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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry. He is one person who truly makes me proud to be from Kentucky. A husband, father, farmer, literary master--he has inspired me so much. 
I am currently reading The Distant Land which is drawn from three collections of stories and includes new work, it extends over nearly a century of Berry's Port William community.
He is simply amazing & if you have time you should read the poems I posted below--they are definitely something to chew on.
Happy Chewsday y'all! 


The Peace of Wild Things 
When despair grows in me 
and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. 
I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. 


The Hidden Singer
The gods are less for their love of praise. 
Above and below them all is a spirit that needs nothing but its own wholeness,its health and ours. It has made all things by dividing itself. It will be whole again. To its joy we come together -- the seer and the seen, the eater and the eaten, the lover and the loved. In our joining it knows itself. It is with us then, not as the gods whose names crest in unearthly fire, but as a little bird hidden in the leaves who sings quietly and waits, and sings.


A Man Born To Farming
The Grower of Trees, the gardener, the man born to farming,
whose hands reach into the ground and sprout
to him the soil is a divine drug. He enters into death
yearly, and comes back rejoicing. He has seen the light lie down
in the dung heap, and rise again in the corn.
His thought passes along the row ends like a mole.
What miraculous seed has he swallowed
That the unending sentence of his love flows out of his mouth
Like a vine clinging in the sunlight, and like water
Descending in the dark?


In This World
The hill pasture, an open place among the trees,
tilts into the valley. The clovers and tall grasses
are in bloom. Along the foot of the hill
dark floodwater moves down the river.
The sun sets. Ahead of nightfall the birds sing.
I have climbed up to water the horses
and now sit and rest, high on the hillside,
letting the day gather and pass. Below me
cattle graze out across the wide fields of the bottomlands,
slow and preoccupied as stars. In this world
men are making plans, wearing themselves out,
spending their lives, in order to kill each other.


The Country of Marriage
I.

I dream of you walking at night along the streams
of the country of my birth, warm blooms and the nightsongs
of birds opening around you as you walk.
You are holding in your body the dark seed of my sleep.

II.

This comes after silence. Was it something I said
that bound me to you, some mere promise
or, worse, the fear of loneliness and death?
A man lost in the woods in the dark, I stood
still and said nothing. And then there rose in me,
like the earth's empowering brew rising
in root and branch, the words of a dream of you
I did not know I had dreamed. I was a wanderer
who feels the solace of his native land
under his feet again and moving in his blood.
I went on, blind and faithful. Where I stepped
my track was there to steady me. It was no abyss
that lay before me, but only the level ground.

III.

Sometimes our life reminds me
of a forest in which there is a graceful clearing
and in that opening a house,
an orchard and garden,
comfortable shades, and flowers
red and yellow in the sun, a pattern
made in the light for the light to return to.
The forest is mostly dark, its ways
to be made anew day after day, the dark
richer than the light and more blessed,
provided we stay brave
enough to keep on going in.

IV.

How many times have I come to you out of my head
with joy, if ever a man was,
for to approach you I have given up the light
and all directions. I come to you
lost, wholly trusting as a man who goes
into the forest unarmed. It is as though I descend
slowly earthward out of the air. I rest in peace
in you, when I arrive at last.

V.

Our bond is no little economy based on the exchange
of my love and work for yours, so much for so much
of an expendable fund. We don't know what its limits are--
that puts us in the dark. We are more together
than we know, how else could we keep on discovering
we are more together than we thought?
You are the known way leading always to the unknown,
and you are the known place to which the unknown is always
leading me back. More blessed in you than I know,
I possess nothing worthy to give you, nothing
not belittled by my saying that I possess it.
Even an hour of love is a moral predicament, a blessing
a man may be hard up to be worthy of. He can only
accept it, as a plant accepts from all the bounty of the light
enough to live, and then accepts the dark,
passing unencumbered back to the earth, as I
have fallen tine and again from the great strength
of my desire, helpless, into your arms.

VI.

What I am learning to give you is my death
to set you free of me, and me from myself
into the dark and the new light. Like the water
of a deep stream, love is always too much. We
did not make it. Though we drink till we burst
we cannot have it all, or want it all.
In its abundance it survives our thirst.
In the evening we come down to the shore
to drink our fill, and sleep, while it
flows through the regions of the dark.
It does not hold us, except we keep returning
to its rich waters thirsty. We enter,
willing to die, into the commonwealth of its joy.

VII.

I give you what is unbounded, passing from dark to dark,
containing darkness: a night of rain, an early morning.
I give you the life I have let live for the love of you:
a clump of orange-blooming weeds beside the road,
the young orchard waiting in the snow, our own life
that we have planted in the ground, as I
have planted mine in you. I give you my love for all
beautiful and honest women that you gather to yourself
again and again, and satisfy--and this poem,
no more mine than any man's who has loved a woman.

