Ode to the Farmer

Ol' Stingy Jack

 

Ol' Stingy Jack

 

 

sending wishes for a Spooky All Hallow's Eve~



Happy Birthday, dear Tasha Tudor, with love

 

A tinge of fragrant wood smoke is curling up from our chimney into the chilly air above our old farmhouse this early morning.

The sun has not come up over the hills just yet and I am here writing to you by candle light, with a proper cup of hot tea to drink and a sleepy kitten lying on my lap.

A perfect early morning to quietly reflect on how such an extraordinary woman, Tasha Tudor, touched my life completely.

Today would be her 98th birthday and in celebration of

the amazing life she led

I'll go about my day as I always do...enjoying each quiet moment and task.

Shortbread cookies will be baking for afternoon tea, hand sewing the hem of a small linen petticoat for a doll, reading a few pages of a treasured book of Tasha's extraordinary life...

and in keeping these little rituals we all feel the loss of her a little less and somehow,

we feel even more connected to her and to all those whose lives she touched.

~

Tonight as I cook over the fire and light our evening with hand made candles,

we go on.

Enjoying our family and each season as it comes, without rushing... it is the quiet celebrating of taking joy and the gentle side of life that she loved and bestowed on us all.

~

My gardens speak of her, with herbs and old roses and deep indigo lupine-late blooming this summer~ the tangled potato & pumpkin patch and apples hanging from the trees down in the old orchard.

My attempt at knitting a shawl, slow going as I have so many irons in the fire, is snuggled in a basket by my chair. I hoped to have it ready by the time the first frost nipped my cheek on my early morning walks through the gardens.

As chilly as it is this morning, I know

I must knit a little more each evening now....

 

Each thing we do here as we live our lives close to the land, every dream we dream.

everything has it's roots growing deep in Tasha's garden.

The seeds that she planted in the hearts of those who loved her are

growing and stretching towards a deep blue summer sky today.

~

The garden that was planted in my heart the day I first read a story of her, first saw her gardens, stood by her barn door, amazed at how tiny she was, first hearing her voice and chuckled at her wry New England humor.

I was given a name for what I already loved...

but just didn't know...

a candle was lit...a garden planted...

and there, I found my kindred spirit.

What a gift she was to us.

and is still...
 

http://thepastoraldollmaker.blogspot.com/2008/07/road-to-tashas.html


The Tudor Family is having a very special giveaway to celebrate dear Tasha Tudor's 98th Birthday !!

Rookery Ramblings Tasha Tudor Day Giveaway


 

 

 

~this is a repost of my thoughts on Tasha's 95th birthday~

still feeling the same~ still missing her~

sunday morning~ a little herb strewing~

"Herbs do comfort the wearied braine with fragrant smells which yield a certain kinde of nourishment."-

 

William Coles, 1656.

 

I've been cutting herbs to hang from the beams in the little house this morning~ the fragrance of lavender, costmary -bible leaf- and lemon balm hanging overhead and strewn across the wood floors has filled the rooms~ so calming and refreshing ~ it makes this such a serene place to be in while I work, getting the little house ready for doll making.





 

 

peace and plenty & a simple life indeed~

The Fall 2013 issue of  A Simple Life has arrived at last!

and what a beautiful issue it is~

filled with wonderful articles, stories and beautiful photos~

as well as my essay,

~the Old Chair~

you can order your own issue or subscribe to
A Simple Life magazine
~~~


My lovely Peace and Plenty sampler was stitched by me using one of the wonderful sampler designs designed by folk artist and needlework artist

Lori Brechlin of Notforgotten Farm

I absolutely love it~
it's folky and early, like all of Lori's wonderful designs & just right for our old farmhouse here on
Deerfield Farm~


Enjoy!
 



let us then live in peace

 

 

'Let us then live in peace and friendship together, doing to each other all the good we can.”

 

  ~Thomas Jefferson~


A wonderfully wise man,
our Thomas Jefferson ~

 

 born in Shadwell, Virginia
on Apr. 13, 1743

and died at his beloved home, Monticello
in Charlottesville, Virginia
July 4, 1826,
the 50th anniversary
of the Declaration of Independence

 

 

 



in remembrance

peaceful and content

We woke to a very wet and chilly early morning here on Deerfield Farm. Every leaf, every blade of grass and the mint fields stretching out to meet the hills are covered with droplets of rain and everything in such beautiful shades of green.... 

Mist covers the low places and the pond and doves are calling back and forth. The scent of wood smoke in the air from our chimney.

  It reminds me very much of visiting Tasha Tudor's home and gardens in her beautiful kingdom of Vermont. 

      photo of Tasha Tudor's gardens by Richard Brown

 Wishing you all a beautiful Memorial weekend, be safe and enjoy this beautiful spring day!

 And here is a little something for you~

 ~~~

  "I n  the dark of early morning just between fading starlight and the first bird call, she opened the door out into the kitchen garden.

Wrapping her shawl closer, she stepped onto the stone stoop. Sipping hot tea from an old handless cup decorated with mulberry-black pastoral views, held in both hands. Steam rose from her cup, she sighed with content, warming her hands against the early morning chill.

The fresh scent of garden herbes and the apothecary rose enveloped her as she stood in the doorway. Rain left droplets along the saw tooth leaves of the Ladyes Mantle and there, a small cottontail darted away from his breakfast of tender lettices.
As the pale light came through the trees she could see that it would be a damp day. She drank the last sip of tea & slipping the empty cup into the pocket hidden beneath her flowered petticoat, she walked down the brick path, out of the kitchen yard and down a trail through the tall grass into the apple trees...."

excerpt from " Song of the Doll maker" by Christine Crocker of Deerfield Farmhouse
published in "A Simple Life Magazine" Winter issue 2010.

photo by Richard Brown of Tasha Tudor's gardens

Easter Sunday

the old church at Simnashio

 

 

 I hope you all had the loveliest of Easter Sundays~

 I hope that you have had a day of Rejoicing and

filled with love and family,

 a chocolate bunny or egg or two,

 and a moment to reflect in the beauty of this day~

 

it has been the loveliest Easter Sunday.

a spring like day, warm soft air, birds singing,

a chorus of frogs down in the creek, daffodils

waving in the warm breeze.

