Clive Nichols: Shooting Gardens at the Edge

Clive Nichols, below.  He shoots a garden, and it is his garden, yet given away as shutter snaps.

Of course you want your feet to crunch on the gravel, above, and walk thru that door. I have walked thru dozens of these graveled doorways across continents & countries, Clive Nichols shoots them exactly as they are in the memory of sparking brain cells.  His shots capture the owner's fantasy & caretakers hands, and my moments being there.



Repeatedly, Clive Nichols shows the beauty of the present, above, yet greater enticements soon to arrive, in the bud.  Perhaps this is his talent, capturing the frisson of life's potent edge, the margins of change.  Providence.  Atonement in the cusp of change, abiding in the moment caught.
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Clive does not bring his equipment into any garden for amusement.  His skills are used in stewardship.



These are not olive trees, above, with breeze blown lavender.  No.  You are walking thru lavender and touching olive branches as you pass.



More than 'how' to shoot, Clive Nichols, knows 'what' to shoot.  He owns the rose, above, yet gives it away, both, in the same moment.  A truth about  gardens.  No matter the 'owner', a garden is given to all who see.




Clive, you unmask me, in a quick snap, above.  The snows of early summer have begun, above, with petals falling to the ground.  Tara Turf, winding past temporary focal points with the roses in bloom, and the subsidiary focal point with a watering can on the chair, Tara's Garden Design Rule: Just Let It Touch, a chair leg just-brushing the taller Tara Turf, rose foliage caressing a chair's shoulder, a petal fallen on the watering can, color theme chosen, scent of a mown path's new growth, scent of the taller Tara Turf, musky, redolent of native bees honey still being skewered into their pollen basket with nectar, and the gift of letting us have hints of roses on the wind, as you do.  (Wowza, that turned into a free, Garden Design Class - All About Subsidiary Focal Points.)





Nothing 'modern' in a garden is new.  Nothing.  New gardeners think there is a difference amongst styles of gardens across centuries, including our own moment.  Clive keeps shooting his own way, knowing the newest of gardens is as old as the earliest recorded.




Designer, owner, caretaker, time as it takes that trinity across occupants, above, Clive captures the earnestness of heart-on-your-sleeve gardening.



My garden study tours across the globe have been the most thrilling/exhausting work I've ever done.  Up at 4am for breakfast, riding the bus to another garden for a day's allotment of 2-3, rain/shine.  Clive Nichols captures exactly, above, the moment 4am-toil-expense-inconvenience, gone.  And, I can smell the freshly mown low Tara Turf, above, hear the water, feel the morning rays, understand dimensions, feel the proportions, intuit the age of focal points-trees-shrubs...turn toward axis, understand why they are there, showing off, or hinting at seduction.
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It isn't my interest to shoot like Clive Nichols.  My interest is designing gardens Clive wants to shoot.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Clive Nichols teaches photography classes, here.  Perhaps, in the fullness of time, I will take my own photography from the edge of being a Clive Nichols, to being a Clive Nichols.  Hunger still too strong to create those gardens Clive wants to shoot.  However, would love to attend a Clive Nichols seminar.  Perhaps one of my clients, with frequent flier miles, a barn with accommodations, a garden on site to shoot, and several nearby could sponsor something like this?  Acquiring Clive Nichols in their garden, shooting, as reward.

When Aesthetics Save Us

Garden design begins inside your home.

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Pretty views into the garden.

Science is catching up to the microbes swirling in gardens and their necessity to our beneficial gut bacteria, and skin.

You thought it was nice outside, open the door?

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Instead, DNA, pushing for survival.

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A nice day?  Hardly, Providence smiles.

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 Providence smirks.  Your agenda is a pretty garden.  Instead, done to historical template  (aka  Garden Design formula), property value increases, HVAC decreases, maintenance reduced, pollinators fed not killed, no fertilizers/chemicals poisoning groundwater/killing soil microbes, physical health is better, mental health is stronger.

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Science Daily, a garden/farm bacteria/health information resource.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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More, 

Take Two Hikes and Call me in the Morning: Nature Deficit Disorder

Pics early last summer with Laura, conceived & born in my garden.  Of course she moved inside.

