Oh, what a nice time of the year for the garden! Captions below pictures.
Garlic. Beautiful, succulent garlic. Not all of it came out great, but there will be enough.
Hops helping make the privacy fence more private.
The garden in August.
Basil. Beautiful basil. Stay away frost!!!
Life needs more tiger lilies. I want to plant them everywhere!!
This new plant has me captivated. I am in love with borage. Germinating from a seed pollinated by one of my bees last year, it has sprouted from the soil with zeal. Elongated fuzzy light green leaves are the indicator of a successful borage germination. I learned this year that borage does not take well to transplanting. However, a few of my transplants pulled it together and survived. (I am not careful or gentle when I transplant. This is a real test of the plant when I dig it up and move it. Be tough and survive or you don't get to go to as many new places!).
The flowers emerge in a lovey pink which transitions to the prettiest sky blue seen on earth. Stars of blue decorate the tall hairy leafy flower stalk, blue targets for incoming pollinators. I stand and look at it all. The large section of borage, black eyed Susans, and vetch. There are hummingbirds, bees, and bumble bees visiting. The patch is alive with movement. It is an awesome sight. I could stand there for hours!
Mom sent me a great article today. Click HERE to read it. Beekeeping is really much more than about the bees!! I took a quick overnight trip to Freedom last night and paused for a moment next to this beautiful bee plant garden. I realize it is important to stop and look often. Try to make an effort to do this. When you are feeling a good vibe going during the day, stop, pause, and take a deep breath in. Figure out where that good vibe is coming from and then do more of that thing!!
Good vibe picture here. For me and the bees!!
I hope the title of this blog made you laugh and not blush or frown! Seriously, bailing grass hay is horrible. The long cylindrical dry stems of grass pack together into a bale that explodes if any one thing goes wrong. Oh, we babied that field of grass hay. Folks, this stuff should cost thousands of dollars per ton. Mike walked alongside, up and down each row of raked fluffy grass, watching the bales as they spewed out the chute. He was walking because the four wheeler had run out of gas. Walking in his not-so-good-for-a-grass-field Clogs, he paced back and forth, making adjustments when necessary, throwing up his hands (quite dramatically) when I needed to stop, and pulling out the exploded bale of hay so we could start the entire maddening process over again. By the time we were getting to the end, the Hay Boss was leaning over holding himself up, hands atop knees, head hanging down. He was over it. It was clear.
This is a picture of me as the Hay Boss adjusted the length of the bales. Are the bales too long or are they too short? This answer is still unknown!! Ugh.
A pretty imaged shared by our recent guests enjoying a family reunion at our place. It's nice to share the house with others. Besides keeping it really clean, people get to enjoy the place we are so lucky to have; the quiet (when the Hay Boss turns off the water pump, that is....), the hummingbirds (there are zillions this year!), the open air walk down the lane (oh, the value of open spaces on the human soul!), and the cool mountain evenings. Thanks for the picture, Darin!
It happens every year. It's so predictable, I can look ahead and predict things will not be sane until October. The insanity will go on this summer and be heightened by the drought, whose magnitude increases with every dreadfully hot and dry day. The soil has turned to dust.
We are happy to get as much water on the fields as we have been able to. The creek is running dry, however. Second crop still looks good and is growing fast. I expect early flowers due to the heat and the drought. Third week of August. That's what I predict for second cutting time......
It's lily blooming time. Tall tiger lily buds fatten every day. Red lilies delight and white lilies brown in the heat.
Despite the ominous threat of storms all around us, Mike and I got the first half of our hay crop put up and under cover without nary a drop of rain hitting the coveted crop. Hay is hard to get this year. Our first cutting, half of which is still standing, is sold out. The drought has pushed hay prices way higher than the Hay Boss is willing to charge. Our customers are getting a deal this year.
