Winds of Change

As I sit on my bed, Winter Chill Wood Chuck cider by my lap, I listen to the sweet notes of Lonesome River Band and the soft, steady fall of the rain. The last gasp of winter seems to be hovering just on the horizon, a chill coursing down from the mountains into the lows of the valley. They are not the long winds of change a-blowing. My workplace environment is becoming very hostile and I have started look for a new place of employment. I've put in a few applications but it is very frustrating. I try to concentrate on things other than the stress the needful change creates in me. Things like being grateful for the rain, no matter how cold it is because it means more flowers in the coming weeks. The delicious dinner in my belly, the cold cider on my lips slowly easing away the aches and trials of the work day. The promise of Friday so near and a week's good pay. The sweet smile of a handsome young man, the laughter of my family downstairs as the storm rolls slowly in. My cat, Durellen, who curls up on my bed, purring so deep and so steady.

Oh yes, I am blessed. No need to tell me that my troubles are small, few and far between.

This change will come and bring with it new challenges and new pleasures. Spring has given me many gifts in her infancy, maybe Summer will be just as kind.

Every day above ground is a good day, for we are grateful for the time we have been given.

Plans and Petals

I found these lovely yellow dandelions on my journey out to the park behind Four Corners here in Rockford, Tennessee.  


I cannot tell you, my beloved readers what it means to me for spring to be here. Winter is a needful time but it is a hard time on both the body and the spirit. However, Spring always returns and this year was no different.

The flowers are blooming, the ground softens and the Clan makes ready for honey bees, garden expansion and other home related projects as the weather improves. Many plans are in the works for this year of 2015, which already feels short.






Both Seamus and I are working on novels, this will be my first were it is his fourth. Colin readies himself for a large project at Intelikenetics and Ang works through a new prescription of medication.
Rhi looks toward boot camp as she contemplates her career in the Navy and Keiran struggles with the growing pains familiar to everyone who was ever 16.

Briar Rose will be three years old this year and I start contemplating preschool, toddler beds, doctor's appointments, and we continue doing GREAT with potty training.

My girl is really eager to master her hygiene skills. I couldn't be more proud of my little Rose.

Happy Sunday to all. :D

She came back!

Spring came back to me. At last, my heart can rest because my beloved is here.

Crocus flowers are often said to be the first sign that Spring is here. These lovelies appeared on the first warm, sunny day we had. I had to take a picture of them; it had been so long since I had seen anything green much less purple. It's a relief. Winter serves his purpose and gives way to the maiden, who sings so sweetly in the voices of birds and the humming of honeybees.

I have nothing really to report and I wish I could be more industrious. The Clan is well, money is in, food is plentiful and Glen Campbell plays softly "Gentle on my mind" on my laptop. I promised I would stay up long enough to see all the Clan come safely home and so I will. I will entertain myself with an episode of House of Cards( just one....Gods above and below...I cannot stay up too late. I have been awake since 5:30am Friday morning.)




*yawns* Oh Gods, let me make it to midnight.  Merry evening all. Enjoy these blooms and know I hope that your own gardens will be bursting with flowers and fruit, veggies and virtues. I will report more on Sunday.

Thank you, Little Seed Farm

This week the Heart of Home blog has the pleasure to highlight Little Seed Farm out of  Lebanon, Tennessee. Established in 2012, James and Eileen are making big contributions to sustainable agriculture here in Tennessee. Their small batch approach to organic skincare products have made a name for themselves.

I found these mini bars, 2.4 oz, at Kroger on 9501 South Northshore Drive, Knoxville, TN 37922. The red labeled box is "Rose" and the green labeled box is "Rosemary-Mint". I paid $3.98 for each and let me tell you what, they smell absolutely wonderful. These soaps are crafted with exquisite card using milk produced by the goats down on Little Seed Farm. One of the things I that drew my eye to the soaps were the sketches of each of the dairy goats that comprise Jame and Eileen's herd. These soaps contain organic oils, sustainable produced goat milk, NON GMO components, humanely produced and made here in the USA. On top of smelling fantastic and having a lovely texture on the skin, I am pleased to know I am giving my family an ethical and safe product.