When a Client Doesn't Like Your BEST Work

Lunch at jobsite, below, yesterday.

Met with clients, on site, initially to walk/talk their new garden.

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Drew the plan, and mailed it.
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Then, the phone call, "He doesn't like anything about the plan."
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It did not bother me, in the least.  She liked the plan, I listened to her descriptions of what he disliked about the plan, aside from everything.

3+ decades drawing gardens, I knew, deep within my bones, this is the best plan I've ever done.  Top of my game.  The prime of miss jean brodie, before she was aware it had passed.

Every garden has a lot of right answers, and wrong.

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His dislikes were within the realm of expectations.  He wanted meat & potatoes.  Instead, he was served the most incredible bottle of red wine Earth has produced, the tastiest asparagus, upon elegantly simple ironstone, antique subtle silver utensils, candles burning, and the meat/potatoes became so obscured by the fineness of the 'other', he lost site.  He did get what he wanted.

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How did he 'see' ?

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Confidence.  My work/skills are based upon history, decades studying historic landscapes across Europe.  Zero I create is 'new', zero.  My work is that of the best, done by others long dead, across continents & cultures.

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How could I be upset, he did not 'see' my work?  It was new to him.  I listened intently for her descriptions of his concerns.  Poof, voila.  Let's tweak here, and tweak this, and tweak that.

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The original plan was a 'concept' plan.  Changes were made to the final plan.

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He approved the final plan.  He was 'on board'.

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The new question, from him, and her, 'Did I like the new plan?"

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Seemingly changed, it still retained all the best of every bit I've learned over decades.

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I'm just as happy with the final plan as the concept plan.  However, this is THEIR garden.

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Confidence.  Sound of Music, I have confidence in confidence itself, type of confidence.

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This is still my best work.  And, now, he likes his meat/potatoes.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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Pics taken at jobsite.  The story got a bit wilder.  They were only going to install the minimum for covering the red clay, and a few paths.  Instead, he said to install the entire plan.  Will post this garden when it's complete, and both the drawings.

Bunny Mellon: Garden & Gun

Topiaries & terra cotta.  All sizes.  25 a good start.

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Enough to set about, and, trade out.  Trade weekly, prevent spider mites.  The off-exhibit, outside.

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Bunny Mellon, Garden & Gun, below.

Enough topiary & terra cotta to pass forward with Lunch Ministry.

In Vanity Fair, below, ca. August, 2010. Bunny Mellon hit my radar.  Rare, the person intentionally gardening just-like-me.  Oh my, yes.  This, below, stopped me.  A kindred spirit.  Who exactly is Bunny Mellon?  In the fullness of time, may she keep returning to your radar, as she does mine.

“Nothing should stand out. It all should give the feeling of calm. When you go away, you should remember only the peace.”  Bunny Mellon, of her beloved, Oak Spring  Farm.



Delightful YouTube about Bunny Mellon, here.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

Design that isn't Designed

Using what you have Garden Design, below.

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With delectable additions.

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Without fail, after a designed garden has aged, the best pictures are never the intended best pictures.

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I study these.  Ponder them.  Time passes.

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Most often, without answer.

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Yet.  No matter the scenario, I create a garden.
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Garden whisperer.
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At a jobsite, working in the mode of what exists, what is available, permutations in rivulets top-down in the brain, nothing else exists, nothing.  Moments of eternity.  No time, no hunger, no sense of breathing or heart beat, at one with, atonement.
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Then the general contractor, yelling across a meadow, hurry up these guys can't stand here all day.
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Ripped from atonement.
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Rivulets gone.  Into the present, only a distant memory of eternity.
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Guys coming in, plantings placed, me adjusting, adjusting, adjusting, what I can.  Just damn the aging body, plants heavier than me, must be moved a foot.  The men 'know', I am desperate.  Intuitive.  Their boss, the general contractor who they must satisfy, yet all of them, like a waltz, dipping in to my panic, helping, one human to another.
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Was on a panel judging garden entries for our state's largest trade group yesterday.  A particular home, a vacation home, magnificent in setting/architecture/landscape, we gave it the top award.  Rare the individual in any era acquiring a gettaway home like this one.  Yet, my heart doesn't want to own/enjoy that home.   Rather, dozens of those homes, I want to design/install the gardens.  The wealth of my soul.  Atonement.
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 " He who is born with a silver spoon in his mouth is generally considered a fortunate person, but his good fortune is small compared to that of the happy mortal who enters the world with a passion for flowers in his soul."  Celia Thaxter, An Island Garden, page 4.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pic Nest Pretty Things

Was given, An Island Garden, by my mother-in-law, Jenny, decades ago.  Have read it several times, and will read it many times more.