The equipment is working well too, I have to say. Last year, on day one, I almost walked off the job AND divorced my husband!! It was a horrible day with equipment breaking, hay bales bunching up, etc etc. Things went much better this year. The addition of a backup camera on the baler was a HUGE addition; one can monitor how things are going back there closely, preventing messes from happening early.
Look closely at the bottom of this picture and you will see the Hay Boss loading an eight pack of hay onto a trailer. Beautiful night in Star Valley.
Here, the smiling "hired" hand. With good luck (which we certainly had for the first half of the crop), the hired hand will continue being happy!!
We have an orchard now!! Twelve beautiful fruit trees are now planted at Mike's Circle Drive place. Caged to protect from any browsing wildlife, they are watered daily and all look very good. Apples, pears, plums and a self-pollinating cherry accent the alfalfa and weed mix. There is a lot of work to be done on this property!
Meanwhile, in the garden, garlic scapes and more garlic scapes!! With 300 cloves of garlic growing, I knew there would be lots of scapes!! I see pesto in our future!
Predictions of 90 plus degree weather this week and continuing dryness. We hope our ditch keeps bringing the precious water.
The daffodils have set seed now in the garden. The tulips as well. Purple balls of alliums stick up above the drying early flowers, the bees happily help with pollination. And the iris. The fickle flowers, lovely with their bib-like lapels, their colored beards, and uplifting petals. I do not believe the flower lasts much more than a day.
You just have to love the iris. It's tuber sits close to the surface of the ground it is planted upon. Hard clay, rocky assortment, loose loam - it does not seem to care. It's tough tuber makes it through our hard winters with days and days of below-zero temperatures. It tolerates a quick transplant from a gardener with too many things to do, too little time, and limited care on the outcome. Iris continues to show me how tough a plant it is.
Today, I looked out my window at the office and saw this yellow beauty. Making a note; I will move this iris to a more secure place come fall!!
We have a week of above normal temperatures in Wyoming. The crepe paper orange poppies are about to burst forth out of their spiny round containers. I love how this flower pops out, opening in its crinkled manner, leave fragile, purple pollen resplendent. The bees come willingly as the petals fall, the pollen dries, and the woody fanciful seed pod stands proud and tall in the garden, fancying a baby's toy shaker, filled with seeds to trickle out of the clever holes the flower has left in the pod. My my. Nature is a miracle maker!!
Take a minute. Pause. Notice the wonder of this blooming place around us.
PS Dear Friend Joe L: I know you will read this, Oh Faithful Blog Follower!! I regret we have not caught up with each other. Hope you are well and staying cool for this hot, crazy summer!
I needed a winter project last winter. Of course, I wanted to make another barn quilt. The problem with making one is that you really need to have a barn in mind to put it on when you are done.
And so the process began.
There is a lovely old barn - circa 1945 - in the east side of Jackson sitting within a park set aside by the Town for the enjoyment of many. The west face of the barn was identified as the spot for a barn quilt. I approached the local Jackson Hole Quilt Guild to see if they might be interested in funding this effort.
After much to-do (what a bunch of snippy, penny-counting hags!), it was decided to move forward. Lots of people donated money. More money than will be needed, I am certain. This is a whole story of its own and shameful enough that I shall not print it!
So, I started painting. Mike put it together despite how painful it is on his knees and back. He suffered, trust me.
Yesterday was the big day to hang. All went well, thanks to the help of Henry and Luca from the Walton Ranch, Jerry with the lift, Mike Bressler who swung by just at the right time to lend a hand, and a few others.
Addie says, "it looks like jewelry on the barn!" Great description!!
(This is an piece I will submit to someone, sometime when it is finished. For now, edits and comments are welcome. Today is World Bee Day. I am delighted I am a beekeeper!)
I Am A Beekeeper
Most peoples’ identity evolves and changes throughout their
life. Somehow the idea of raising bees
trickles into the back of your consciousness and the next thing you know, you
are pouring over “Beekeeping for Dummies”, thinking, I need to do this.
