Hi Farmgirls!
In the Apr/May 2025 issue of MaryJanesFarm, “Spring Forward” (on newsstands March 18), we led you here for a chance to win one of three copies of Mildred Kalish’s book, Little Heathens. To enter our giveaway, just answer the question, “What is your reverie?” (as described in Mildred’s book). Then stay tuned; I’ll toss your name into a hat and draw three lucky winners on July 1.
If you’re not yet a subscriber to MaryJanesFarm, visit: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/Magazine to sign up for just $19.95/year.
Filled with ideas that are clever, inspiring, and both old-fashioned & new-fangled, paired with the prettiest photography and writing from the heart, it’s a magazine like no other.
Enjoy these February days, and see you shortly with more “tails” from the farm, Mary
My reverie – or lost in my pleasant thoughts – is in my garden and flower beds. Ahhh…I’m dreaming of the soon to come color and smells of spring (as we wait for a atmospheric river this weekend!).
I love to quilt anywhere possible and love sewing 🧵 days with my friends.
My reverie is my rose arbor overflowing with roses and my garden and orchard abundant with fruit and vegetables. At my grandparents house I bought several years ago and I am trying to restore the property to the beauty it was in my youth. Waiting for spring to get outside and work the earth and watch everything grow.
One of my reveries is reading.
A reverie I have is thinking about what kind of tomatoes to plant in the spring
My reverie is remembering working beside my dad as a child pruning “moms” pink roses. As soon as I had my first home, I began raising roses. Today there are several roses I love to tend in my small yard, and I can’t wait until they bloom this year.
My reverie is the first Spring breeze an just being still in the moment an all the wonders that await☀️🙏
Oh…my…. one of the most difficult questions I’ve been asked to answer as I have many reveries…stitching, hooking, gardening, reading, etc. etc. Perhaps, however, one of my very favorites is wandering an antique store…letting my mind drift to who might have used the things I hold in my hands and what their lives were like…or pouring over the old, old, books only too realize far too much time has passed. That’s my answer (for now)…and I’m sticking to it. LOL. “Little Heathens” looks irresistible! ~Robin~
My reverie is working in my garden and making herbal medicine. I also can get lost in a good book.
I just recently retired and I am enjoying doing whenevernI want whenever I want. So far I have crocheted a scarf and a sweater. With warming temperatures preparing garden beds is next, then who knows….
Recently retired, my reverie is spending time on my 45 acre farm. After working since I was 17(I’m 65 now) I am going back in time and re-enjoying the sounds associated with this piece of earth that has been in my family since 1938. Peeper frogs singing in the evening, bird songs, cows moo-ing etc. Working didn’t allow me to stop long enough to hear, even tho I listened. Those sounds were ingrained in me from my youth but overshadowed by the hustle and bustle of being in the work force.
My reverie is reading and just holding books in my hands. I love the smell of old books and how beautiful they look as some of the many decorations in my home!
My reverie is genealogy research and the compilation of Family Group Sheets. I can spend hours searching the children, grandchildren, and greats right on down the line of my family surname Patriarchs and my Matriarchs. As I research, I review what was happening in their lives personally and in their communities, state, and the country. Family lore is incorporated, along with occupations, military service, and leadership roles. The joy I feel as I make connections makes me realize I am connecting spirit to spirit.
I love doing appliqué on wool in the Montana Winters while I reverie about have a small heard of goats one day. They will all have names and each will wear a bell.
My reverie is putting a G2/07 pen to college-lined loose leaf note paper folded in half and just get into writing away! My current subjects are about my growing up years in my hometown, Philadelphia PA. Not exactly country by looking back on my childhood is my reverie. I hope to leave my writings to my kids and grandkids.
My reverie is pretending to read while I sit on my porch swing, while I’m actually listening to my kids run untamed in our creek. They are having the kind of wild, muddy, green childhood that I’d always wanted and I love to sit an imagine that I’m little with them.
My reverie is preparing my great grandparents’ farm house every September for the fall festival — Greenridge Steam and Gas Antique Show — held on the farmstead. In the house we teach how to make pioneer dolls. We have ladies demonstrating quilting and weaving. There is an apron show and a doll show. In addition there are quilts displayed throughout. The farm located in Iowa between Irwin and Kirkman gets many visitors from all over. Join us this year September 20-21.
My reverie is knitting on the backporch listening to happy birds gossip and thank their Divine Maker for giving them a song
My reverie is sitting outside on the porch, with a hot cup of coffee. Listening to the breeze blowing through the trees, the birds waking up and singing their calling tweets to each other. Smelling the crisp freshness of the air mingled with my coffee and watching the tinted clouds from the sunrise floating leisurely in the sky. Wishing I could stay in that moment forever.
I like go for a walk. There is a pond near my home where I watch the geese.
My reverie is to watch how the birds behave while feeding outside my deck. Their colors. The radiance of their feathers. How they take turns or almost bump onto each other in the air while trying to get to the feeder. How they are all scared of the Blue Jays. I can spend a lot of time lost in my observations of these wonderful, flying animals.
Many of my reveries revolve around the farms belonging to my family, one of which we have farmed 150 years. I wish I knew more about my ancestors, particularly the women. What were their favorite recipes? How much help did they have feeding the farm hands? Did they have time and energy to pursue their own interests?
This time of year I remember the farm belonging to another branch of the family, and my great-grandmother’s snowdrop bed. I wonder how many years the snowdrops had been spreading in this large bed. As a child I would pick a handful and put them in a small vase on her kitchen windowsill. Now wherever I live I plant snowdrop bulbs.