The View From Here/Up For This Week

The View From Here

Things are in full swing of growth here. We have our first little pea on a pea plant! Here it is, on the right of the photo:

The flowers are so gorgeous also.

We're supposed to be getting the sun back later this week: had a little hint of it first thing this morning. It's funny for me to compare myself, here at the end of June, to how I was last year. Back then, still fresh from living in warm climates, by design, for many years, I was full of resentment that the best we could hope for in June was low-50's and maybe a few days in the 60's. I resented having to wear so many clothes all the time. I resented not being able to see the sun often. This time around, I'm much more accepting, accustomed to it (resigned?). If the plan is for us to live here for seven years, it's a far better prospect if I can feel good about it.

Here's a little herb composition: in the reused salad tray are my second planting of cilantro and basil (it's just too cold for basil here, though, even in the raised beds - I need to put them in small containers on a southfacing wall, I think). 

We had a great cilantro patch last year, though. But the feathery plant just beginning to flower at the bottom of the picture is a wild herb. Up here it's called pineapple weed or dogweed, and it's a wild chamomile - you can see how much it looks like chamomile! It's a very pernicious weed and we pull it out in quantities, but I'm wanting to allow a bunch to flower and then to harvest the flowers and use them like regular chamomile (according to local herbals, it has similar properties).

And up on the left are some raspberry leaves. Of course the berries are wonderful, but I harvest a lot of the leaves too, and dry them for the off-season. They make a wonderful tea for menstrual cramps that actually works. (I usually combine them with some licorice).

Up For This Week

I didn't post every day last week and I felt ok with that. Does it seem like a reasonable rhythm? I've decided that I'm going to quit making excuses and complaining about the fact that we don't have internet at home and how hard that makes everything, and seriously look into how I can change that situation. And until I can change it, I'm just going to accept that I'm not going to be able to get online every day. Or that sometimes, I'll get online with enough time to post a blog, or to comment on others' blogs, but not both.

To look forward to in here this week, though, as near as I can project, I have a book that I want to review, there's probably one more 'theme and variations' post to be made, and if I can pluck up the courage and find the right words to say it, I may also talk a bit at some point about my own relationship with food and body and how it's been changing and possibly improving recently. I've been loath to talk about it of late, but it's probably not a bad idea to acknowledge what is going on and invite the input of others too. Have a great week, everyone!