my nose. Me? The frustrated gardener/nature girl? What was even more ironic was the fact that my novel takes place in the fall, and I had gone to great lengths to describe the colors, the scents, and the scenery ,,, in the book! While I was writing about it, I was missing it, until Mother Nature sent that little colorful messenger floating past my window to remind me to "look up and see what you're missing."

With all that has gone on and is still going on, we should not become so caught up in fear and worry that we forget to avail ourselves of Mother Nature's natural medicine for uplifting our spirits and feeding our souls, namely nature itself. Especially at this time of year, the colors of autumn can nourish and invigorate our lives so that we can move forward. Call it Mother Nature's sensory shot of Vitamin D! It's free, it's readily available, there are no shortages, and you can take it with you wherever you go. I'd like to see Amazon match that!

And so it is.

The Gift Of A Foggy Morning

I live in a valley three blocks from a branch of the Chenango River in Upstate New York. Once August has made its final exit, the early mornings always start with a thick blanket of fog. Before all of the cars and buses head out for the day, the morning is filled with a silence that seems much heavier than before. The fog muffles the sounds and distorts it so that, without being able to see anything but only hear, we could be in some strange, distant land for all we know. Of course it speaks to the child in me that still loves a good fantasy.

The other morning I was sitting at my desk quite early trying to see my beloved hills in the distance when I heard the sounds of two blue jays calling to one another. Because of the fog, the calls weren't as sharp and distinctive as they would be a few hours later when it all cleared out. They sounded like they were searching for each other, each one lost and alone looking for comfort. It reminded me of what we humans can be like when we let someone or something distort what we see and hear. The news, the politicians, and all of the constant barrage of negative talking blankets our senses so that everything we see and hear is distorted by fear and anxiety. 

It occurred to me that morning that, once the fog was blown away by the morning breeze and melted by the appearance of the rising sun, those two blue jays would be just fine. Maybe we should take a lesson from them, and from old Mother Nature, by blowing away the fog of negativity and fear, and letting the light of the rising sun every morning burn off any doubts we may have that we will be able to find our way, to each other and to happy, productive, and positive lives. Perhaps the fog in our lives is as easy to burn off as turning off the TV and internet, and joining the blue jays outside in the light of a new day. After all, the birds know a heck of a lot more than we do. They should, they've been here longer. Food for thought, folks!

And so it is. 

An Apple A Day

 

One of the things I love most about September, besides cooler mornings, the sight of school buses going up and down the block, and that first hint of color on the leaves, is the official start of apple season. Apples are a big deal around here. I live within driving distance of two big apple farms that let us go and pick our own apples out in the glorious countryside. I am also located about an hour south of the home of those delicious Cortland apples. And, as I have shared here before, I am only a few blocks from our local claim to apple fame, the Cider Mill, which not only sells cider, apples, donuts, and everything apple, but lets you see for yourself how the cider and the donuts are made ... and, of course, there are baskets and baskets of every kind of apple you can think of. Yep, you could say that we're the apple capital of New York!

What is it about apples that brings a smile to most faces? I can remember being a kid, opening my lunch box at school and being delighted to see a nice, shiny apple waiting for me along with my sandwich. I have wonderful memories of apple picking, apple festivals, and spending a whole day with family members making applesauce. When I am in the presence of apples, my whole self smiles inside and out.

I have to wonder if maybe there was a reason that, as a child, the story of Adam and Eve always showed the forbidden fruit being an apple? Or if there was some nobler reason why Johnny Appleseed went across the country planting apple trees? One thing is for sure and that is that apples loom large in American culture. I don't know if we have an official national fruit the same way we have a national bird, but if we decide to "pick" one, I vote for the apple hands down. Nothing says love like an slice of warm apple pie and a glass of milk!

And so it is. 

Happy Laborless Day!

Happy Laborless Day! Nope, that isn't a typo. The whole idea behind the creation of Labor Day was to give the poor working stiff a day of rest at a time when people were working 12-16 hours a day, sometimes 6 or 7 days a week, and there were no child labor laws. Finally, after years of struggle, protest, and the creation of labor unions, a day was officially set aside for the average working person to rest. So what do we do with this holiday besides have one last cook-out and eat hamburgers? If you're a gardener, you work.

I can remember when I had a big garden to tend and was still working a regular job. I would covet this day as time I could put in cleaning up the things that had already had their glory and were starting to die back, pruning and checking those things that were still blooming, and harvesting the gold of my garden, my veggies. Red, White, and Blue in my garden translated into tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplant (okay, purple is as close to blue as I could get).  It was my way of celebrating all of the hard work I had put in starting in March with the cleanup from the winter and preparing the beds for planting, all the way to being able to pluck a ripe cherry tomato from the bush and pop it in my mouth. Yum! 

Today, with only a tiny table-top garden to tend to, I continue the tradition by harvesting my herbs to dry, pruning back the flowering plants like my begonias and geraniums, and pulling out my little autumn garden decorations to keep the gnomes and the fairies company. I even have a scarecrow hanging nearby, not to scare away any crows, but to keep a certain curious cat from checking things out up there.

Later on today I will be going to my daughter's house for the last cook-out of the season and, joyfully, also to help my great-grandson celebrate his 8th birthday which just happened to fall on Labor Day this year, a double reason to celebrate: the birth of a very special boy, and the feeling of accomplishment of a job well-done. May your Labor Day be as joyous and bountiful.

And so it is. 

Nature's Agenda

I read something quite disturbing the other day in an article about self-love. It said that our economic systems are driving something they called "body terrorism," the idea that we are not only less than perfect, but totally unacceptable, that we hate our bodies, our hair, our clothes, and everything about ourselves. Of course, "they" have the answer if we're willing to spend the money. Self-hatred is big business. Self-love isn't.

Where did we come by this awful idea? Certainly not from the natural world around us and that, as I always say, is the problem. We have become so separated from the world of nature that we have lost its positive influence on our lives. Nature has so much to teach us. Some would say that everyone has their own agenda. Well, I've been thinking about that and it would seem that Nature's agenda is the one we should be adopting. Here is what I've discovered:

• Nobody and nothing in Nature is jealous of anything or anyone else. A pine tree isn't jealous of a maple tree. It doesn't wish it had such beautiful autumn colors and sweet green buds in the spring. A dandelion isn't jealous of a rose and wish it wasn't discriminated against, being called a weed instead of just a plant. That's man's doing. Nature loves dandelions.
• An elephant isn't any better or more valuable or better looking than a monkey, a dog better than a cat, or any animal better or more acceptable than another. Each is perfect as it is.
• There is no greed in nature. There is enough for everyone. 
• There is no hate in nature. 
• Life and death isn't decided by who is considered more worthy or better than another. We are born, we live, we die, and a new life comes to continue the cycle. This is true for every plant, every tree, and every animal. 
• The seasons follow, one after the other, just as the sun rises and sets every day. As far as I can see, that's the only agenda that Mother Nature sticks to.

If a toad can accept himself just as he is, and a pine tree as it is, and a dandelion, who do you think is living a life free of self-hate and enjoying each day as the gift that it is? My money is on the toad.

And so it is.