The Call of the Trees

I've been spending the last several days getting ready for a vacation to visit family in France, and in between buying coloring books for the airplane ride and weighing our suitcases to ensure the comply with the new low weight-limits, I read  fabulous book by Dorothy Maclean, one of the founders of Findhorn in Scotland. This book, Call of the Trees, is populated with her conversations with mature trees around the world and various tree devas, or angels. It's a beautiful book, with very nice photos of the trees and wonderful messages about how important the spiritual effect of trees is to the well-being of both this planet and the human race. The describe themselves as the "skin" of the planet. After reading the book I was inspired to make some new flower essences for Earth Lodge and combination remedies for stress, sleeplessness, and trauma.

This process has helped me enormously with my own stress and distress regarding Europe at this moment. I am a little worried about traveling with two small children on an airplane. I've never done that before! I know it will be OK, I have flown hundreds of times on my own, but I find flying as a family a bit daunting, especially in this day and age with so many security restrictions coupled with smaller seating arrangements. And, of course, there are the mobs in Philadelphia and London and Milwaukee. I find all three situations absolutely disgusting. I don't care what you think has been done to you -- this sort of reactionary behavior against innocent people is simply not OK.  *Sigh*

I seriously hope that this violence does not spread to any other cities this month. It's horrible. Not to mention - as all you conspiracy buffs out there know -- if riots happen more US cities FEMA and the President can disband congress and put the whole country under martial law for a minimum of 6 months. Oooh, wouldn't that be fun?? I guess I could stay in France. How awful would that be? Pastries and fine cheeses every day. Fine wines for just dollars. Family. Hmmmmm........

The Pergola Arrives

We put up a pergola this weekend -- we thought of it at 10am on Sunday, designed it and went to Home Depot by 11, and had it done by 3:30 -- just in time to go to the beach! This 2x6 anchors it to the house, and the two 2x4 posts are sunk into concrete pre-formed footings. It is incredibly strong and solid, yet easily taken down if ever needed.

While my husband worked on the top, I worked on the bottom -- digging and installing the concrete footers.

My husband drills better than any man I know ;)

It was exceptionally hot and sunny that afternoon -- here you can see we stayed very hydrated and sunscreened. We went through at least two pitchers of water boosted with himalyan salts and agave nectar.

All done! Jocelyn woke up just in time from her nap to see the finished product. Yes -- she slept through the drilling and sawing, just 10 feet from her bedroom (open) window).

Lucas admires our handiwork. "Can we go to the beach now??" YES!

(the beach was awesome)

The next day I painted a creamy yellow stain on the treated wood and hung up a mature concord grapevine I found by our driveway. Fed the vine with rooting hormone and fertilizer, hope it recovers from the move!

Love it! We've since added a couple chairs in the corner, perfect for sitting after dinner.

And here we rested in our teepee after all was said and done.

Pesto Presto

 My farm co-op said everyone is welcome to as much basil as they want this week. Ha ha ha! I jammed an entire huge bag full of it, packed down tight, and came home to make mountains of pesto. I made about 14 cups of the stuff, and froze it all in individual baggies for winter enjoyment. My recipe was simple: in a food processor I ground up 1 pound of walnuts, 5 bulbs of garlic, 10 garlic scapes, a ton of olive oil, salt, and of course batch after batch of basil with any woody stems removed. By the end of the half hour or so it took to make, I could literally feel basil essential oil coming out my pores. MMMmmm yummy! Then I mixed it all up in bowl together and put in small baggies to freeze. I didn't have cheese on hand, so will add the grated parmesean cheese fresh whenever we use the pesto... or not, as the recipe may call for.