Happy Friday y’all!

   It’s been a sweaty week down here.  The seasonal cramping has begun as the days have been in the mid to upper 80’s, construction work needed doing, and the air smells like chicken farts. 

   We’re surrounded by 100 acres of hay fields and after mowing and baling, comes fertilizing.  They’ve got chicken houses, so it’s an in-house sorta deal.  They load a dump truck with the doo doo, then drive it out to the fields and spread it out. Feeds the grass, but it’s a little gamey in the nostrils for a minute.  Fortunately the nearest fields haven’t been graced yet, so once the dust settles, the fragrance passes and the sweet scent of roses takes back over in the evening.

   We’ve got a lot of climbing roses in the landscape that fill the air with good mojo. Speaking of olfactory delights, there’s one section of the lower peony field that’s filled with coral charm bushes and each year as I come back to those plants for morning, afternoon, and evening harvests, I’m greeted by the alluring smell of bananas mixed with butterscotch.  I couldn’t figure it out and it’s a job I’ve been doing alone for years, but finally, last year, Mandy was down there with me and pointed out a banana shrub, Magnolia figo.  It lives on the other side of the fence, out by the road.  At this point It’s starting to feel like an old friend.  Our rhythms keep bringing us together in April.  We don’t stay in touch during the off-season, but I’m always happy for the reunion.

   The longer I’m here, the more I’m finding comfort in these rhythms.  To know a place so intimately is quite a privilege.  To know it in a way where your livelihood depends on it, so that the relationship begins with attraction, desire, need, and insecurity, but later on develops into acceptance, compromise, and ultimately deep appreciation, is such a gift that I never anticipated.  I hadn’t entertained the possibility.  The early days felt like martyrdom for me.  Sacrifice in an attempt at putting values over comfort and security.  Somehow, that unexpected and slowly progressing connection to place, actually became a different kind of comfort and security.  I wouldn’t have anticipated writing these words just 5 years ago.  I’m happy to be feeling this way now.