Community Activists Who WANT to Stay off the Radar

When my father ran for city council, 1970's, he had Coffee's in friends houses.  He lost.  Ran again, won.

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When I go home I still walk the park at the marsh along Clear Creek, where fresh water meets salt water, created/saved/maintained with my dad on the zoning team.  Further along my walk, towards the end, saved as I did during bike rides as a child, Galveston Bay on Upper Bay Road,  Deep salt water, boats, my little island, the land of G*d.  Too bad land views beyond the water were not in the jurisdiction of my dad's zoning team back-in-the-day.  Now, it's all construction.   

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Toward the end of dad's tenure in city government a parcel of land, salt water frontage, was considered for a new nursing home.  Dad went ballistic.  Zoning team worked hard, had many scares, yet prevailed.  Nursing home never built, and the land preserved as a public park.  Before reaching the boardwalk on Upper Bay Road, my feet are on the gravel trails of that park.  Grace given from one generation to another.  Dad & his team with zero concern for recognition.  

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Today, the park 'just is' for most who pass it and use it.  Exactly what the zoning team wished.  

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Across USA are dozens of teams doing the same.  However, they are not city government nor legal zoning groups.  Few are recognized, nor want to be.  Easier to work under the radar, these people are not stupid.  Yet they perform major & minor tasks for communities, for you, for me.  

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These groups made my career.  Time has brought success, in gratitude I continue meeting with these groups at rates reflecting the early/hungry years.  

3 decades of lecturing to Garden Clubs across Georgia, and USA.

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Decades of sitting thru their business meetings.  They never cease to interest me.  The Garden Club is the tapestry of a community, and a last bastion of civility.  

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Information.  Often the type you will not find elsewhere.   Crimes occurring, who has died, who is gravely ill, who has moved away/in, arranging for community decor at the entry ways for the holidays.  

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Nor is it uncommon for Garden Clubs to step into local government issues affecting their 'subdivision'.  Yes, Garden Clubs have stopped major big box construction on small rural roads unable to handle the 'services' required.  Most Garden Clubs have charities they raise money for, with long track records.

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A few Garden Clubs host Flower/Garden Shows bringing major convention traffic to their leading American cities.

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Every layer of activity with a Garden Club increases/touches social connection, property values, safety, civility.

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Unpaid public servants.

Garden Clubs have meetings about plants, but they are not plant meetings.

 Holding office in a Garden Club is easy.  There is a mentored path to president, if you wish.  However, this is the realm of matriarchs.  Beware, mean girls.  If you're serious about going to 'president' position, those matriarchs will turn you into one of them, or you'll drop out because you-want-to.  Once your name is off the Garden Club list, bless-your-heart, those matriarchs will still invite you in.  Knowing the power of a Mean Girl turned Matriarch.
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As decades pass, and women retire from amazing careers, they join Garden Club for the first time.  A broad array of skill sets are within Garden Club.  Almost every time amongst them I'm wishing I knew everything every woman in the room knew.  They humble me.  There is so much to learn.

Most amazing fact about Garden Club?  Virtually ignored by their cities & businesses.

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Unless the mayor has decided to become jealous of their successes.  Yes, I know of that true story too.  A delicious tale, but I have to head off to jobsites.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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Pics from a Garden Club talk I gave earlier this month.

Topiary: Levens Hall & Arne Maynard

Levens Hall, The Lake District, Cumbria, was the first European study garden I visited.  I was on my way to Scotland to study historic gardens.

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Levens Hall is known for many things, especially topiary, below.