The lawn has sparkles of brightly colored egg shell remnants left from

the Bunny McEggers Grand and Great

Easter Egg & Scavenger Hunt...

another great success!

Thanks so much Uncle Bryan!!

 

Great Grandma & Grandpa were here today

holding great grand babies and visiting

~lots of wonderful food and laughter~

I think my house was rattling with all the laughing and

everyone talking at once...

 

my very favorite thing is to sit back and watch them enjoying each other and themselves.  

To let fleeting times like these just flow over me and soak into my soul.

Looking around our table at all the people I love together, talking and laughing.

Eating wonderful food that we all made together, the little ones frosted the cookies and hung them

on the Easter cookie tree, a little frosting on the corner of each little mouth, using their best

table manners, using the good silver, drinking from old pressed glass glasses, napkins carefully placed just so...please and thank you...my Mother exclaiming at their  table manners...

just a lovely day together, nothing amiss, sharing food and love for each other.

 

The big & best things in life are indeed the little things.

Our days are made up of precious little things that make the big things...

wonderful Easter egg and spring flowered colors..

 

memories.

 

wishing you all a wonderful week ahead,

 

love to you,

Christine



good friday sunrise

Good Friday sunrise over our little Deerfield Farm


~Wishing you all a happy and Blessed Good Friday ~

soon.....

my garden last spring

this winter weary season will quietly come back to life~

in indigo,cerise and lime..
with soft warm air, meadowlarks and frog-song lullabies...
armloads of long stemmed purple doubled lilacs..

I'm digging in the garden today.
Moving old brick, neatening edges...sorrowing a lost rose...
glad at so many volunteer columbine under the leaf mulch,
pale green yellow of the poplar grove trees...
soon..

I hope that the sun is shining on you wherever you might be today. 

riding the wind with love and popsickle smiles~

 

the March winds whip, blow and howl. It teases, tickles and torments, like cousins will do to one another. 

wild winds carry away the dry leaves, dust and last remnants of grey days,

soft rain washes the winter weary faces of the counryside

and in it's place~

 fresh green pastures filled with wildflowers and grasses and ocean blue skies~

days like today leave us with the promise that soft warm days are peeking

around the corner just waiting to be lolled and luxuriated  in...

with popsicle smiles and bare feet.

these are the happy little sunshine faces

that I love... so much that it truly hurts...

and then...there is this little man...

...lordy..

.

oh me, oh my, how much can one Grandma's heart take...

well, I'll take all of it,

Happy First Day of Spring!

warming in the early morning sun

~ early morning sun warming my favorite chalk lamb hand made by Netty~

"The March wind roars

Like a lion in the sky,

And makes us shiver

As he passes by.

When winds are soft,

And the days are warm and clear,

Just like a gentle lamb,

Then spring is here."

Our first day of March here on Deerfield Farm is warm and calm winded.  Robins and Red-Winged blackbirds fill the trees with singing and flitting from the water barrel and then to the wet earth to stretch a worm from it's sleepy garden bed.

There's a slight yellow-greening of the tree tops down in the poplar grove and in the tea fields, tiny mint leaves, burrowed down in the winter mulch have begin to send out dark runners.

The rhubarb has deep red shoots pushing up through it's blanket of grass hay and the old lilacs by the barn door have fat buds.

I know this calmness and first taste of a soft and  almost warm day, with the grass fields beginning to lose it ochre and put up it's tufts of spring greens, is only a fleeting taste for us.

The winds begin to blow and howl when Spring first decides to grace us with her presence.

So, this calm and almost warm first day of March is so welcome to our winter weary souls.

I hope that wherever you are, that the sun is shining on your face and the sure hope of  Spring warming your hearts!

Happy March my friends!

love,C.

our Humble is so very pleased

little Humble recently became the very happy owner of her very

own wee Sewing Coffer and a Farmer's Wife flax comb~

both are lovingly hand made
 by Lori & Peter Brechlin

of  Notforgotten Farm

are they not the loveliest little things?

Peter hand made them and Lori has given them her special graining and aging~
They hand make many other wonderful little wooden items
that any seamstress and collector of fine folk art would love~

as you can see, little Humble is ever so pleased.
Thank you Lori & Peter Brechlin!

sweetest love

one of my very favorite dolls~ little Ladye Augusta of Deerfield Farm

...last evening,

by the candle lit fireside

our Augusta had a gentleman caller....

they sat side by side and listened to the quiet crackling of the fire

he leaned in closer....and whispered into her crumpled little ear

"oh my dear"..."how lovely you look this evening"...

and then pressed a hand written letter,

sealed with crimson wax, into her hand.

and while bowing low

he kissed her mitted hand,

and bid her good night...and a wish to see her on the morrow.

Inside, he had written in beautiful spidery letters, all in sepia ink

"I love thee - I love thee,

'Tis all that I can say

It is my vision in the night,

My dreaming in the day."

~Thomas Hood~

she could not have been more surprised...

blessed beginnings

~ a view from my window~

just as the last sliver of the winter moon slid down the icy mountain side into the west

the new year sunrise came and kissed the fields with pale pink frost~

a beautiful beginning for our new year.

sending much love and happy wishes to all of you,

 dear friends and family~

Christe' & Bob