bibliomania!

Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon is now, perhaps, my favorite of her novels due to its simultaneous accessibility and complexity. Morrison has crafted this novel with painstaking care, and yet, it does not feel over-worked. Everything seems to act on multiple levels: the names, the Biblical allusions, and even the ending of the novel which sparked debate at our book club discussion. Morrison tackles issues of race in America, with characters who are former black slaves and Native Americans; class and social status, especially when complicated with race; coming of age; gender; community; and family. And the fact that she so carefully and purposefully deals with these issues is one reason that the novel is accessible: the book seems to work for everyone on some level, even if read in a non-political light as the story of a young man's hero's journey into the abyss and redemption. I find that I would like to read this book again, perhaps in a class, and perhaps in conjunction with a study of the Song of Solomon and the Book of Ruth and certain other texts from the Bible.

John Connolly's fantastical narrative takes a young boy during WWII into parallel life and world. As I was reading this novel, the 9th grade lit. teacher in me kept thinking: Hero's Journey. That's what this is; the classic tale retold. The protagonist must go on a journey and fight literal demons and his own demons and flaws before he can return home, changed for the better and better prepared for the worst. Connolly seems to be quite intentionally using the structure of the hero's journey as a metaphor for life and mortality; as the character faces challenges and fights for things beyond his own wants and needs, he learns to forgive, to heal, to grow, and to accept death as a painful but natural part of life. This novel reminded me a bit of Neil Gaiman's Coraline and Pan's Labyrinth.

Another book that I've read recently was The Coming Home Cafe by Gayle Pearson. This is a sweet story that I would gladly give to young readers about the Great Depression and a girl with an adventurous and altruistic spirit who decides to jump on a train and live the life of a hobo, traveling from city to city across the country in search of work. One of my freshmen gave it to me, still feverish from how much she loved it, and as I read it, I rather wished I was young enough to be captured by its magic. Am I too old? Or was the fire just not in the writing? I am not sure. Perhaps this is why I recommend the book for young readers only.

Next up for book club: A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.

pollen

I have observed honeybees and a female hummingbird feeding off of my collard green flowers in my vegetable garden. I love how covered she is in yellow pollen. I wonder, if I let the collards go to seed, if they will reseed and sprout in random places. I have some random kale starts growing in my garden, and I've let some of them flower as well.

Honeycomb Frames on Etsy

Brian has an Etsy! He has designed and started to sell honeycomb hexagonal frames from reclaimed wood. One of my summer projects is to fill a set of six with photographs and paintings. Check out his Etsy! You can click on the link or search for honeycomb frames or restored wood.

Sunday morning

As I sat down to blog, I witnessed Elijah-kitty, aka slut kitty, get a nice ear rub from some passers-by. Then, a lovely little toddler toddled up my driveway, followed by one of my best friends, her toddler son, and her sister, come to visit the farm.

We fed the chickens seeds and both of the little ones were fearless about letting these dinosaur-esque creatures peck from their hands. Then, after a few minutes of chickens, the boy said, "Bees!" and they made their way over to the bee hive, opening the observation window and staring joyfully at the spider and ants living outside of the hive and the thousands of bees living inside.

As they got ready to leave, my friend said to her son, "Looks like everything's going well on the farm," and I had this moment where I saw my home from the vantage point of these children and remembered when I was a child, going to visit my uncle's dairy farm, chasing barn cats, searching for kittens, and gawking at the calves, and I felt as though my home, that Brian and I have created together, was providing some of that wonder and joy to these children. So I responded, with more meaning than they knew, "Yes, everything's going well on the farm. Thank you for visiting."

gardening notes

Last Sunday, May 15, despite drizzle and mud, I planted my garden, with more planning and more caution than last year when I believe I certainly had planted everything by early May and had absolutely no map or plan of where anything was going. This year, however, I mapped out where everything is going using a companion planting guide. The first box has kale, beets, and lettuce. the second, larger raised bed has (from left to right), a row of poona keera cucumber starts, green bush bean seeks, pencil pod golden wax bean seeds, hillbilly potato leaf heirloom tomatoes, carrot seeds, Ukranian purple plum heirloom tomatoes (of which I had one fatality and need to replant) and a row of Hungarian heart heirloom tomatoes mingling with lettuce. Salmon berries in the background are going crazy and will need to be pruned after their first fruiting. Strawberries are in flower at their skirts.

Above, I have artichoke, scallions, pea seeds, spinach, strawberries, and kale.

Here's my herb spiral. Sage, thyme, oregano, and mint are all thriving. In front of the sage is a small French tarragon start. My lemon verbena is slowly making a comeback (in container) after wintering in the basement. The tall flowers in the background are collard greens that I'm letting flower.

I also have a chamomile start going strong, from which I have already harvested these flowers.

In this bed with the overgrown collards, I have marigolds, shasta daisies, chives and leeks reappearing from last year, a row of chocolate bell peppers, a row of red habanero peppers, and another row of chocolate bell peppers. Then I want to plant another row of leeks for which I have started.

Paul Robeson tomatoes and thai hot peppers are in containers in the sun near the fence, and in the patch near the fence are the rest of my tomatoes: cherry, isis candy, black from tula, along with marigolds. Basil will be added to the tomato gardens. Lots of basil. Along the fence behind the tomatoes are climbing hidasta beans.

 My foxglove is blooming and front bed is dense with foxglove, lavender, thyme, daisies, buttercups, and other perennials.