After several days of blistering heat, deliciously cold winds blew in last night, and today was blissfully cloudy and cool. The change is so welcome.

Last week I was very ill with migraines, the worst I’ve ever, ever experienced, so this week I’m especially thankful for life. Everything seems more precious, and I’ve stayed close to home cherishing the simple things that make life dear to me: Bear, our farm, contact with good friends.

I’ve spent most of my days outside, soaking up sunshine and wild winds, watering orchards, vineyards, and gardens, sighing happily to see fruit trees and grape vines I thought were dead and gone start sprouting leaves and blossoms and the tiniest of fruits. As I feel new life in my own heart after deep healing this winter and spring, it makes me quite teary to see it around me as well. Sometimes the bleak times in our life feel so long and dark, but spring always comes. Always.

When I’m not outside, I’ve been pottering in the kitchen, roasting tomatoes and making sauce, pureeing bananas and freezing them for smoothies, juicing oranges, limes, and lemons, and making a new batch of apple cider vinegar. The animals are loving it, because they get all the peels, pulp, and trimmings to feast on.

Bear and I have been working on projects together, hauling tools across the fields to mend fences, going into the Big Orchard to fix a leaky hose, and planning the best way to get all three orchards covered with netting so the birds don’t pinch our fruit this year.

I’ve also been spending a lot of time on the back veranda.

I go first thing in the morning with my cup of tea and journal, getting my thoughts and plans sorted before the day starts.

I have breakfast there with Bear, chatting away as we sip our coffees and nosh on scrambled eggs, ham and cheese crepes, or baked beans on toast. It does us both good to begin the day like that.

I pop in throughout the day, sorting seeds to plant, trimming herbs to dry, or just to take a break with a magazine or a good book.

I do my art there too, listening to the wind in the trees and wood-burning spoons and cheeseboards as I get ready for the annual flurry of Christmas orders.

Sometimes I even sit there at night, snuggled under a blanket while I read.

The other evening I was joined by dozens of moths fluttering around the light. One kept landing on me instead of the light, a beautiful pure white one with a bright red body. I’ve never seen one like that before, but it made me smile.

Tonight was rather chilly for veranda-sitting, so instead we had popcorn and Greek salad and made it a movie night. A good respite before a big day tomorrow of installing a watering system in the apple orchard, and planting rosellas, elderflower, purple king beans, and scarlet runner beans in the gardens.

What is something that makes life beautiful to you? xo