Patience is the time between the fruit and the seed

To those who live in the countryside and from the countryside, this is a phrase that was born from the wisdom of life, from the experience of those who know that living in this context is synonymous of long waits for the expected product, long waits of trial and error to achieve our goal, long waits guided by variables that do not depend on us, which brings us to our insignificance of mere intermediaries. Who lives like this, even if they seem crazy, will become wise. Those who live like this wont reject the prize of being blessed with the qualities that come to those who to try, try again, wait, and know how to win and lose, knowing that winning is always a certainty, even if it is so in the form of a lesson.

What is this?

This, my friends, is poop. Oh yeah. Cow and sheep poop, pressed and shaped in these small cylinders that make it manageable.

Gone are the days when we were going directly to the corral to seek the animal manure to fertilize the land. Everything is so modern today. But believe me, the smell is there, it's the same from the old days :). Curious, I must be the only person in the world, at least the only I know who says that does not dislike this smell. Ok, it's not the fragrance I would choose before leaving to work in the morning - help!. But this is a smell that reminds me of the good moments of childhood. Those in which the responsabilities were little and I watched it all as an attentive spectator.

The colors and smells and sensations come to me and stay in my memory when I stick my hand into the bag to remove these little poops that will do wonders on earth and plants that we put there. It's so nice to walk through the open gullies ready to receive the sprouts, french garlic, etc.

It´s time to raise my smile, enjoy the fresh air and be ecstatic on how much you can cultivate in a vegetable garden. So bless us the sky with rain in the right proportions, we will have a great garden. Our dependence on water decreases now, since we have a good farmer neighboor and this renews our hope in the possibilities of land production.

All this is made to the sound of birds that fly through in their lives, accompanying us to the sound of chain saws that cut down trees for firewood in the winter, to the walking faster sunlight and to the spirit that markes our pace. 

Memories from the last late summer

I believe it when they say that the hardest thing is not to start something but to keep it going on. The truth is that, also in this case, the beginning was very difficult. But we persevered and it was good to know what we wanted not to dishearten with all bureaucracies, impediments and work that had appeared in front of us. And it was in the middle of all this that I took these pictures. I've always loved to register moments and eternalize them with the camera. But in this situation this love assumes an even more important role: to maintain the focus and the spirit. So I never miss this ability of being enchanted like a child before nature. So that when the work will be routine and weariness, I can always be thankful for thorns, which were used by our grandmothers to curdle milk and make cheese. So I never lose this sense of enjoyment before what nature gives us for various purposes, like these sweet berries to make jams and liqueurs or to freeze to making desserts throughout the year. So I never miss the ecstasy that causes me a sky on fire when saying goodbye to the day and opening his arms to the night. When all becomes work and weariness, all this and more is the driving force that makes it all worthwhile!

Hands of work

I've been ecstatic with what I have been learning. I feel alive and promising to have the opportunity to learn a little bit of everything in this farming life. The days are made of ups and downs and many have been the misfortunes in recent years, that handling with the most problematic issues is not new nor a transcendent difficulty for me. There is always something to grab and to move on. Even if it is a bunch of logs to cut and to pack the wood shed to keep us warm in the winter. And grab the chainsaw, with some shyness at first and with greater skill with the continuity. How good it feels to do this job. Gradually see the pile of trunks descend and the shed be filled with wood to heat our body and soul on the cold days to come. But the same hands that are filled with sawdust and calluses are also cherished by the heart to do delicate things. When inspiration comes, join fabrics, lace, glue, pens and create a small work of art to offer to a friend. Work of art for me of course, that I'm always renewed in the knowledge that any hand work gives a lot of satisfaction when done with love and surrender.