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Topiary was not off my radar, entirely, for decades.  I didn't like it. 

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Now, I get topiary.  Better late than 'nevah'.  Proof, my mistakes are never small.

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Large properties, especially, find topiary useful.  Small properties too.

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Accent, focal point, all year effect, easy to maintain, design uses are many.

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Across USA millions of homes retain their PSO's planted by the builder to satisfy mortgage loan requirements with new construction.

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PSO?  Plant Shape Only.

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Plenty of mature USA hollies are ready for topiary.

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From Levens Hall, below, a chart of some of their topiary.  What's not to like?  You get to put your mark on topiary.

Discovered the work of Arne Maynard via the internet.  Have never been to his garden, nor those he has designed.  Soon, soon...

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Knew immediately he was already where I was headed.  Deep simplicity, Nature, house architecture, wit, intelligence, deeper simplicity.  Of course, Levens Hall runs thru the fragrance of Maynard's work.

Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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Top pic Levens Hall, bottom pic Arne Maynard.

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The famous topiary garden at Levens Hall was laid out on axis from a bank of windows inside the home, the middle lead.   Not written anywhere, discovered during my tour.  Levens Hall has had a head gardener entering in the garden journal for almost 4 centuries.

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Life is good, have been to Levens Hall 3 times, and Arne Maynard's gardens await.  Oddly, have zero inclination to travel to international gardens at present.  Too important to design gardens and get them in the ground.  

Rental Success: FlipKey, AirBnB, HomeAway, VRBO, Craigslist

After dinner she said, "....Craigslist too."

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They rented their cabin successfully with several vacation rental sites.

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Living a good retirement, aka good judgement involved, I paid attention.  Perhaps their rental success could be copied?

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For sale 6 years, and listed with a local vacation rental company (with little/no success) my friend's cabin was ripe for a little fun, "I'll stage your cabin & list it."

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Staging was approached with a full quiver of collateral career tools.  A week later I presented a staging plan, and he was not-on-board. 

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Without proper staging why waste time uploading?  Finally, "You let me do 100%  or I walk."  Got my 100%.

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What do vacation renters want?  Easy.  Vacation rental sites guide you through listing necessities of bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, dining tables & how many they seat, eat in kitchen, separate dining room, amenities of your home, and nearby activities.

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Pictures.  The more pictures you include the better your rental chances.

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Choose your lead picture, below, with seduction.  

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Study listings and see which pictures most reflect what you are trying to offer.

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This cabin had the good fortune of being near the Appalachian Trail, Tallulah River, Lake Burton, a marina, wineries, golfing, antiquing, several good restaurants, wedding venues, camping & camps.

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Narrative.

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Staging DIY?  Look clinically at what you have, no ego.  Remember, this is about making money.  Real, serious, money.  List  negatives, confront each with positives and write a list.

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I studied the local 'professional' rental listing.  Why wasn't it renting?  Crime scene photos, zero narrative,  Told the owner my thoughts, he said there wasn't a market for rentals near his cabin.  He was not making enough rental income to pay a single month's mortgage. 

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For decades I enjoyed a family lake house, below, aside from innate beauty of setting & architecture & garden the house welcomed/nurtured all who entered.  Every age group.  The kitchen, a great gathering place while chef/s performed magic.  The audience content with cocktails & conversation.  Labradors in/out, wet from the lake.  Books in every room, chairs arranged for views & conversation throughout the house.  No TV.  Always a new person to meet/enjoy invited by someone else.  

  

Staging the cabin meant adding a place in the kitchen for chef/audience, it had no table/seating.  Creating a library, there were no books.  Creating a 'grandchild' zone, there was zero for children.  Giving Nature its proper role by taking away the power of the TV's in every seating arrangement.  Placing garden chairs outside facing the myriad mountain views, there were none. Honoring the architecture of the cabin, local craftsman, moving furniture that was hiding it, and lifting valences that hid entire mountain views. 