The larger bars come in 4.75oz and Kroger was offering them for $5.98 two days ago when I visited. Little Seed Farm also offers products for babies, including booty balm for chapped baby buns. As a mother it is a true pleasure seeing products that are specifically created for children, like my daughter Briar Rose.

Please click the link above to check out Little Seed Farm. The farm also offers tours and classes; I am considering trucking down there with a portion of the Clan for the next soap making class. Other scents in the soap collection include lavender, cocoa spice, milk, kefir & clay and orange vetiver. A special and heart felt thank you to James and Eileen for bringing their products to the table of the green movement here in Tennessee. For my family, I can say we are looking forward to seeing more of Little Seed Farm in the years to come. Good luck and gods bless.

Honey bees, flowers, trees, gentle rain and home again.

The nucs are on order and the hives are painted, a bright and cherry blue that reminds me of Cookie Monster, fuzzy and covered in crumbs. The cold has broken but there is still a week until Spring and I won't set to seed before I am sure we are clear of a frost threat. My first flowers have bloomed, strange deep purple blossoms with bright yellow-orange pollen. The snow has melted and it its wake, days in the 60s and rain every day. Lovely, gentle sweet rain that makes dark auburn mud and puts smiles on the faces of everyone with a green thumb. The trees are starting to look alive again, budding blood red berries and leaving the pavement looking as if it has been showered in tiny rubies. Another long week of house cleaning is under my belt and now the weekend is mine. Well, maybe it is more honest to say I belong to the weekend. With the Clansmen gone for the weekend, I step firmly into my role as matron, taking charge of the guardianship, protection, law and entertainment of the Clan. What this means is tomorrow I get to get them all in the car, drive to the Y for our exercise hour and then take them all out of pizza to celebrate Pi Day. Would that all people had a Clan, so that they could treat them in turn. Tonight I pass out a cider ration for everyone but the smallest girl child, two at the tender age of two is snug in her bed by 8:30pm with her stuffed shark and a quilt shaped like a giant teddy bear, made by her Grandmother. I sip my Smith & Forge and listen to the gentle rain, let the cider tickle down my throat as if down my weary bones, soothing them.

Home. This is where I want to be. I never say "One day when I don't have to work anymore, I'll stay at home." Mostly because there will never be one day, for the rest of my life, where work will not be an important and needful responsibility of mine. It will also be a circumstance of pure joy, for one day I will work upon the homestead and the only home I will clean is my own. I will milk goats, tend hives, weed gardens and when the pyment is done, drink and dance naked under the moon.

Were you paying attention? *chuckles*

For now, my fine fellows, I tuck into a bed for a little well deserved sleep. Good night and may your Friday 13th be a safe and cautious one.

A love letter for Spring

One gorgeous spike in the temperature had me out in my favorite t-shirt and smiling like a child. It wasn't to last, as the dark clouds rolled in and the cold wind began to race over the land. Tomorrow they are calling for slush, sleet and rain...possibly even snow and I groan. I am so ready for Spring it hurts, aching deep in my bones like a love sick girl waiting for that oh so special phone call. I keep looking to the calender, hoping the passing of days will bring me close to that lovely time of growth I crave so much. I got a Whole Seed catalog last week because

a) I want to plan heirloom EVERYTHING this year

and...

 b) I apparently wanted to punish myself.

It is almost as if my nails are crying out for dirt to be under them, my palms lusting for a fine coating of sod and compost. I can't get watermelons out of my head and if I thought I could, I would happily live off that ruby red flesh for all of the summer and more. I roll out the paper of my heart and heart full of wanting, scribe my desires.

Dear Spring, Heart of my Heart.


I never loved Winter, you must believe me. I wish nothing more than your quick and gentle rain storms, your mud and hazy warm days. Give me red clover, give me tender lettuce shoots and little leaves on Brown Turk fig trees. Spring, baby, come back. You can blame it all on me. Just know that I cannot grow without you. 

Love with dirty hands,
A.N