I love this woman. I think it is because she reminds me of my mother. I know that sounds funny, but she thinks a lot the same way my mom did. There is a wonder of nature in her heart, and she is creative – a writer, a musician, a gardener.
As my daughter once wrote about her grandmother, my mom:
Grandma used to cut fruit apart to show me the beautiful patterns inside. She watered the plants and told me to listen to them drink. She brushed the dirt off the vegetables in the garden and bit into them, telling me to taste their goodness. She sees beauty and magic everywhere. I believe she sees God all the time, in all the good and lovely things of the earth.
Stella's Place 
110% agreed.
Yesterday Czarina and I planted 2 cherry trees. Two trees grown in Tennessee, roots and branches trimmed and then FedEx’d to us. Now it still amazes me that you can take life like that, do what we did to it and it springs right back…if you take care of it. Oh, BTW, when they came out of the box, just straight sticks with trimmed toots, they’d started growing leaves on the trunk. Now we get to take care of them and watch them turn into large trees that will bear fruit and feed us and wild life.
We get to go gardening on a large scale but it’s still gardening. About ten years ago we had a huge bag of about 300 pine seedlings in our fridge, they were there to keep ‘calm’ while we planted them by hand. Now they range in size from a few that for some reason are still about 18″ tall to others who are well over 30 feet. Now we’re seeing some of our ‘kids’ popping out pine cones for the first time. We watch them year round for signs of what they’ll do next and what we might need to do to help them. Right now we’re watching the sizes of the candles on the tips of the pine branches to estimate this year’s growth.
The vegetable garden is the same, it’s the preparation of the soil bed, the choice of the plants, each individual plant’s requirements, care while growing – it’s not mechanical, it’s personal. It’s being a part in creation for joint survival. I know a lot of city folk think that farmers farm because they’re too stupid to do anything else but if you scratch a pro farmer you’ll find someone that is dedicated to propagating and working with life that predates humans.
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Re farmers, most of them are college educated too – maybe better than the city folks who make fun of them.
I’m really enjoying following my cousin who has started a farm, raising sheep, while he is still working a full time job. Today was vaccination day prior to lambing.
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Oh yeah, city folks tend to think some redneck in jeans just throws a few cows onto some pasture and, viola, ribeye steaks. Many of the ranchers have grad degrees in ag areas, I had to take classes before I could get my restricted pesticide licence. It ain’t all fun and games but most of us keep a set of bibs and a tattered straw hat around just in case some city folks wanting to see the primitives drive by.
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That made me chuckle.
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It wouldn’t be as funny if it weren’t true.
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When my daughter and her cousin were little (5 or 6?) mom had them plant little pine trees. That was in the early 1970’s. A couple of years ago, we all visited the farm (which is now owned by a friend), and the ‘kids’ got to see their huge, beautiful, trees!
Gardening with your children and grandchildren is a great thing to do. These days, my daughter and her husband have as large a garden as they can on their small city lot. They grow tomatoes, peppers, broccoli and whatever takes their fancy that year, as well as a variety of herbs. The boys have helped them garden since they were little, and so it continues …
PS: My daughter is now on the board of their town’s farmer’s market, and works there every Saturday during the summer. Her younger son helps her there.
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Remember a few years back when an example of a city forbidding homeowners from growing edible veggies in their yards?
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It was the front yard, and it was about 2 miles from where I used to live. Oak Park, Michigan, to be exact!
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2018, Miami Shores, Florida too,
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We started gardening earlier than my memory goes. Well, I did anyway. A very little kid learning to garden, while being taught the magic of Fibonacci numbers in nature, the joy and relaxation of gardening, and all the physics and chemistry behind the plants and how they grow.
Yes, it was not “beautiful” per se, but it was to me. Have you ever recognized the Fibonacci numbers in your flowers, your fruits, your pinecones? It all ties to Our Lord, you know. Math is the language of God, music is His song to us. All are intertwined in the mysteries of our universe.
And it all starts with a teeny tiny seed in a garden, the wonders of Our Lord.
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I have always thought of the Fibonacci sequence as the signature of God.
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I had to go look that up. I get it, but sure don’t remember ever hearing it.
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Oh Stella, thank you for this. Love these Nova documentaries. Will d/l and watch tomorrow, and listen to the audio overnight. Will be curious to see if they link math to Our Lord. Thanks again.
p.s. are not all these personal gardening stories great? The vid up top was really interesting.
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There is a book called, “Is God a Mathematician?”. The author appears in this program.
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Saw that. Disagree with him tough, in that we “invented” numbers. The numbers were always there, how else would the universe have equations to be discovered?
The last 6 minutes of the vid detailed engineers, which was great, until the part where the JPL guy said engineers go for “good enough.” Dad was a perfectionist, prob still is. Dad designed the part of Three Mile Island that did not fail. Thoroughly enjoyed the entire video.
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I’m buying the audio book to listen when I walk. Another thank you!
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Bookmarked that for later.
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I am enjoying this with my late coffee. I had to pause the video to pin it. I’m keeping it. Thanks Stella.
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Stella, what is that beautiful ??
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It is a fern frond (curlice) covered with dew.
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I just started following her on YouTube. She makes good content.
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