I was delighted to be reminded of Malcolm Guite this morning when I came across his YouTube channel. Here he is reading an essay on pipe smoking.

Sometimes the world is terrible—but sometimes I just need a nap.

Around here, Candlemas means crêpes by candlelight (even if it is the middle of the day).

We (mostly Rachel!) made a decent dent in this weekend’s project. It’ll take at least one more round to dig out the … oh I don’t know … ten remaining tons of rock and landscape fabric.

How it looked last summer versus current state:

So one of our projects is to rip out (almost) all of the landscaping on the south side of the house and replace it with flowers and food. I was planning to start helping Rachel this afternoon (I was job working this morning) but then came out and she already had a great deal of it done! She said “buy a girl a pair of coveralls and there’s no telling what she’ll do.” ❤️ But don’t worry, there’s still plenty of work left for me to share in. 😄

Video of Bronson Cave, Spring Mill State Park

Prayer after Eating
Wendell Berry

I have taken in the light
that quickened eye and leaf.
May my brain be bright with praise
of what I eat, in the brief blaze
of motion and of thought.
May I be worthy of my meat.

[published in The Country of Marriage]

I love this Imbolc essay from Rhyd Wildermuth.

It’s 7pm and that has come to mean one thing at the Abel house this winter: it’s time for tea and Azerbaijanians.

Gardening is afoot! Rachel is planting sweet peas and prepping some other indoor containers for seed starting.