It is the first week of August, and the first day of rain in quite a long time. The water feels so welcome. I've lived my whole life in the Pacific Northwest so I feel fortunate that I'm used to the climate, and I expected it to be similar here as it was in the Willamette Valley. Though it is similar, it isn't the same. It feels like the closeness of the Salish sea creates a different quality in the air. When rain is imminent, the moisture hangs around longer, even if it's not raining. I find myself feeling the incoming rain and being excited for it and then waiting days or weeks for it to finally arrive. It's an interesting anticipation.
It's been about two months since my last reflection. I spent about two weeks away in that span of time in which I went back to Oregon to be a part of Grounds Crew at a land-based skills gathering called Echoes in Time. Everyone at Songaia was very gracious about my taking time away, and I was also met with a lot of excitement and interest to hear about what the gathering was like!
There's a sense I get that it is recognized here that what we bring to the community includes every part of us. The things we do when we're away from Songaia are still a part of Songaia and can be integrated upon our return. Everything we’ve been a part of before we arrived and after we go beyond is connected to our time here.
Also as I returned from Echoes in Time, it was the end of June and I turned my phone back on to check 2 weeks of e-mails, a fair amount of which were calls to pick the cherries ripening across the land! I remember feeling a little bummed that I'd missed the cherry explosion, but there was no need to worry because the trees continued to be generous. The summer has been full of fruit-gathering, and thus also full of fruit-preserving. It's been fun to explore how people prefer dried fruits, frozen fruits, or canned fruits, and all the ways we can reach each state of preservation.
Besides the cherries, I was introduced to a whole plethora of new-to-me fruits, and some that were familiar but that I'd never met in such numbers! Salmon berries and mulberries I knew, but had never been buried in before.
It's been about two months since my last reflection. I spent about two weeks away in that span of time in which I went back to Oregon to be a part of Grounds Crew at a land-based skills gathering called Echoes in Time. Everyone at Songaia was very gracious about my taking time away, and I was also met with a lot of excitement and interest to hear about what the gathering was like!
There's a sense I get that it is recognized here that what we bring to the community includes every part of us. The things we do when we're away from Songaia are still a part of Songaia and can be integrated upon our return. Everything we’ve been a part of before we arrived and after we go beyond is connected to our time here.
Also as I returned from Echoes in Time, it was the end of June and I turned my phone back on to check 2 weeks of e-mails, a fair amount of which were calls to pick the cherries ripening across the land! I remember feeling a little bummed that I'd missed the cherry explosion, but there was no need to worry because the trees continued to be generous. The summer has been full of fruit-gathering, and thus also full of fruit-preserving. It's been fun to explore how people prefer dried fruits, frozen fruits, or canned fruits, and all the ways we can reach each state of preservation.
Besides the cherries, I was introduced to a whole plethora of new-to-me fruits, and some that were familiar but that I'd never met in such numbers! Salmon berries and mulberries I knew, but had never been buried in before.
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It turns out that crawling barefoot under a mulberry tree while people jostle the branches so that the fruit can shower down onto the sheet you’ve all laid out to catch the berries can result in some staining of the skin. Unfortunately it washes off fairly easily so I didn’t get to keep my mulberry tattoos.
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Salal and currants I'd passed by countless times, yet this summer was my first time tasting them. Goumi berries I had never even heard of before: a strangely astringent yet juicy and sweet thing that glows in the sun. We had so many goumis (apparently more than those here had ever witnessed before) that we had the opportunity to experiment with how the fruits wanted to join our diet... was it nice as a juice or a jam or a leather? I personally liked it all the ways. I find it very delightful that there are so many here who are excited about transforming the gifts of the land into tasty treats, and anyone is free to do so, not just the gardeners.
Another awesome abundance the land has brought forth is more interns arriving! With them comes more perspectives, more opportunities of connection, and more hands to gather fruit, of course. I mostly enjoy learning what they enjoy, and witnessing how we come together as many different types of beings to join a single cause.
☆*: .｡. :*☆
There's been a strange phenomenon going on in the garden. One day during my Morning Noticings, a rose growing around the gazebo showed me something astonishing. A flower bud growing up out of another flower bud? A metablossom? a double-headed rose?
Several days later I noticed it doing the same thing elsewhere on its bush.
As time went on I saw it again in the Dahlias! And then a Garlic we harvested exhibited a similar sprouting from a bizarre point of its stalk. We also saw a Calendula sending out numerous flower heads from its own flower head like a hydra! Even a plum fruit was found sharing its growth as two-in-one.
Another awesome abundance the land has brought forth is more interns arriving! With them comes more perspectives, more opportunities of connection, and more hands to gather fruit, of course. I mostly enjoy learning what they enjoy, and witnessing how we come together as many different types of beings to join a single cause.
☆*: .｡. :*☆
There's been a strange phenomenon going on in the garden. One day during my Morning Noticings, a rose growing around the gazebo showed me something astonishing. A flower bud growing up out of another flower bud? A metablossom? a double-headed rose?
Several days later I noticed it doing the same thing elsewhere on its bush.
As time went on I saw it again in the Dahlias! And then a Garlic we harvested exhibited a similar sprouting from a bizarre point of its stalk. We also saw a Calendula sending out numerous flower heads from its own flower head like a hydra! Even a plum fruit was found sharing its growth as two-in-one.
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Such strange and new patterns of growth remind me that evolution is always occuring. We have this idea that certain factors need to be in place for flourishing to happen. We notice patterns and we predict, however... and this is an important part of the permaculture process (or any process in life)... Nothing is certain. The things we imagine will happen and what we imagine we will need in those moments is infinitesimal to what we discover when we observe our reality.
How does a plant grow multiple heads? What new interactions does it bring to the world? What does it teach me about the blossoms that I'm used to seeing that I wouldn't have noticed without this contrast? There is never nothing left to learn.
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