Take Joy - Take Peace - Happy Tasha Tudor Day!

Today, August 28, 2011, is Tasha Tudor Day! In honor of the birthday of the beloved illustrator and author, Tasha Tudor. Please take a moment today, to join us in remembering Tasha's beautiful and authentic ways of living. We will be posting pictures and snippets of the ways we incorporate her beautiful ideas into our daily life, and will be having a special Tea today, as well. Check back for pictures, recipes, ideas and thoughts. And as Tasha would have said, "Take Joy!!!".

High Feline Tea, Butter, Goddesses and the Divine Feminine

King Ulysses says 'hello!' (: He has been partial to taking naps next to Raggedy Anne this winter. Too adorable. He is the Romeo of the barn around here lately. (And if you look closely, you can see that Amanda has adorned him with her 'royal' locket as well).

Last year, at this time, we were successfully harvesting maple sap for syrup. This year, winter still has us firmly in his icy grips. So, while the snow still flies, I am catching up. Both in my home and on the computer. Here are some photos of what we have been doing for the past two months around the farm and in my 'Happy Peasant' world. Enjoy!

Building 'Snow Goats' (Nubian, of course!)

Tea Parties With the Cats! (and for the cats, as well)

Smartie is dressed in a fine frock for tea,

and Abbey, our resident barn calico, gets spoiled with high feline tea!!!

~Making Butter from Organic Milk!~

So fresh and so fun.

Nothing like making your own food AND knowing where it came from.

Transferring honey from one jar to the next, some with comb, some without, some with herbs in them...




























Plum Cordial, made in the late autumn...being finished off during this hunger moon.

It is spectacular mixed with sparkling Pellegrino water from Italy.




























Homemade Valentines. Always...always homemade.

We have a huge 'Valentine' box that is crammed full of floral papers, lace, trims, glitter, old Victorian cat calendars and ephemera for making homemade Valentines. It is a must in our family to 'make' your Valentine.













































I have been relentlessly pursuing some artistic butterflies that I cannot scatter from the creative center of my mind. My Create 365 stares me in the face daily. I know, full well. that creating meals, love and a clean home all count, but this does not deter me from feeling a pang of sadness that I cannot create a new sketch or painting each day. However, I have continued to paint and am working on some very inspiring artwork in regards to the mythic goddess, the goddess as art, the goddess as feminine, and the stories surrounding all her many existences. I've also been reading and studying about the divine feminine and all the writings, stories, songs surrounding it. There is much more to tell here, but with a huge project on the horizon incorporating all these goddess/feminine creations, I will leave it to your imaginations until the project has reached fruition.

And, while all these little daily joys go on, I am noticing that the sun is up longer and the days seem to be filled with more light. The mist in the morning accompanies the spring song of resident birds, snow or not...and the maple sap will most assuredly flow in the days to come.

The seasons tilt forward, creaking one into the next. It seems the older I get the faster time goes, and also the faster winter goes. Funny, I always expected to dislike winter as I became older, but it is becoming quite the opposite. A secret wisdom to share with you: Winter is a luxury of such rest and quiet, I would love to have two more months of the 'time' that it affords (minus the snow), if you catch my drift (no pun intended for all of my Michigan readers).

Ah the drifts and the glitter of 20 degree snow under moonlight.

Enjoy this last bit of winter before the busy season arrives.

Soon we will have baby goats and chicks and lambs (and some piglets are on the horizon too!).

Soap making must resume quickly, barns must be readied, seeds and supplies need ordering. But, let me sneak just one more tiny afternoon with a stack of books, a warm wool blanket and a pot of Darjeeling, dear Winter? Thank you ever so much.

O Christmas Tree

Today is the day we go and cut our Christmas tree. We visit a tree farm about 25 minutes west of here and ride a horse driven wagon out to the fields. There, we run amok like children (with our children) among the trees to find the 'perfect' one. "Be careful", we remind each other, "they look smaller out here!" Our son helps his dad saw the tree and we drag it back to the horse and wagon and ride back to pay. Once the tree is safely attached to the car top, we have Christmas cookies and tea or cocoa and head home.

Our tree of choice is usually a Concolar Fir. Beautiful soft needles that are still strong enough to hold up ornaments, the tree has a lovely orange-y pine scent for the holidays and loses less needles than any fresh tree we've ever owned.

Whatever tree you put in your home, tiny, big, old, new, fresh or not...may you enjoy your tree day when it arrives.

Three Unlikely Friends

Yesterday afternoon the weather was perfect. So I put my pet Starling, Widget, out on his little hook (in his cage) on the back porch, to soak up some sun. Along came Mr. Daddy Cardinal and visited with Widget from the back of our lawn chairs, chip chip chipping to Widget. And, as if that weren't enough for an afternoon bird tea party...along came Miss Ruby Throated Hummingbird to sip some nectar alongside her colorful (and verbal) friends. I didn't catch a photo to share, but wanted to let you know that birds don't necessarily have to be 'of a feather' to flock together.