Before I jumped into the endeavor, however, I assigned my
husband, Mike, the task of reading the entire book, realizing this effort would
be a team effort. There were many
confounding things in this book; diseases, predators, mold, colony collapse and
other unsettling enigmas. I would need help on this project. He read the entire book. I ordered my first bees.
Mike and I are firefighters.
When we met, I watched his volunteer effort at the fire department and
declared I too wanted to be a firefighter.
There is a thing in the fire department about getting bees. “What?
You’re getting bees? Getting
close to retirement then?” And so it
seems to go. We fire folks are attracted
to bee keeping. We like fear and we
understand fire. These two components
serve one well in bee keeping. And yes,
I am getting close to retirement, close to celebrating my twenty year career in
the fire service. Soon there will be
plenty of time to tend my bees.
Those first bees arrived on a warm, sunny Mother’s Day. I took significance from their delivery on
this day, realizing that my “mothering” would be directly related to their
success here in the high Wyoming mountains.
Mike and I loaded the plugged entrance hole cardboard box in the back of
the open pickup truck, secured it in place, and drove to the hive’s
location. With a smoking smoker,
completely suited up, and filled with trepidation, we opened the cardboard lid. The sound of a zillion angry bees filled the
air. This was the moment when every
strand of DNA in my body screamed, “Drop the box! Run for your life!!” I took a deep breath, applied more smoke from
the smoker, and in a short time, the bees had a new home. A bright orange box with their frames moved
inside. Looking back, this may be one of
the easiest starts to a new hobby. At
the time, it was truly terrifying.
In preparation for this new thing in my life, I sought out
the advice of my local Ear, Nose, Throat doctor to see if he could detect any
allergies to bees. “Ah,” he guffawed,
“don’t worry about it! You’re an
EMT! Carry and EpiPen and if you have
any problems, we’ll treat them here!”
This did not quell my anxiety of the inevitable bee sting. It would take over a year to know if I would
react. Full suited in a bee suit,
wearing leather gloves, I was impenetrable.
Looking back, this was a great way to build confidence as the bees and I
became acquainted. I learned the sound
of happy bees and the sound of angry bees.
I watched them flying and learned what it felt like to be hit in the
veil by an angry bee. Finally, one warm summer afternoon, I pulled the gloves
off and got stung. It was a
non-event. No reaction. Hearing that bee stings boost one’s immune
system, I now give a little thanks to my dying friend after getting stung. She was just doing her job in trying to
protect the hive. I admire this kind of
selfless dedication.
For the first year of this endeavor, I could not say “I am a
Beekeeper”. I would say, “I have
bees”. This was a statement of truth and
did not change until a great deal of book reading, class taking, and studying
occurred. There is much to learn about
bees. A recent writing about bees
bragged, “there has been more written about honey bees than any other insect.”
It is impossible to assess how many backyard beekeepers
there are in the United States. Unlike
commercial beekeepers, a hobbyist is not required to register their hives. Definitions of a hobbyist beekeeper range
from one who has five to 25 hives. Many
state statutes define the number of hives to be considered commercial. As an agricultural product, commercial
beekeepers may reap an agricultural tax advantage.
The pandemic hit too late for most budding wanna-be
beekeepers last spring. By the time we
were all locked down, bee packages were delivered or enroute to be delivered,
spoken for since the beginning of the year.
Bees are delivered in either packages or nucs. Packages have several pounds of bees with a
caged queen hung in the center of the package, screened on the sides with a
wooden frame for support. These bees
arrive hungry and ready to start work.
The second delivery, a nuc or nucleus colony, is made in a small
cardboard box holding frames with bees, the Queen, and brood – eggs and larvae
to hatch. Unlike sourdough bread and
gardening, most aspiring beekeepers could only read and dream about
beekeeping. Prices for this year’s bees
increased significantly, probably a reflection of supply and demand.