So little to do, so much time

Let's reverse the old thinking! Shall we try to take out some of the stress that affects us these days?
The common thing is to think that time is always so little for so many things we have and want to do. It is true. Those who live in big cities, who have ambitious projects, who have children, they know it's true. But we can try to reverse this thinking because living it brings us distress, frustration and anxiety. So if these are feelings that do not make us so well, especially when they dominate our lives, we can try to see the point where they are and try to seek a satisfactory outlet for them to be replaced by peace, calm and serenity. It certainly is not easy. Who's writing to you is someone who boils easily in little water and is pure nitroglycerin: boumm !! But worth a try. I want to try and I confess I have tried and am getting very good results. But I had to choose the path that most of people do not choose, the path away from the hustle and bustle, away from ambition, away from power, away from the show, away from recognition, away from money and so on. This way, focused on what fulfills me, my ambitions, projects, dreams and goals to be achieved are transformed into peaceful things, because everything can wait, everything has a certain time to happen. This way I can take a deep breath in the evening while the sun hides behind the trees and be thankful because time is more than enough for what we have to do. This is the result of my choice, but of course this does not mean that everyone has to choose the same path. Each one has its own course to do and it is up to each one seeking the best way to follow it.
As for me, this is how I value the slow and hard process of having firewood to warm the long winter nights. It is necessary to reach the trees, cut them, saw them, crack them, transport them, stack them. It is something that is not done in one day. It may take days, weeks or months. It depends on who works and which tools are at his disposal to do so. But there is health and will that the result is the same: a warm fireplace and a nice evening embroidering and talking when the time comes. This way time assumes another proportion and allows the soul to rest in the sweet feeling of "aaah, so much time I have for the things I want to do" ...

Plums

Looking at the blossoming trees reminds me of last summer...
Plums, plums, plums, all was about plums, last year. Plums and potatoes. The weather was too uncertain by this time last year to let the potatoes already created under the earth, which should not rot, and then we dig the earth wildly as if there was no tomorrow, to save the potatoes that were already chubby and ready to fill our belly. How delicious were those new potatoes ...
But mainly it was about plums. They were yellow, red, Queen Claudia, Sto. António kind, etc. We had tons of them last year.
We harvested them when matured, almost transparent when put against the late-afternoon sunshine before the expected rain fell and they could fall and rot. We didn't let this happen and then we picked them up, making wild stunts to reach the highest branches of the plum tree, where the most beautiful plums were.
Belly and jam were the biggest uses for them. The whole house smelled of plums, the kitchen was a mess, the countertop and hands were all sticky. I had to sterilize bottles while the plums boiled in sugar in very low heat. And then I had to try its consistency from time to time. Huuummm ... The smell was so good, so warm. And so was the taste. Nearly two hours in the fire, in a monotone moving of the wooden spoon from time to time, but it was comforting to be with the belly by the fire and live the expectation of what would come out of the pot to soothe the palate with barred toasts and hot milk with coffee and give friends something done by ourselves.
In this new life of mine, I restart to realize the rhythm of seasons and that each one bears its own fruit created and given in time, which gives it another taste, the taste of authentic and healthy. I restart to realize that it is a delight to remove the produce of the land and preserve it for the time to come. This means that we can depend on the land to take from it what we really need for our livelihood.
Living this at a slower but intense pace makes me feel a sense of growing detachment by supermarkets. I am not fundamentalist about this, but indeed this is a feeling that has been invading me for a long time. It is quite frustrating to get to the supermarket and bring cheaper products just because they were quickly reproduced at the expense of chemicals and not under the proper weather and sun, this way producing more and more profitable production. Yes, it irritates me a lot to be inserted in this fast growing product society when the real purpose is profit to those who produce it and not realize that when we save money on cheaper food, we will spend it on doctors and pharmacies later.
Well, it was about last summer plums, today... Many, invasive, plums everywhere in the kitchen, but it felt so good! It makes me so happy to know that the earth blesses us and we just have to be good stewards of what it gives us. I am so grateful for these unique moments. I am so grateful to realize that what we do today has consequences for tomorrow and I want that tomorrow is a little better. I just have to work and provide. The rest will happen.

This afternoon

This was a quiet afternoon since we couldn't do more due to my farmer baker boy's injuries. He works so hard that sometimes he hurts himself. So we always enjoy what we can and what we have and give thanks to God for that. This afternoon was a return to the past, a return done in an unexpected way and full of sunshine and gray clouds. But forget about the weather, the important thing is that it was nice to revisit the church that once was "my church", where I was christened at the age of five according to Catholic belief and where I spent my adolescence going to the mass on Sundays to hide the real reason to meet friends and discover life. The truth is that I grew up with the fear of God, something that is built over a lifetime. That is also fruit of parental education and fruit of our own heart and not of walls or religious denominations. This was also a return to the past while contemplating the old roofs that saw me growing up. This is such a feeling that does not abandon me whenever I pass there and where I feel that the smells, the light and the green of the trees are different and special. Is it really so or is it my heart that sees like that? I do not know and do not care. I care only for the truth and the life. And the truth is that the life I live at the moment is increasingly solved with the past. Time yet for a glimpse of what was once a dream in the shape of a house that did not como true but that evolved in the context of a home and a land, which is translated now in the shape of a caravan in the middle of what was once a small jungle and is now a land full of life and dreams.