Valences, above/below, tucked atop blinds, showing off mountain views instead of hiding them.
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A basket with coffee filters, and coffee saved from a zillion vacation hotels, was in a basket on the counter by the coffee pot.  Shampoo/soap from those hotels was put into the bathrooms.  New'ish magazines/catalogs were regularly refreshed in the family room.
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Another basket had plenty of mustard, ketchup, mayo, packages, not used from too many lunches eaten out.

Every kitchen counter item had been plastic.  Added cookbooks, wood cutting boards, ironstone canister for wooden cooking spoons, local pottery tea pot & antique Italian tea canister filled with array of teas.  Table is a drop leaf and the chairs are local Appalachian vernacular.  Basket on the table is full of brochures for local activities & restaurants.  Lighting was limited to overhead, small lamp added.
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Owner provided dishwashing liquid, dishwasher powder, clothes washing soap, and garbage bags.

Show off the charm of your rental.  Most renters did ask about a fireplace, did it work, wood available, etc.  Again, only overhead lighting, small lamp added.  Wood not provided, but matches were always on the mantel.

Every piece of furniture faced the TV.  Now all the views can be seen too, and the local craftsman made mountain laurel rails, below.

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TV and internet are expected by most renters.  No internet at the cabin, but cell phone internet is not a problem.  No renter has backed out after discovering no internet.  

A choice was made, no dogs or smoking.  Rental sites make it obvious/easy to list what is not allowed.

A potential renter asked about a fire ring.  There was not one.  The owner told her he would have it by her rental date, and he did.  My bad, not thinking about it first.



Renters want to know bed specifics.  Tell them AND show them, below.  Listing sites are generous in number of pics you can post, and it's easy to add captions.
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Master bedroom, below, was simple to stage.  It had no art on the walls, and the brass lamps were ca. 1982, they went downstairs to a guest room.  Lead bedroom pics with the showiest.



French doors from every bedroom to a deck with fabulous views.  Again, show AND tell.



Those brass lamps, below.  Bedspread, below, exchanged later for a 'lighter' version that will dry faster.  A request from the housekeeper.
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The owner was fortunate to have someone honest, hardworking, cheerful, helpful, and pro-active as housekeeper.  Housekeeping with the local rental company, finally, had to be denied services.  A drama, yes, but easily resolved.
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C.S. Lewis, below, on the bed table.

Another guest room, below, was chosen as a grandchild's room.  Again, there was no art on the walls, all the staged pieces related to childhood, in joy, nothing cute.

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Almost half of the renters have had children.

Once sterile of children, the cabin now has little child's toys left behind here/there, Better, a sweetness in seeing where an adult has set a children's book they had been reading aloud to their little one/s.

  Intuition for accepting rentals is needed.  New Year's Eve, over 30 requests came in from groups of 7, (maximum allowed) that reeked of alcohol, debauchery, sex, broken furniture, ruined rugs, in the request.  
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A damage deposit is on the rental sites for you to include.
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In a year's time, nothing has been stolen or damaged at the cabin.
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The majority of the cabin rentals have been due to love.  With the rental requests, a little story is commonly given from the renter.  Did not expect this, and have quite enjoyed them.  (Somehow I became stager & screener.)
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Not my cabin, every 'off' request, I let the owner know, for approval/disapproval.  On a Tuesday, someone offered to rent the cabin, at a discount, because they noticed it was not rented yet for the weekend.  Owner approved, bad move.  Renter never showed, and another renter offered full price on Thursday.  True story.
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Rental requests can be sent automatically to your cell phone.  And replied to via your phone.

Be aware, most counties do have a bed tax for vacation rentals.

One renter, coming for a car rally, had a high performance sports car.  He needed a pic of the driveway.  My bad, it was added soon after.

Renters want to get away, the entry gate is a perfect sign, without words, welcome/relax/enjoy, put your tires on our gravel.

Fireplace mantel, above, had fake Canadian spruce for decor with no art.  Local, dried hydrangea blossoms were staged with art/books.  The fake spruce was used on a chest in the downstairs hall.

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Staging is not about remaking a home, but making it more intensely its best self.

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One renter offered to not pay for the maid, and have a deep discount.  I thanked him for the opportunity & wished him the best in his search for a weekend home.  Saw in him, my college girl self, and laughed.  We've all been there. 

