Transitions

It has been rather blustery here on HeartSong Farm lately.  The transition between summer and autumn, and then autumn to winter has been unusual everywhere in the United States, and East Texas has been no different.  The dry hot summer lasted a bit longer than what the calendar told us was fall, and then winter got here sooner than December 21.  We had our first hard frost on November 13th preceded by some really good hard rains.  This combination of events seems to have blessed this area with an unusually colorful fall landscape.  Along the highways, byways, and streets of my town there were significantly more reds, oranges and yellows mixed in with the more prevalent evergreens of the Piney Woods area of Texas.

East TX fall foliage

The cold snaps have come one right after another until I have lost count.  Most of those came with rain, lots of it, causing all of us around here to remark, "Oh, why couldn't we have had some of this rain during the summer when we really needed it?!"  I have had to scramble to construct portable greenhouses for my winter vegetable garden, buy winter hay for the llamas, and keep the bird feeders full....all before I was prepared to do so.  This transition was a bit too abrupt for me.  It seems my favorite time of year had been squeezed tightly between summer and winter, wham! bam!, with little time to adjust between hot and cold.  This is not easy on my aging bones and joints!

Oak leaves beginning to turn

Even so, I enjoy watching the transitions from one season into another...just one of the many circles of life and the cosmos.  When it is cold and frosty, I look out the back porch windows to see steam rising from the backs of the llamas as the sun rises.  Their escaping breath, warm and moist, makes me think of dragons breathing smoke.  The flurry of activity at the bird feeders on cold days is nonstop.  There are cardinals, juncos, wrens, goldfinches, purple finches, chickadees, titmice, chipping sparrows, cardinals and pine siskin, all puffed up,coming and going on the feeders and suet basket. Watching the antics outside my dining room window, it occurs to me how similar to humans these feathered creatures can sometimes be:  some play nice, some don't. On the ground below all the commotion are a dozen tiny Inca doves, the kind my Daddy called "chi-chis," politely and methodically pecking at the seeds that have fallen from the feeders.

Bayley staying warm in the sun

Bayley, my very old Pembroke corgi (he is 13 years plus), is spending most of his days and nights curled up in his warm comfy house by the back door, coming out only when the sun is high and the concrete of the back porch has gotten warm. Inside, my three cats (Jessie, Axl, and Godfrey) take turns sitting in or near the dining room windows to observe the busy puffed up birds at the feeders, or else curled up in a favorite spot, most likely dreaming of catching those same birds.  I suspect this because I see them licking their lips and twitching their whiskers in their sleep!

This week my winter garden greens were ready to begin harvesting and enjoying with roasted sweet potatoes and acorn squash from the produce stand.  I have never had a winter garden before, and so there was a transition in my raised beds from summer veggies to those of winter.

End of the summer garden

Mustard, beets, and turnips in my first winter garden

Not only did this promise to supply me with some delicious fresh produce during the colder months, it also gave me a chance to try my hand at building some small, portable hoop houses out of PVC pipes and 6 mil plastic sheeting before diving into the construction of a walk-in sized greenhouse next spring.  I am gradually practicing and preparing, you see, for my retirement in 2016 (31 more months!) when I will be able, at last, to begin living my lifelong dream of being as self sufficient and self reliant as possible within my physical boundaries.  Baby steps, baby steps.....

About a week before that first cold snap in early November, I spent a week in an unusual fog of sorts. I felt very quiet inside and out, slightly sad, and I seemed to be moving and thinking in slow motion in my workplace and at home on the farm. At first I thought it was the impending holiday season since I have a history of being depressed during that time in varying degrees, but I was actually quite calm and rather peaceful.  By Wednesday, I realized that what I felt was akin to being in a walking meditation.  I could think of no better way to describe this strangeness that had come over me.

I had also been sleeping better than I had in recent months, and when I woke up Saturday morning on the sixth day of this phenomenon, the odd feelings were gone, and I "knew" what had taken place.  My gut was telling me that I had gone through some form of Transition, and although I was not sure exactly how, my life had changed and, now 64 years old and heading into my "crone years," everything was going to be alright for me.  I felt comforted and joyful even with the cold and drizzling rain outside my windows, and with this realization the fog was lifted.

Life is good on HeartSong Farm!