Monthly Archives: March 2010

Welcome Spring

[Previous Rural Farmgirl, April 2009 – May 2010]
Spring has sprung in our valley. It has been here for a couple of weeks, yet I have been feeling much like I did as a young mom, when my boys would wake and hit the floor running while I was left rubbing my eyes and clumsily reaching for a cup of coffee, not quite ready to greet the tasks at hand.

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Soon, The Wildflowers

Everyone looks forward to “springtime”, none more so than those who live in the north. Our winters are neither short, nor mild. Cabin fever hits us `long about late February, but we have quite a wait in front of us before relief comes. A surge of hope brightens the mood on that first warm, sunny day in March. Then, it snows and blows again. Just when our spirit sags back into winter weariness, the unmistakable song of a Meadowlark jerks you to attention! You remember what faith is all about: believing in something you may not be able to see or touch, and yet you know your hope is safe.

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That Promise of Spring…

[Previous Suburban Farmgirl, October 2009 – October 2010]
“The nicest thing about the promise of spring is that sooner or later, she’ll have to keep it.” That’s what I write in a card to my old pal Kathleen every year about this time, between our birthdays – well, every year I remember, but it’s the majority of the past near-thirty.
I don’t even know how our tradition got started. (It’s a quote we picked up somewhere.) But since I live in the South, it’s a promise that’s kept to me before Kathleen, who’s lived in Iowa ever since we met there in college, so I figure she can use the sentiment. I heard Iowa had snow last week!
Over here in North Carolina, this first week of spring, I’ve got daffodils, Lenten roses (below), forsythia, redbud, and flowering trees galore. But it’s my psychology, rather than my weather, that’s really ready to “break into blossom,” as another line of poetry stuck in my head goes.


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Random Acts of Kindness & Dreaming BIG

[Previous Rural Farmgirl, April 2009 – May 2010]
Have you ever had those moments when you just get so emotionally exhausted trying to figure out the next step? You know, times when you find yourself praying—begging really—that a plane would fly past pulling a banner with the answer clearly written on it? Boy, I have. I find myself standing at the crossroads of change and I feel frozen as I debate the “right” path. I would imagine that no matter what one does for a living, we all take pause to evaluate life from time to time. Yet now that I’m finally doing what I always dreamed of doing, it is easy to be convinced that dreaming of more is somehow selfish.

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Pick (or Stumble on) a “Bouquet Moment”

[Previous Suburban Farmgirl, October 2009 – October 2010]
Who isn’t cheered by a bright bouquet? I always imagine farm tables set with little jelly-jar vases of wildflowers plucked from the surrounding countryside. Lacking a countryside around my suburban house – or even a proper cutting garden – I’ve been known to crouch in the lawn to clip tiny sheaves of violets, or reach up into the branches to clip a few stems of dogwood or rhododendron, just to get that sweet charge a bunch of blossoms brings.
Then the other day, a friend brought me a bunch of carrots from the market that made me swoon as if they were roses — or even my favorite, peonies. Seriously! These weren’t just any carrots: They were a rainbow of carrots, from deepest ruby red to creamy yellow, with every shade of orange in between. They had in their favor the surprise factor (I’d never seen such carrots!) and the fact that they happened to be variations on my favorite color. Their flourish of leafy greens didn’t hurt, either. Those carrots plumb made me happy.
And those carrots got me thinking… what would happen if I opened my eyes and heart to other unexpected “bouquets” that might be waiting to be stumbled on in a given day?


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Eleventy-seven Years Later

To some, my most recent “glorious moment” may seem more like a molehill than a mountain, but for me, it was an overwhelming and joyous occasion.

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Rodents, Vermin, and Silver Stars, Oh My!

[Previous Rural Farmgirl, April 2009 – May 2010]
One of my favorite pastimes is to visit other farmgirls’ blogs. It is just one more way that I gather evidence of all the brilliance in the world.
However, I must now say good-bye to that part of my life…Okay, I’m just kidding, but after last week I will be more cautious as I enter through those virtual gates.

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Shades of Blue

And the winner is:

VALARIE in California!!!! Congratulations! Email me!

update: I got your info Valarie-thank you!-(I’m probably in your spam box)

Mine are green. I say “hazel” when I’m called upon to classify them. Like on my driver’s license. I now know that I’ve been wrong all these years.  “Hazel” eyes are green-brown.  Mine are green-blue. Totally not hazel then. As it turns out, there’s no special name for green-blue eyes. I wonder if I could start using “teal”? ‘Tis my name afterall.

My father’s eyes are the bluest-blue. And they twinkle. I always wished I had his blue eyes. Not because I wanted blue eyes particularly; I just wanted to match him.

His are so blue and oh so sparkly. You see lots of blue eyes, but not many have that special twinkle. I have a feeling the twinkle comes from the inside. Yes, if I had to guess, I’d say my father’s eye twinkle comes from inner happiness. And peace. And hope. He’s like that. I guess I have a chance to share his twinkle, then. When I accomplish all that inner bliss stuff. 

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