Snow at night!

The Fairy house seemed pretty protected in the snow!


We made some snow angels and sled down the hill. I tried to get out of sledding because I was going out with a friend and didn't want to get my pants wet; Lily was totally appalled.

"What? You won't sled because of pants?!"

So, I was shamed into doing a few runs and, of course, they were fun.


The snow was sticky and held to the tree branches, completely transforming the world.




















I drove to Shelburne Falls slowly in the snow and ice to see Princess Mononoke

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkWWWKKA8jY

with my friend at Pothole Pictures. The streets were gorgeous with light and snow; I felt like I drove right into Bedford Falls from It's A Wonderful Life.

















The movie was amazing, so many fantastic visual images. I was transfixed.
Then we went to my friend's pad for a fairy cake!
And a visit with a big black purring cat.

By the time I drove home at 11:00 the stars were out and the storm was over.

Happy Birthday

To Me!



I turned 39 this week. A Barred Owl on my neglected upstair's altar caught my eye when I was thinking about aging and another birthday.

The quote at the bottom says,

"Be who you really are
and go all the way."

Lao Tzu

It struck me as a good blessing for the year.


Lily made me a card that made my heart sing.
She drew in the whole paper meticulously with blue marker and the note is:
"Dear mama love u
You best Mama in the Milky Way"
She told me she didn't know how to spell "universe"



Rob and I went out to dinner at the cozy Gill Tavern and went for a freezing walk on NMH campus. Their cathedral was lit up and when we walked closer we heard the voices of students singing Vivaldi's Gloria.
Astoundingly lovely.

The large moon was rising above the dark hills and then overhead.

My mother came to babysitt and officially gave me my angel locket. It is charging up with good energy on my Reiki grid, more beautiful than I remember when I first met one like it, years ago.











My mother also gave me a copy of The Red Tent, a book I adore.

I had called her a few days prior and she told me she had to run because Anita Diamant was coming to the bookstore where she works.

I said, "Oh I love her! The Red Tent is such a magical powerful book. I think about it all the time when I'm at work; how different and similar it is birthing babies is from in ancient times. When people ask, "Well, what used to happen in the old days?" I use that book as a window into what it might have been like. That book created a history for me. That book is a really big deal!"

My mother went to the store and introduced Anita sharing that she had talked to me and that I used that book to inform my work with birthing women; that the book had given me a story.....Then at the signing she had Anita sign a book for me.

with Blessings.

It felt very powerful when my mother gave it to me.
A gift, a blessing;
Permission to:

"Be who you really are
and go all the way."

Lao Tzu

Here's to a wonderful year!

YOGA !

Whent to a party at Kellys yoga stotyo.
Brot Hosafeana or Josafeana.
We ate all this....
cupcakes cracers with diping brownys.
postid by lily.

Treasures

Lily made me a special crow out of clay at her art class.
She placed it in a nest and decorated it with scraps of fabric.

She even stuck a feather in the tail.

So beautiful!
I put on my altar.

















Then I noticed Lily's treasures collected on the mantle.

(Wrapped inside the blue checked handkerchief; inside my mother's silver baby cup, I discovered a 6 month old chicken egg from the retreat farm...we're doomed if it breaks, like in Charlotte's Web when Templeton's hoarded egg gets broken and everyone gags and scatters. She really wanted it to hatch)

I was struck by the gorgeous chaos of her things in the afternoon light.




I was also struck by my pull between cleaning up and throwing out verses collecting and letting things be....

Order seems so appealing. As Georgia gets older and I have a tad more time; I find that my urge is to spend it cleaning, organizing and tossing.

Not sure if this is:
good and useful after years of barely keeping up with things

or
erecting walls of control against a messy, creative present life.


I think that's part of what I loved about having a new baby. There was no choice but to be really really present in the day to day, moment to moment physicality of things. It was such a pure transcendent time. When I look back on it with my girls it still glows with peaceful focus because I had to give up control of everything. (And I didn't have to go to work for months at a time. Ahhhhhh.

Now I want to make lists and file things and clean mold off of things.
I'm hoping to create systems to deal with the dull stuff so I can enjoy the whirling chaos of life more and do more writing and maybe even read a book and take walks! (AKKK it sounds so indulgent and impossible!)
So, I'm working on a new shopping list, on-line money management system and a cleaning system that might involve my friend's friend who cleans houses for a living. Hmmmm
We'll see where it heads.

The last of Picadilly farm this year

Here's Picadilly Farm's pick-up spot last week in the dark at 5pm.
That was the last pick-up of the season.
It wad odd not to go tonight. We're used to the routine.
Now we have a few weeks to catch up on all the gorgeous squash we have lingering around the mud room

Herkimer Diamonds

I finally cleansed them yesterday. I always think this sort of thing will be a fun kid activity, instead, there is chaos and the sound of small things falling to the ground. So I snuck off on my own, and with just a few interruptions, I cleansed the stones and charged them with Reiki energy for peaceful sweet dreams.
Next is to stuff and sew the pillows.
When I first thought handmade gifts would be a fun inexpensive alternative this holiday season I forgot I would actually have to sit down and make them.
Things are moving along, though.
I think I'll bring my labels to the print shop (Staples, really) this week.

Puppies puppies

We went to visit Liza's golden retriever puppies this weekend and holy crap they were cute.


Rob is allergic so I knew we could never bring one home, but the girls forgot we were just visiting, and fell deeply in love. By the end of the hour each had settled down with one that they really wanted.

I had to force them to come home with me. Lily tried to stay glued to Liza's porch in protest; the runt held tightly in her arms.

That night she cried at bedtime because she missed her puppy.

Uggh; broke my heart.
I think it was worth it for them just to experience darling goofy puppy exuberance, but not sure it was worth the despair when we left.

I told Lily someday, maybe in a year or so, we'll be bringing a different puppy home.