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98% of 2014 renters left the cabin showing their character/integrity and thoughtfulness towards others by leaving leftover firewood, charcoal & etc.

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That 2% renter?  They liked sex.  Loved that phone call from the housekeeper.

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Sites used for the cabin: FlipKey, HomeAway, AirBnB, VRBO, Craigslist.

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I set up a gmail address for the cabin.  And, keep a paper 'master' calendar of dates rented, with me at all times.

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Craigslist brought in renters, they were sent to HomeAway to rent instead of owner handling the transactions, easier.  None of the Craigslist renters balked at this method.  

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The various rental sites have various methods of paying for their services.  The cabin owner decided to do the 10% fee/rental.  After a year of experience, he knows the flat fee of $300/year is a cheaper deal for him.

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What did vacation rentals bring the owner?  Almost enough to pay for a year of his mortgage.  Considerable leap in success, over the local rental company.

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What did I get out of this?  Knew I could do it, successfully, now have proved it.  That little genie of 'competitiveness' got out of her bottle.  Love that genie but know she can take over, best to trust Providence, with action steps of course.

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Lecturing in Chicago last year I met an incredible woman.  We locked eyes, and bonded completely.  During our time she mentioned, without knowing of the cabin, her bucket list.  Walking the Appalachian Trail was on her list.  She flew to Atlanta, she wanted to see my house/garden, then off to the cabin.  The owner gave me time at his cabin.  Walking the Appalachian Trail, with her, well, I have no words for the richness.  It is a good story, the emotion still too raw, later it will be told.

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  Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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This is not a solicitation to rent the cabin, merely the how-to I used in staging & setting up the cabin on rental sites.  

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I spent $300 on staging accouterments, in addition to loaning much from my attic/garden/garage.  Hunting gathering staging materials was done over a month's time during my normal work days, stopping at nearby antique/junk shops.  Once at the cabin, to stage, I was alone, it took 4 hours to move furniture and accessorize.  Wish I could tell you what this 'service' should cost.  If you are a stager, and have a good guess, let me know.  Also, if you see staging mistakes/omissions, let me know.  Good money was made, but always willing to make more.  Oops, genie out of her bottle, it's not my money.  Favorite, not-my-money?  Laying in bed, checking email, answering rental request, getting $800 contract.....  

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The local vacation rental company offered the cabin owner, recently, for $300  & 35% rental fee, to upload his cabin to HomeAway.

Brave Enough to be this Simple?

Glen Ella, below, New Year's Eve.

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Still in use, their barn, more than a century later, its current garden design pulls deep admiration.

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Simplicity.

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Mostly, these barns are rotting/caving-in/gone across USA.

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Go off the grid?  These barns are original off the grid support.

Field gathered stones, below, still functioning.

Perhaps my favorite view of the barn, below.  Simplicity of garden design, and views into the guts of its architecture.  What is the narrative?  Was it added on to?  More than once?

Barn still in use, above, totally garden designed.  Yet, to most, it will seem derelict, dangerous, and they will think, "Why don't they do something, or tear it down?"  Without realizing the brain power creating this current narrative with form/function.  More than brain power, a relationship with Providence.
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Would you be this bold, above, as a garden designer?
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Simplicity is a hard/impossible task.
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Simplicity requires the ego to mask itself.
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No worries about that, once you realize your ego can shine via the simplicity.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Arrived with friends, for dinner, at Glen Ella near dusk, the later seating was booked.  Cold, little light, and everyone walked toward the entry, and warmth.  Not me.  I forgot they existed.  My behavior, whence a good garden appears, targeted on the hunt.  The garden, camera, me, a trinity & zone flying beyond time, social acceptance, whatever.  Poor unfortunate souls needing drugs to arrive in this zone.  
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Have met 1 other soul with this trinity to Nirvana, in Italy, a Delta pilot.  He/I were constantly in each other's way and beyond irritated, beyond the moon irritated.  A few days of this hell we knew some sort of 'arrangement' had to be discovered, some sort of 'friendship'.  Finally, we spoke.  Of course he had to let me know he was a Captain, and a bit about his lovely large home etc.  Woo-woo, let him know a friend's dad had been a Flying Tiger, and original pilot hire by Delta, and he lived around the corner from me growing up.  Told you we didn't like each other up front.  And by the way, someone had to train the astronauts how to fly their rockets, uh, that would be my dad in the simulator with them, former Air Force test pilot.  Isn't it rare the events bringing out our best 7 year old selves, in a snit?  Oh that archaic lizard brain.  You know exactly what happened next.   Talked our way to what is best for both of us, have been true friends since.   He's a wonderful pilot, and person, the best.  Adore his wife, she's a junker for antiques too.
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Grew up knowing the neighbor was a Flying Tiger.  Thought it was euphemism.  During college saw a movie with John Wayne, Flying Tigers.  Consistently, when I'm wrong, it's never a little.