Beekeeping is a perfect way to find one’s Flow. The author, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in his
book “Flow” speaks to the importance in a human being’s life to find Flow. It’s that place where you are doing something
and not thinking of anything else but what you are doing. Flow is critical to good mental health. Working with bees, you will think of nothing
else but the bees. It is not uncommon to
think of your bees often, even when not working them. There is a connection built between the bees
and the beekeeper. The beekeeper feels
very responsible for the colonies, their well-being, and ability to withstand
the many things out to get them. For
those lucky enough to have bees during the pandemic, many report the need to
spend time with their bees, to relieve stress, and to get away from the
craziness of 2020 deep within their hives.
Losing a colony of bees is an emotional and financial
loss. Bees, like any other “animal”,
have numerous threats to their survival.
A long, northern US winter is one such threat. Bees do not hibernate for the winter, like,
for example, a grizzly bear. The colony
of bees get very close together and shiver to stay warm. The eat the honey they have stored and what
is left for them. Take away too much
honey and your colony will not have the ability to shiver the long, dark winter
hours away. They will die. This
event is a very distressing event.
Especially for the beekeeper.
The varroa mite, a parasitic creature that literally sucks
the fat out of a bee, is another threat to the humble bee. Even with a small mite count in a colony, the
mites break down the strength of the group.
When a mite attaches to a bee and begins sucking away, the mite also
introduces disease. Understanding mites,
their life cycle, their impact on a colony, and how to destroy these carnivores
without killing the sacred bee is an important study for the beekeeper.
And then there are the nasty spores of Paenibacillus and Melissococcus
plutnius bacterium. Just their names
turns an average beekeeper’s face two shades of white. Commonly referred to as American and European
foulbrood respectively, the bacteria turn healthy glistening white larvae into
a mass of goo. European Foulbrood can be
detrimental; however, American foulbrood creates spores making the introduction
of these spores into a hive a catastrophic event. Everything associated with that hive –
including tools and potentially gear – must be burned to kill the spores of the
insidious, highly contagious and lethal spore-forming bacteria. All it takes is one bee drifting around to bring
the lethal disease to a hive. In urban
areas where hives are sprouting up like restaurants are shutting down, one
infected hive could spell contamination and destruction for many in the
infected colony’s range. A bee can
forage over 8,000 acres. Imagine that
hive on a map and draw a circle two miles out and around.
Foulbrood almost stopped me in my tracks. Fortunately, both American and European
foulbrood are relatively rare. The
beekeeper should always be on the lookout and be aware, however, these bacteria
are no reason to not take up beekeeping.
Recently enrolled in an online beekeeping class, I asked the
instructors what are the most important thing a new beekeeper should know. The first instructor said a beekeeper must
know how to light a smoker and keep it lit.
Mike and I fished the Jackson Lake Ice Off Derby together - for the very first time!! The day was 75% lovely; warm and calm. A storm came through in the afternoon with gray skies, some gusty winds, sleet, and then a long rain.
We fished down south and seeing the very few boats around us and the few fishing on the fish finder, we realized we were in the wrong place. Oh well. The big fish got caught up north. Winning fish was 19 pounds and won the boat $3000 in prize money! This derby is big-time now with a purse of prize money at $18,000!!
Ask Mike about the nice fish I caught......
Here are some pictures of the day.
It's nice to have a winter project and a large space to be able to make it happen. This is barn quilt #3! The name of the quilt pattern is Jackson Hole Star. The colors represent the sky, the snow, the green conifer trees, and the red paintbrush flower. There is a gal building a fabric quilt out of this pattern too.
The place is the old May Barn which sits in a park preserved by the county. Set aside for gardens in the summer, cross country skiing in the winter, and a really great open space for a walk with the dog any time of the year, the barn on the property is the visual relief to the otherwise flat landscape. I had hoped to display on the east face (first photo), but clearly, the west face is the only good spot. Anyone want to bet whether there is 11.5 feet under the window and above the door? If not, it will have to be mounted square instead of on-the-point.
