Yesterday my body felt too sore and stiff to push any yoga-related edges. I took the day off and further took my time getting to the point of taking time outdoors. When I did get as far as planting columbine seeds I worked with Mama's close attendance. She startled some when I produced the rattle and commenced shaking it but ultimately held her ground there on the ledge where the rattle rests in this picture. I pressed seeds of the two columbine varieties featured as a visual lede in yesterday's post into the chilly soil. The predicted n'oreaster is being successively downgraded. Had hoped for 3-4 inches of snow but now they're saying just a dusting. That's why I reserved half the seeds in each packet. Have strong and seemingly good ideas of where I might plant those in another three and a half weeks. I have viable delphiunium seeds in a box in the dining room closet. I'm thinking of starting them in a whiskey barrel in the field. See what might emerge successfully enough to transplant into pots until they're sturdy enough to plant-out with next year's garden in mind.
wellness check of the day: Make sure you aren't adopting habits of shallow breathing patterns. Take slow steady breaths in. Hold for release and then exhale slowly. Shut your eyes and breathe for five minutes - preferably standing in soft morning sunlight and just before twilight descends in the evening.
J. fixed-up a hybrid wheelbarrow from various parts of two useless versions. We now have two that function just at the time of year we need wheelbarrows most. It was the first day I successfully nudged myself to get back to reading something I'm glad to be absorbing first thing in the morning. Am beginning with a re-read of a book I loved the first time through:
It should be said that I met and briefly knew Jay Leutze in the mid-90's by way of a writing class at the Boston adult education center. He was head and shoulders talented above and beyond anyone else in the room including the instructor. We sat next to each other and at a certain point after he'd revealed he was working on a fictional trilogy I could not control the NEED to ask if I might read the fair copy (such things still existed then ...) of the first volume.
It was brilliant and as recently as last year I recalled a particular running theme without being able to place the book it came from for upwards of a week. Shortly after I read that novel he moved Back Home to the mountain that features as a main character in the book above. In addition to about a dozen books that are new to me I'd also set aside a small pile of re-reads last fall for my 2020 reading goals. For a small window of time back in January I felt this particular book might not be a good fit since there really aren't any more safety nets left to allow environmental Davids to trounce industrial Goliaths.
but this is an excellent record of the time Before. In time people will need to study this kind of thing as a way of figuring out how to bring more balance back to the land/people dichotomy.
(also I have never forgotten the way Jay could read a sentence or two of somebody else's draft aloud and if it was yours you'd sit there thinking. "Wow. My words can SOUND like that.")