Of Chickens & Caretakers of Charlie Hebdo Victims

Last Wednesday, a massacre in my chicken coop.  Neighbor's dogs already drawing blood, and death, by the time I arrived.

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DNA takes over when you come upon a bear while walking in the woods, and during a chicken massacre.  In my experience.

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Screaming.  8 days later my voice still not good.

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Blessedly the dogs owner heard, ran, helped.  With character & integrity.  

He helped gather the dead.  And wounded.

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Wednesday was the Paris massacre too.  Gathering coop debris Thursday evening, still seeing where dead chickens lay, feathers now in hand, how could this be dead people with families, friends, lives?

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This chore, a fragment of the gift of stewardship, made me aware of and pray for those caretaking the dead and wounded in the Charlie Hebdo office.

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A headline arrived about those caretakers.  A police commissioner, after meeting with family of a Charlie Hebdo victim, committed suicide.

Less than 1/4 acre, in a subdivision of tightly packed houses, these pics are my home.  Where my garden begins.
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Garden views reign at every window.  Imperative, and non-negotiable.  Thirty years building, garden paths, terraces, conservatory, potager, ponds, chicken coop, plantings blooming every day of the year, and etc.
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Three years ago, chickens arrived.  The goal was to enjoy their calm sounds & movements, marvel at their beauty, then, processing.  Instead, they taught me how smart chickens are, and human-like in their behaviors of hierarchy.  Who knew they would make me laugh, daily?    Plus, egg ministry.  Ridiculous, it's fun giving eggs away.  How wonderful my garden soil would be if it had had chicken poop for 3 decades instead of 3 years.
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Without effort, these chicks humbled me in arenas I did not know existed.  They gave something no garden, no garden writer, no garden speaker, no garden classes, no horticulture degree, no garden book, no PBS garden show, no garden center, no garden website, no garden blog, no garden Youtube, no garden Facebook wall, even hinted toward,  Stewardship.
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Until chickens, as enriching as my garden was, it was merely amusement compared to stewardship.
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Amusement with my garden felt like going to church, tacking onto its religion, reading the bible, making strong efforts to become spiritually filled.  Stewardship, gives hints at hearing the author of the bible, knowing Nature as the 'written' structure of Providence.   And the spiritual well?  Filled beyond measure, without effort.
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Wendell Berry has written of stewardship in essays, poetry, fiction, for decades.
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Stewardship cannot be given.  But, like Tasha Tudor chose for her motto, she read in a poem, Take Joy,  Stewardship is there to be taken.  Whenever you are ready.  Stewardship is far more than caretaking chickens or a garden.  It is metaphor.

What does stewardship mean to you?

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I settled for amusement with my garden, not knowing there was more.

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Stewardship.  You have it for your own life, whether you think so, or not.

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Great amusement in knowing my chickens gave me stewardship.  Greater thanks in the depth of the gift.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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Do you know what processing a chicken means?  Killing & eating.  Never named my chicks, knowing I was a tough girl and would process them.  Of course those thoughts were toast long ago.  

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Alpha Girl has major physical trauma but is eating, pooping, alert, and I'm hand feeding.  Yesterday she pushed away, in her total alpha girl 'attitude', another chick.  Of course I had to tell Beloved how noble Alpha Girl is and I could only wish to be as noble in a tough situation.

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Beloved tried to remain speechless at this new fact about chickens.