I had the pleasure to visit Mom last month in southern Illinois. I was there from April 9- 15 and it was full-on spring! Green lawns, yellow forsythias, and white blooming pear trees everywhere! It was magnificent!
Joined Mom at the Health Center on the treadmill a couple of times and had a hard time keeping up with her! She is in amazing shape!! Mom was recognized the following week as Volunteer of the Year there at the hospital where she is often first to say, "I can do that!" You can read more about her giving spirit at MOM IS AN AWESOME VOLUNTEER Sister Sandy and husband Mark made the long journey down from Michigan to join in for the celebration! Happy 80th birthday, Mom, even though we are a bit late!!
Our spring in Wyoming has been painfully slow to come! The dandelions around Hoback just started blooming and have yet to bloom in Freedom. Last week, Mom announced she had five buds on her peonies plant. Here is what the old peonie patch in Freedom looks like this week. Come-on warm temperatures!!
What would you do if you had an acre of farm land? Medium quality soil that drains quickly. No water on the land.
Mike and I were able to add to the value of the Circle Drive property and by the .94 acres to the south, preserving it from development. At least for now! The land is old farm land and we are musing on what to do with the acre of property? Community Garden? I love the idea, but with all the large lots in this subdivision, I don't think there is much demand. Acre of sunflowers? Wouldn't that be cool? What do you do with all those stalks at the end of the year? Plant pollinator plants and see who wins - the pollinator plants or the weeds? Fruit trees?
As you ponder this question, we live in Zone 4, trending toward Zone 3. Tough place to grow tomatoes!!
Have an idea? Send me your thoughts. Here is a very out of date map of where the house sits and the land we have added.
One of my fire department peers, Jim Tucker, taught me how to replace a window. This has been a very exciting thing to know as so many of our windows are failing. The seal breaks and things go bad. I like a clean, clear window. This weekend's project - replace the skanky garage window.
The view from the inside, looking out. Artistic, in it's own unique way!
Spring is here and we beekeepers are busy. Time to check hives and see how they wintered. Happily, all of mine lived. I have one colony that is a bit weak, but I'm giving them high odds for regrouping. The battle between winter and spring is wearing us all out. Snow again today. Good grief. No dandelions blooming yet. All hives are equipped with lots of sugar to help them hold on until spring finally wins!
Here is a fun slow-motion video of some winning survivors! Way to go, Girls!
As I continue to learn more, my bees have a better chance of surviving our long Wyoming winters. Without doubt, this is the biggest challenge here in keeping bees.
Here is something so cool! Bees remember faces. I hope they like me when they see me!
Be well, be happy, be a beekeeper!!! Why not?!
And while we are on the topic, just found this CRAZY article......read this and think a bit....
Dear Food & Wine Magazine: Last weekend, my husband and I entertained for the first time in over a year. Neighbors from across the road joined us around our big hickory table to share in conversation, food, wine, and card playing.
At this time in the season, the sun has begun its northward trek and the light streaming in the windows is different than it has been all winter. Noticeably different. As I pulled bread out of the oven, glanced over at the table to see what else needed to be done, and squinted my eyes to the sun's glare at the kitchen sink, I was compelled to capture these images of the evening preparation and offerings.
We have a lovely hickory table. It is round and about one foot too wide for card playing, but it is a beauty. Anchored with a solid square rough hickory base, the round table has the character that makes using a table cloth impossible. I wipe it down, checking to insure the knots have not collected any crumbs or foreign matter. It is piece of art and should not be covered any more than is necessary.
