if you visit me, I'll take you here

This weekend, we walked along cliff edges, stood on mountain tops, and washed our feet in the ocean.

We examined small wonders, such as dew drops that held worlds of mystery. 

We feasted our senses upon the wild flowers.

In Oregon, so many flowers that are cultivated for the cottage flower garden grow wild, including irises, columbine, lupine, foxglove, bleeding hearts, sunflowers, and orchids.

We wallowed for hours in sunsets.

We climbed a mysterious moutain...

...that cleared for one wonderful day to reveal vistas of more mountains, including Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood (pictured below), and Mt. Jefferson and the great Columbia River emptying into the Pacific Ocean.

And we discovered wildlife, including raccoons, bald eagles, seals, deer...

...and the life of tide pools, such as starfish and sea urchins.

growing roots

Today, like many days, I thought about my family and how much I miss them. I've encountered people who assume, because I live on the opposite side of the country, that I have a poor relationship with them. That I moved far away from them. That moving far away from them was the point. But it wasn't the point at all.

And today, I thought about how, when posed the question, "Do you see yourself staying in Portland?" my answer is often ambivalent: I love Portland, but it's so far away from my family, as though hinting that eventually, one day, I'll succumb to my wish to be near them. I wish, instead, that I could convince them to move out here.

I don't feel like the strange bird in the family, but I'm the only one who studied abroad (London) or lived with a former boyfriend in Italy for two months. I'm the only one who's lived in more than three states: Pennsylvania, California, New York, Arizona, and Oregon (in that order). Yet, it seems like it's just coincidence that it was me and not them. I view my family members as fiercely independent and bold, but perhaps, it just took me a little longer to grow roots. My sister Emily has traveled oceans that I'll never fully understand, more in terms of realizing that she deserves love and respect and demanding it from those around her. My sister Alicia's confidence and simultaneous humility and contagious sense of humor always astounds me. And my parents: well, I look at how amazing my sisters are and I have my moments, too, and my parents deserve most of the credit, really. They raised me to follow my wanderlust and they encouraged me to be myself and travel and learn and love. So it's their fault that I live so far away (haha! Just kidding, Mom!). And what a dream life! How lucky are we! Are we real? A happy family. If I have children, may I be as good of a parent as my own were.

Yet, I moved far away. And I didn't garden for many years. When I was young, gardens were places of magic. The setting for fairy tales. The homes of nymphs and dryads. The wonder of twilight. The world of the imagination opening on a rose petal.  And then, I got older and the dew drop on the rose petal grew, became a whole globe to dance across, to explore. And now, like so many others of my age, there's this settling down. This need to grow roots. Literally and figuratively. What does my garden say about me that I don't quite grasp? Perhaps a need to recreate that dream world. And quite likely, my garden is, in a sense, about homesickness and the need to recreate home.

So I create a home and I grow roots. My fingers dig deep into the earth, and like a benediction, the earth returns blessings upon me. And Portland, so far from home, becomes home, nestled amongst the fierce and beautiful Cascades and only a short drive from the Pacific. What more did I dream of, staring out my bedroom window as a youth, than a magical garden near snow-capped mountains and a stormy, gray sea? And a gray striped cat. And a kindred spirit to share it all with. If only Mom, Dad, and my lovely sisters would join me.

more about bees and blossoms

My bees are doing well, despite all the rain. No signs of mites, and they're population is up, up, up. The first half of the hive is full, extremely, blindingly full of bees. The worker bee above has full pollen baskets, taking advantage of today's sunshine to gather.

The bumblebees, as I've said before, LOVE LOVE LOVE the comfry.

Notice the full pollen baskets on the hind legs.

"an edible gardening primer"

I finished reading Grow Great Grub: Organic Food for Small Spaces by Gayla Trail. The title is a bit misleading, because really, this book is for anyone. It's about growing great grub, period, whether your space is small or large. I got the book from the local library, but I'm tempted to run to Powells and buy myself a copy to use as a reference. My copy of her first book, You Grow Girl, is dog-eared from all the times I've checked on it. That's because both of her books are filled with recipes (such as one for Dark Opal basil jelly), creative projects (like sewing yourself a gardening apron), and gardening ideas, tips, photos, and words of encouragement such as:

"I'm not going to lie to you. There is a heck of a lot to learn when it comes to growing a food garden. But you don't need to know everything now in order to begin. You'll learn over time through doing, succeeding, and yes, even failing. To become a food gardener, you need only a little direction and a plant or two to begin with. Expanding from there, your experience and confidence will grow along with your garden. And most important, remember this: without a doubt, you will make mistakes. All gardeners do from time to time, even the experienced ones. Grant yourself permission to learn through messing up, and before you know it, you'll find yourself with bowls of strawberries, bundles of fresh herbs, the perfect tomato sandwich, and your own fantasy food garden." (7)

These words hearten me when my bean and zucchini seeds don't sprout (are they getting eaten or rotting in the soggy, soggy ground?) or my best tomato plant gets demolished by a chicken because I foolishly had it out in the open. It reminds me to look at my ripening strawberries, my tall garlic, the flower buds on my peas, the increased population of my bees, and my many other garden wonders.

One more thing about Grow Great Grub: not only is she a gardening goddess, she also produces the entire book almost entirely by herself (and I believe with the help of her mister), including words, photos, and layout.

In other lit. news, I read with the American lit. juniors The Great Gatsby and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (fun book to teach). I also read The Bean Trees, and a book on butterfly gardening. I've also dipped into scads of books, short stories, poems, and graded hundreds of papers (sweet, sweet summer vacation=bliss of reading whatever I want and no grading!).

This was Saturday. Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah (loud angelic chorus of thanksgiving!). Please note, it was followed on Sunday with torrential rain showers and the thought that I might need a canoe or kayak in order to get home from work.

Here's a shot of the garden with comfry gone wild on the left, but I don't have the heart to chop it yet because the bumble bees love it. In the front are various greens, including spinach and kale. Beyond that, I've attempted to plant beans, but either they're rotting from all the rain or something is eating the shoots. Beyond that are peppers, tomatoes, marigolds, lettuce, and peas (on the right). Beyond that, salmon berries, garlic, strawberries.

I used up all of my compost on Saturday and started a new batch. I also planted the area in along the fence to the left of the chicken coop with more peas, beans, spinach, zucchini, carrots, and sunflowers. A few days before that, during a break from the rain (but not the clouds), I worked on my herb spiral. It now has peppermint, oregano, thyme, echinacea, calendula, chinese hyssop, sage, and german chamomile. It doesn't look like much yet, but it will! And the tasty, delicious spices for dinners and teas it will provide me...Mmmm!

(My camera lens is scratched or something. I need to start saving for a new one.)

The ladies are almost full grown. Here's my americauna. She loves to perch on anything and is always the first to jump up on containers and fences.

The one on the left is a speckled sussex, and she's developing these awesome teal feathers. The one on the right is a plymouth barred rock. Her feathers are striped black and white. My girl Cass is going to help me make earrings from their feathers.