this was yesterday. i had finally gone to visit P who i both used to work for and also became friends with. she is a very committed gardner, Grower, actually. she sells at the Farmer's Market. is organic and vegan. is also 82 years. a testament to her lifestyle. and she is one of the few here who know i am thinking about leaving. she didn't want to, but couldn't help, trying to make me feel a little bad about leaving. What would my land do?, she asked. as we were eating a very excellent lunch. i'd forgotten how wonderful it is to eat with her. everything is prepared with such care. Slow. slow food. each ingredient selected and placed with the others with deliberation. like it always was, i am the sous chef and i set the little outdoor table with the placemats and napkins that i select from her collection. i get 4 dog busquits for the dogs so they feel a part of it all. she eats SLOW, even slower than she prepares. i am finished in half the time. so, anyway, she gave me a truly glorious beet when i left. greenhouse beet. a work of art. i wish i'd taken a picture of it. late in the day i steamed the greens and ate them with butter and lemon juice while the beet itself cooked, root and leaf stump in place until done when there is the total pleasure of
slipping the beet from the skin........like a baby getting born
and there was this great pot of juice and skins and stump sigh so i dumped in some onion skins and then various little scraps of cloth, let them soak and since it was such a beautiful warm evening, the jar went out. Yesterday.
today, it was a little quiet early, but then WIND came. Crazy Wind. HUGE GIANT WIND not even taken a breath in between that intense Flow of Itself...just pushing, pushing, pushing
no pause. the walls of this little metal house all quaking, the windows, ify. and SAND, a very very fine sand covering everything, coming through all the cracks. like the Dust Bowl. i have looked at photographs of the Dust Bowl over the years. today, it was happening. here. really. i couldn't see the horses in the pasture. just dust. the Daughter Cloth was covered in a distinct layer of this dust.
i stitched and stiched. invisible, invisible, invisible just kept on. nothing else to do. the far fence went down. the gate between back and front broke loose. two of the windows of the ROOM, where i stitched brok their little hook closures. i screwed them tight. with screws. at one point, when talking to daughter on phone about having been called for a job transfer in California...eee.... i looked out and lo and behold, the skeletan of "Tree Man" who i was really married to
had fallen.
so, this is enough for tonight. in the morning i will tie it in. but for now...i go to the window and look, to see if it is really true and yes. it is really true.