Fresh flowers are a constant on this table when I entertain. The beauty of fresh flowers accentuates an evening and a meal. Flowers become a center piece of beauty and pique the visual appetite. Beautiful yellow lilies with pink centers filled a one gallon clear glass container, rounded with dark pink alstroemerias and accentuated with a drooping dried sunflower, dried grasses, and long snips of red rose bush stems, the latter of which were found after a stroll around our muddy snow-melting spring yard.
My husband always pulls the night's bottles of wine out of storage before a dinner party. He had not forgotten this tradition, wine bottles lined up next to the appetizers. A chunk of garlicy salami. Warm herbed brie cheese. Crackers I had made during the week using extra sour dough starter. Comb and buckwheat honey to sample side by side. Dinner is often not necessary after gorging on the irresistible appetizers.
Meanwhile in the kitchen, the hot oven, steaming from the vents, was transforming three loaves of sour dough into crispy-covered, open-crumb baguettes. Atop the stovetop, the lasagna rested, flavors merging together. Layers of homemade kale noodles separated sausage, ricotta cheese, and spinach, topped with halved cherry tomatoes and rounds of sliced fresh mozzarella cheese. A final broiling of the top created poignant smells of broiled tomatoes and cheese, treats for the nose and promise of what goodness was to come.
Thanks to our local greenhouse, plates of fresh, crunchy lettuce salad had been arranged atop a thin slice of red onion, halved cherry tomatoes, thin slices of yellow pepper, sliced cucumbers and topped with lovely leaves of fresh sorrel greens waited in holding on a shelf in the refrigerator. A blue cheese dressing would top this crispy, fresh starter plate. Many of my recipes are created when an ingredient is forgotten from the grocery store run. Challenged with having no buttermilk, I winged it and threw together a winning mix of blue cheese, mayonnaise, lemon juice, and dill.
Earlier in the day, another experiment was conducted in the creation of the meal's dessert. A dessert ranks right next to a flower center piece for value. A dessert should be visually beautiful as well as delicious. Created in a Nordic ware Bundt pan, I played with a rum cake recipe, replacing the water with lime juice and grating the zest of a lime into the cake ingredients. The cake baked and came out of the buttered bunt pan perfectly. As it cooled, I made up the butter rum topping, pouring the butter bliss over the cake where it collected on the bottom and in the center, the ooey gooey mixture soaking into the cake's mass. Then, I stirred up a hibiscus lime frosting to highlight the cake's beauty created by the Nordic Bundt pan. When finished, it was difficult to decide which was more beautiful or which smelled better - the arrangement of sweet smelling lilies or the aromatic rum cake, laced with pink hibiscus frosting. The cake won, as it could be eaten, scoring a visual and taste award!
The wine flowed, the meal was consumed, cards were dealt, stories were told, and the abundant night came to a close just before midnight. It felt good to be together again, to see new things, to eat new food, and taste food combinations, to play together, to win to loose, to laugh and remember so many of life's real pleasures. Pleasures shared with friends. It is good to be back together again.
I-Forgot-Ingredients: Blue Cheese Dressing
Big chunk of crumbled blue cheese or gorgonzola cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 teaspoon dill
Combine ingredients, adjust for desired thickness. Dollop on top of fresh greens.
Making sourdough bread is not a fast thing. One measures the flours, heats the water, mixes them together and then let's the wheat soak up the moisture and chemical reactions to begin. This site from King Author - really the King of bread making - tells all about this technique. What the Heck is Autolayse? I have yet to hone in on how long I let my flour sit. I need to make a better effort here.
While this is happening, salt and sourdough starter are measured out. I use a kitchen scale and I weigh in grams. The bread made last nigh and pictured below gets 40 grams of salt for 1000 g flour mix. I add a big gooey 500 grams of starter to this 4 loaf recipe. The water added above measures 1500 grams.
After the initial autolayse phase (hah! That rhymes!), the salt, starter and other ingredients are added in and mixed by hand. The loaf below got 4 bunches of scallions chopped up, 2 cups of cheddar cheese, and 8-10 garlic cloves, thinly sliced. Mixing is the fun part. And then the dough, once mixed, is folded. Up and over, around and around. I do this a couple of times and then cover the giant blob of dough with a plastic cover.
