Every seed must die before it grows.

A pretty good summary of everything.

I've completely lost track of time and dates. I can guess at times pretty well by the location of the sun in the sky and how hungry I am. And I know when it's a weekday and when it's a weekend judging by what work I do, who 's around the community, and what dinner is like. But other than that I have pretty much no internal calendar or clock. And I love it.

Last weekend I had my first trip to Pittsburgh for confirmation weekend. The "motherhouse" aka- main hub of our community is in Pittsburgh. It was started there and thrives there. It was incredible to finally meet all of the people that I've heard so much about. And it was definitely awesome to be able to experience the feelings that come with being in such a powerful place as that is. It was a 11 hour drive each way. The first 5 hours leaving Vermont was maybe one of the most beautiful car rides I've ever been on. It felt like we were driving in circles because we were weaving our way along rivers and through mountains and tiny towns. But somehow, we ended up in upstate New York after all.

The gardens are coming along beautifully. There are 4 of us that really dedicate a lot of our time out there, and it seems like we're all starting to be on the same page. It's hard when the 3 other people involved don't live here on the property and are rarely all together working at the same time. Needless to say, everyone has their own ideas of what should get done and where things should go. By tomorrow, all of the lettuce, kale, spinach, carrots, tomatoes, eggplants, onions (and probably a handful of other things I'm forgetting) will be in the ground and look awesome. Tomorrow is the first farmers market of the summer and I can't wait to run around and see what it's like. I'm positive it'll be totally different than the ones I've been to in Boston. The greenhouse is over flowing. I spent many hours out there the other night trying to organize like things with like things and even after all those hours, it's still a flowering, overgrown maze. But we did learn that we are doubling the size of the greenhouse before next growing season.

The job at Yestermorrow is pretty much the same every time I go. I'm too shy to really stop and get to know any of the interns or teachers that I see regularly, so I'll shyly say hi and sneak around with a vacuum. Today Eurosia (who is the head chef there, who comes to the community here for church and to cook) offered me work in the kitchen as well. It's hard to say whether or not I should take the hours because I want to work as much as I can with Faustina doing gardening. Speaking of which, I finally worked a few days last week in the gardens with her and Brian. I can't imagine a more beautiful place to be gardening. One location was on a rocky cliff overlooking a waterfall. Not bad.

And finally, Micah is here! Josh and I took a road trip down to the border of NH and got him off the bus yesterday. Last night we walked down to the swimming hole here and picked asparagus from the gardens to eat for dinner. It was amazing. He's only been here for a day and I already feel like we've gone on a lot of adventures. And... he brought the X-files

Hanging out with the kids in the garden really never gets old. And neither does driving them around in the back of my truck.

Most of these sold for mother's day! I painted a bunch of pots and repotted some of our flowers
Every wednesday afternoon/evening we have a work night here. This is what it usually looks like:
Dymphna and Alex working.......

Aiden and Toby working.......

And Graham actually working.

I finally had time to make myself some herbal rinse for my hair. The whole house smelled like rosemary for hours.

Dymphna weeding the asparagus.

The back side of Yestermorrow.

This is the treehouse that was built by a treehouse design class. It is behind the school in the woods. People usually go up there to meditate and eat.

Josh and I went swining a lot last week. He likes to sit on my lap.

Across the street.

Crab apple tree at one of the gardens.

This is Faustina! In a garden in Warren.

A swimming hole at the base of the garden we were working at.

Alex making her farmous apple pies for friday night take out.

Josh at the river by the house.

Micah and I went on t walk.

The swimming hole down the river from here.

Madeline on her porch last night.

For it is in giving that we recieve

The absolute end of winter.

I haven't come close to posting anything for a week, but I have a good excuse... I've had nothing to post about! Last weekend I went to Boston to finish up a few things at my old apartment and spend a very small amount of much needed time with Micah. I drove back to Vermont at 7:30 in the morning on Tuesday and went straight to work at Yestermorrow. I knew something wasn't quite right while I was there, but it wasn't until I got lost on the back roads home (I tried a different route...) that I knew I was definitely coming down with something. So, I needn't say any more than: for the past 8 days, I have been sick. First with a flu, then to the hospital with a kidney infection, now with migraines... it seems never ending. But I was put on some pretty heavy duty medicine to knock the infection out of my body. Thankfully, it's doing a great job.

My drive from work to home on Tuesday was foggy, literally and mentally. The clouds settled in a pretty amazing way over the mountains, I'd never seen it like that before. I ended up going "over the mountain" to a town which I thought wasn't too far from home, but ended up being 40 minutes away. Oops. I guess I couldn't have picked a better week to be sick. It was cold, it was rainy, it was even snowy. I doubted everyone saying "Don't be surprised if we get more snow before spring really hits!" But they have lived here for many springs and I have lived here for none. Never doubt the locals. Though none of it stuck, we were all pretty upset about it. I managed to get out of the house a couple of times, once to run errands with Alex in Burlington. And once to see Matt, my old roommate from Boston who coincidentally moved to Burlington one week after I did.

I feel almost as though the past week didn't exist. For the most part I feel like I was floating a few days behind my body. Yesterday was the first day that I was woken up with the sun and knew immediately that I was getting better. I spent the morning yesterday around the community with Josh. Then around lunch Alex, Toby and I brought Josh into Burlington for the day. I've never had full responsibility of a child that age, especially in a city environment. But it was fun. Alex and Toby went off on their own for the most part, so Josh and I mostly hung out outside with his stroller and the sun. Today I spent the entire day in the greenhouse and garden with the exception of a short bike ride after lunch. We got a lot done, and it feels so good. It's been a very hard week with too much time to myself to think about things, but I'm realizing that I'm growing just as quickly as the plants around me.

Heaven's reaching down onto the hills.

Yes, it snowed. Yes, it was terrible.


Matt and I had amazing green tea at Dobra Tea. If you're ever in Burlington, go there.

Dobra Tea

The kids are selling rocks now. They actually made $22 dollars, but mysteriously all of the rocks are still there!


Rose and Steve in the Kitchen.

Meet Ben (front) and Dan (back). I think they're gonna get me into some trouble this summer.

All of my plants are growing quickly and very happily. Thank God there's someone to care for them if I can't.

Some of the hanging baskets that Nicholas and I made today. There are about 30 for sale now.

Alex and I decided to buy Josh a bed as a surprise for Madeline (his mum.) You should know he did sleep comfortable before on a mat when he outgrew his crib, but he kept rolling off into the walls. I've never seen a cuter site than a 2 year old in his miniature bedroom in a miniature bed... asleep.

The back porch never gets old.

Alex and I took Josh on a walk across the street.

It is hard to give justice to a hard days work, and hard to see in this picture... but...today we planted 3 full rows of parsley, 3 rows of broccoli, and 2 rows of spinach!

My project for part of the day was making hanging baskets to sell with petunias.

If you look really closely (click the picture to zoom in) you can see a coyote. My first sighting so far! It was really big and fluffy, I thought maybe it was a wolf but there was no pack so assumed otherwise.

Getting taller and fuller.

Aiden building the roof on the garden stand!