Every Day is Earth Day For Me...

Earth is ART in it's highest form!

"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." ~Native American Proverb

"There is hope if people will begin to awaken that spiritual part of themselves, that heartfelt knowledge that we are caretakers of this planet." ~Brooke Medicine Eagle

"I'm not an environmentalist. I'm an Earth warrior." ~Darryl Cherney, quoted in Smithsonian, April 1990

"The poetry of earth is never dead.: ~John Keats

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Earth Day Poem

By Marion

Hug a tree.
Kiss your dog.
Contemplate a
green tree frog.

Conversate with
dragonflies:
ask one to bring you
a piece of the sky.

This sky blue dragonfly followed me around my yard all morning as I was taking these pictures.  He's a baby, newborn---see how perfect his wings are and untattered?  We haven't had many dragonflies yet, nor have we had many mosquitoes.  I guess it's the law of supply and demand and I'm not complaining.  The weather is totally awesome, cool and sunny. I saw more dragonflies today than I've seen all spring.  It's so funny watching my cats try to catch them.  The dragonflies are way too swift and cunning for them, but the cats do the most amazing gymnastic flips!  Cat tv gets more and more exciting with each day that passes.  Tee-Hee. 

I made a list of my plants, herbs, trees and flowers today out of curiousity.  So far, I've counted 22 varieties of herbs, 55 flowers/fruit and vegetables and 12 trees.  The great thing is that our yard is so big, I think I can plant 10 more trees and lots more herbs, bushes and flowers. The majority of my flowers are perennials (that means they come back every year--- if you're lucky), as are most of the herbs.  This cool, low-humidity spring has been a balm to my roses.  They've never been this healthy, fragrant and picturesque.  I'm praying for just a few more weeks of this weather to keep the black spot off my roses.  Humidity is a bitch to roses the first few weeks of spring.

I've had these little yellow perennial flowers for about 3 years.  Since they only take up half the big pot, I put a baby Basil plant and a baby Tomato I started from seed in with it until they get strong enough to transplant into my garden.  See those little 'greenhouses'?  You take a 2-liter plastic bottle and cut it in half.  You can use the bottom and top to protect tender vegetables or flowers on cool nights---for free and you're recycling those nasty plastic bottles!  You can leave them on if you take the cap off so they can get some air.  If you use the bottom part, then slice a few holes in the bottom with a sharp little paring knife.  Works for me.  Oh, and the top makes a good funnel!

Wild Violets I found growing in the woods across the street today.

My Strawberries are huge and sweet this year.  And the best part is there are NO slugs!  I haven't had to buy beer to put in saucers so the little alkie-slugs will crawl in to drink themselves silly, then drown.  Sounds mean, but it's safe for the environment.  I grow everything organically.  I kill weeds along the fenceline with white vinegar (do not use it in your garden or too near flowers).  The high acid content kills the grass.  And it's quite inexpensive....much less expensive than Roundup with is loaded with nasty chemicals.

Comfrey is one of the first herbs I tried, after Mint.  It's the plant with those large leaves (and also in the red recycled washtub) and the awesome little pinkish/purple bell-like, tiny flowers.  Comfrey is used to help heal skin conditions.  I make a poultice out of it and apply to the area.  It helps bruises heal faster.  I grind some up and put it in extra virgin olive oil (let it sit in a dark place for 3 weeks to age) and use it for my skin.  It's not safe to eat because it's been proven in recent years that it may harm the liver.  So I never recommend taking Comfrey internally.  Some old herbal books do, though, so beware.  Better safe than sorry.  The plants to the right and left of my Comfrey are Chocolate Mint.  I started with one plant and have propagated dozens from that one plant.  It spreads under the soil by the roots, so it's quite invasive, but manageable.  I ran out of my Chocolate Mint tea, so I'm growing a larger crop this year.  I have 7 different kinds of mint growing:  Chocolate, Spearmint, Apple Mint, Lemon Mint, Orange Mint, Peppermint and one called The Best Mint.

This lovely, hanging cobalt blue pretty holds a tea candle and casts a wonderful light at night for my house plants in the window of my living room.  Cobalt Blue is my favorite color this week. 

The humble little Clover flower.  Such a simple, lovely pink flower!

'Whose woods these are I think I know?' (sorry Mr. Frost)  They're mine, across the street from my house. I couldn't resist taking a short walk and being awash in the verdent green of the area.  It was like a cathedral, pure, green and holy.

A view of my house from the woods.

Okay, it took me half the day to get the photos uploaded and posted.  I almost missed Earth Day doing this!!  I hope you enjoyed the walk with me and the flowers, trees and herbs.   Every day is Earth Day here because I'd rather be playing outside in the spring, summer and fall, watering or weeding or planting or harvesting something.  Sunshine is God's cure for depression.

Blessings,

~Marion, Earth Mother

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"Opie, you haven't finished your milk. We can't put it back in the cow, you know." ~Aunt Bee Taylor, The Andy Griffith Show

"And Now Let Us Welcome the New Year Full of Things That Have Never Been." ~Rilke

Oh, vain Narcissus, you are so eager to be the first flower to bloom that you open in the midst of Winter! I took this photo today of my pretty Narcissus, wet with raindrops.

It's a rainy, overcast New Year's Eve here in Louisiana. No seeing that full blue moon tonight. That's the stump where my tree used to be. I have bulbs planted all around it...mostly Iris's.



I took a walk around my squishy back yard this morning and saw that even my Blueberry bushes are starting to bud. Winter, what winter??? I put out bird seed and stale bread for all of our birds. The Cardinals are magnificent, like blotches of red paint against a sky of gray canvas.



My Chocolate Mint coming up around my Blueberry bushes. It smells divine.


A tangle of Morning Glory seeds on my patio fence just waiting to drop and sprout.


Ray found this old washtub a few years ago in the woods and I planted it full of Strawberries in 2008. They're fast spreading, in spite of the cold.


My one big accomplishment of 2009 was painting this one little wall pink in my laundry room. It took me all of two weeks to paint it, but I did it! Happy New Year, friends!!


~*~Marion~*~



I leave you with one of my favorite Mary Oliver poems to contemplate:


The Journey
by Mary Oliver


One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice ---
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!" each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do ---
determined to save
the only life you could save.


(From: "Dream Work")