Here’s what my days are about. Momma “Sweetheart” nurses baby Charlie while Auntie Sally O’Mally sleeps nearby. Etta Jane and her baby, Eliza Belle, snooze out of view. Maizy and Miss Daisy are in the barn asleep. Otis, Yore, Brie, and Beau Vine snuggle in another barn. Milky Way and Samson in yet another shelter.
When Charlie isn’t tucked under momma, he and his older sibling, Eliza Belle, run like the wind. Run! Eliza Belle kicks up her heels sideways (too cute), and Charlie leaps likes a deer through the snow. I mean, he LEAPS. Bounds. I’ve never seen a calf leap like he does. It I weren’t trying to get my cow book done, I’d move in with my lovely cows. “Hay guys, is there room at the inn? Your beds look so cozy.”
Meanwhile, down at the farm … peace on earth.
The three soups I featured recently were so popular, I decided to share a few more recipes.
Sauté 1 diced onion and 2 cloves minced garlic in 2 T olive oil. Add 3 cups diced carrots and 3 cups vegetable broth; bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Add ¼ cup minced parsley. Purée. Stir in 1 T honey, 1 t lemon juice, ½ t ground cumin, and 1/8 t ground allspice. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serves 4.
Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … CJ Armstrong!!!
CJ Armstrong (ceejay48, #665) has received a certificate of achievement in Stitching & Crafting for earning a Beginner Level Quilling Merit Badge!
“Papercrafting is not new to me; however, I had not actually pursued quilling. Quilling, also known as paper filigree, has been around for centuries. It was used in the Renaissance to decorate scrolls and books. In the 18th century, it became a “ladies” art.
Basic tools currently include a slotted tool, tweezers, glue, and a tapered needle.
I studied the different rolls and scrolls, which include tight circle, loose circle, teardrop, marquise, shaped marquise, square, rolled heart, loose scroll, open heart, V scroll, C scroll, S scroll and variations on the scrolls. It certainly is nice that you can purchase quilling paper already cut into neat, tidy, and even strips!
I decided to make a card with a simple flower design on it. Since I’ve made lots of papercraft cards, it was pretty easy to get into the process. I used teardrops for the flower petals, a loose circle for the center, and shaped marquise leaves. I’m very happy with the result and look forward to the next project!!”
How about a Christmas tree that’s roughly four feet tall, perfectly symmetrical, and very much alive? In late September, my local nursery puts their trees on clearance, so that’s when I usually adopt my soon-to-be Christmas tree for around $60. Some years there’s another local endeavor selling live trees for $125 but not this year.
My feelings are identical to the way I felt when my parents let me pick out a puppy or choose from a litter of kittens. This one! Its roots are securely tucked into a root ball covered in burlap. Each year, I bring a tree home and carefully and routinely water it until I can get it planted, usually in March sometime.
Grown and out the door, my farm is home to a couple dozen trees I’ve fallen for over the years. Some of them are now HUGE! Thought to protect homes from evil, it’s no surprise we want them indoors with us. Outside greenery, brought inside, is the centerpiece of our holiday season.
The worship of trees goes back to the time of the earliest Pantheists. (Pantheism is the worship of nature.) Integrated into our holiday customs are early Christian and Jewish practices, Roman traditions, medieval pagan rituals, and Victorian nostalgia. Germans introduced Americans to the Christmas tree (tannenbaum), but they weren’t the first to believe that evergreen trees represented eternal life because of their perennial green color during winter. Ancient homes were decorated with boughs and the tops of trees turned upside down to entice the spirit of nature inside for prosperity and good health.
Cut, faux, or alive—what’s your centerpiece this year? Having tried them all, I can make a convincing argument for all three. For every Christmas tree cut, two are planted. With over a million acres set aside to grow Christmas trees, one acre provides the daily oxygen requirement for some 18 people, but there’s just something sad to me about that lifeless hulk slowly turning brown out the back door. And I can’t for the life of me envision Pan, the god of woods, fields, and flocks, coming into my home to play his flute for my faux tree, even if it is an “eternal” tree.
Check out www.livingchristmastrees.org, a Portland, Oregon-based company that’s been in business for over 20 years delivering full-size Christmas trees and then planting them at schools, churches, and parks after Christmas.
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