The living thing sits overnight. In the morning, it has risen an impressive two-fold. Bubbles are scattered about. When they burst, the mass moves like it's alive. Well, it is! The giant blob is gently moved from the bowl to my work surface where I divide it into four, round the loaves, and set them in a Banneton Bowl cover with a wet cloth covering, and stuff them in the fridg for another long ferment. Overnight, all afternoon....kind of depends on the day!
Having my sense of smell back is extremely enjoyable while baking bread! This loaf smells of hot scallions, poignant garlic and baked bread. Cut into the hot loaf and enjoy the flavors which are a perfect match for the sourdough flavor.
Thanks to the suggestion of dear friend Addie Hare, I bought a pasta roller attachment for my Kitchen Aid. Stand back! Homemade kale noodles now fill my lasagna and whole wheat crackers have been added to the que for the Slow Foods product list! One of their customers recently asked them if they knew of any other place in town that sold these crackers!! A fan is born!! I make them plain, with flax seeds, herbs de Provence, rosemary/gourmet pepper, and black and white sesame seeds. Brushes with a light coat of oil, sprinkled with a few grains of Maldon salt, they are wonderful on an appetizer plate!
I don't think I'll have any problem keeping busy when I retire!
Spring has arrived in the west. One day warm, blue sky and muddy. The next - snowing, frozen ground and bone chilling cold. It's a hard time mentally too. Like the weather, it is hard to go from the extreme of ecstatic excitement and exclamation to gray sky doldrums. Up and down; one's emotions tend to follow the weather far too closely this time of the year. Add continued isolation to the scenario and watch the suicide rates rise. We see it happen every year in this valley and so far, this year is no different than others.
Mike is back from his Rochester NY visit. He needed to go back. It was a good visit. Janet, his mom, continues to struggle with health challenges. There seems to be no way to talk to her and this is so frustrating for everyone. We hope she will get "dialed in" to her phone soon.
A beautiful shower door got hung this weekend! After we finished, Mike told me the instructions begin with 'be sure to have a licensed professional hang these doors'!! The glass panels were really heavy. The instructions were not well written. But nothing got broken and the door functions properly. It's a lovely thing!!! The new renters moved in yesterday!! Welcome HOME!!
Here is some very impressive yard art! I discovered these side by side flowers - fireweed - along a road in a high-end part of our valley. This is a beautiful rendition of a fireweed. Unusual, yes, but I appreciated the artist's ability to replicate the giant metal flower - probably 15' tall - in color and form perfectly! They are one of the first flowers to come in after a fire, hence, their name sake!
We have been spared the blizzard the east side of Wyoming is enduring right now. There is blue sky and 47 degree temperature outside right now. The snow is melting and the mud is getting deep! The dogs and I went for a walk in Freedom. Here are some pictures from that pretty day.
I am reading some of Victor Frankl's lectures he gave after he was released from the prison camps. Much pondering on the "Meaning of Life" in these lectures. He provides some very good logic of why we must die and how our certain death gives us meaning. Otherwise what point would there be to anything? I have learned so much from his writing!
As Mike's mom struggles with so many health issues now, it is easy, in the quiet moments of being alone, to ponder life's meaning. Watching young people proclaim their struggles on Facebook, wishing they would spend some time learning from Frankl as well.
Isn't it just this simple? You have the choice to make your life whatever you want it to be. Make it happy and glorious and supreme because with life, there is always something to celebrate. Or get down and grovel in being miserable. Many make this choice. Sometimes it is easy to get sucked down there as things get hard and complicated and challenging. But I tell you - there will always be something good, wonderful, and miraculous going on for you to find.
Enough of this serious stuff. I am off to make more Kraut!! Find the Wonder of Life!!