Monday, February 27, 2012

The Roberson Roost


Ryder has been sleepy lately! He wakes up at 5am so when 7pm rolls around he's ready to nap. He likes to be on the couch because he's a creature of comfort so sometimes he'll do whatever he can to get his 'spot', even if that means sitting on my shoulder until I move so he can be happy. He's surprisingly doing so great around all of the chickens. The other day they were drinking his water & instead of chasing them around the yard nipping at their feathers he just peacefully watched them as they drank. 
Kola is still the greatest. She loves doing her own thing & playing fetch with Ben. She keeps Ryder in order & is always trustworthy.






Saturday, February 25, 2012

Happy Birthday My Love

Ben turned 25 on the 25th! Happy birthday babe! Thank you for being the most amazing husband.
I love you.
Here are some fun pics that I love of the birthday boy!






 


photo by: Lang Thomas Photography.


Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Bison

In 2010 I had the opportunity to do some freelance work for Edible Louisville Magazine. The job helped me get to know local businesses, restaurants, and farmers! In July 2010 they asked me to go to a food event on Woodland Farm, a 100-acre working farm in Goshen Kentucky. They are the proud owner's of the Kentucky Bison Company, so as you can expect, the tour was amazing!

















Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Honey Harvest: The Dream

Bees on my mind.....
Ordered my two nucs last friday...
Excited for my new venture...
Urban beekeeping will be happy...
My beautiful friend Melanie Nichter shared this sweet video with me...
She has a cool blog, check it: http://melnichter.tumblr.com/ ...
Kinfolk is inspiring...

Honey Harvest from Kinfolk on Vimeo.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

The Daytripper Chronicles

This is day 1 one of The Daytripper Chronicles. I am starting a new thing where I take you on a trip through the moments of an average day in our life. Hopefully you'll get to know me & our city a little better...

1. Woke up to two barking & squealing dogs.

2. Ben was in his LAME Spanish class that he is forced to take because of a grad school requirement (SATURDAY CLASSS IS THE DEVIL).

3. I miss him in the morning.

4. Sam picked me up in her cute Honda Fit & we met Ashley for brunch at Please & Thank You.

5. Drank a Spanish Latte & ate a huge cinnamon roll while we talked about life & encouraged each other in our walks with the Lord. I told them about my BEE purchase! Yep I bought my BEES from a farmer named Mark! I pick them up in May & I can't hardly wait!








6. Talked to Sam about her adventure to Rainbow Blossom where she will buy aloe vera juice.

7. Got home--put those crazy pups outside.

8. Looked at Ben's birthday present online but got too nervous & didn't buy it. I am working on being a better gift giver its hard for me to make decisions.

9. Ben got home from class.

10. I greeted him outside with a BIG sloppy kiss.

11. Our chickens keep running away---ridiculous pets are driving me crazy. We clipped their wings for the second time. It was quite hilarious watching Ben chase them around the yard with a pair of scissors in his hand.


12. We drove to New Albany for the new Quill's grand opening. Ben ate granola & we drank 2$ Mieles.

13. While drinking coffee we ran into Kevin, our dear friend & the new owner of Billow--a cigar smoking shop.


14. We sat in Billow.

15. We shopped at a couple antique stores--they were over priced so we left.

16. We got home & the chickens were running around the neighborhood (I know shocking, right?) we corralled them back in the yard...everyone was safe & happy.

17. We were bored so we...well ya know...
I'm trying to keep this blog PG.

18. We finally got out of bed & took the dogs on a much needed walk.

19. On our walk we went to the Crescent Hill Trading Company--an awesome furniture thrift shop, I highly recommend it.

20. While at the cool thrift shop, Ryder decided to jump up on a wooden duck & bite its face-- he broke its wing & we quickly left.




21. We ran into our sweet neighbor & met her son & daughter-in-law! I just love that sweet woman (yep can't remember her name).

22. I rushed around frantically cleaning while Ben drank a 90 minute Dogfish IPA & wrote his paper for Theory.

23. Dinner with Thomas & Margaret at Taco Punk--a new hip taco joint that serves homemade tortillas & local fresh ingredients. The workers all have dreads & openly talk about needing their cig break. While making our tacos, one girl complained & said "Everyone called in because Van Halen is tonight--ughhh". We were definitely entertained.



24. Ben is meeting up with the guys, Henry, Adam, & Will (I think), to smoke cigars at Billow.

25. The girls are going to see The Vow--yep one giant cliche, I know.

26. We will probably end up at Four Pegs because that is our favorite place to go on a Saturday night.

Well there it is--The Daytripper Chronicles.