Sunday, January 30, 2011

About Rachel's Garden

As adults, who often lead complex, busy and stressful lives, it's far too easy to lose sight of those early encounters with nature that first captured our imaginations as children.  Remember what it was like as a kid when you spent the entire day outdoors, exploring every hidden corner of your neighborhood?

Even as gardeners, who generally have a pretty good relationship with the earth, we can get so caught up in the endeavor of gardening itself, and all of its manifestations, that our original sources of inspiration become muddled. Occasionally, it's good to step back and take a fresh look at things.  And there's no better perspective than to re-examine nature through the eyes of a child. Children have that unique gift of being able to distill an enormous amount of complexity into a few simple elements.  And, they remind us of exactly why we were so attracted to the wonders of this beautiful world in the first place.

With the hope that I might at least shake up my own memory from time-to-time, I have introduced a new feature on the sidebar, called Rachel's Garden, which will feature artwork by Rachel.  A little full disclosure right up front:  Rachel happens to be our granddaughter.  I don't think I'm breaking any child labor laws by including her here with me on this blog (she gets the same pay as I do), but admittedly it's a clear cut case of nepotism.

When I feel the blog needs a good dose of reality, I will feature a drawing by Rachel that will be uncluttered with text or description.  Just a raw image of how she sees things.  Like a little palate cleanser in between the entrees.  And, just so it's clear what she has in mind (this could get ambiguous at times) she will title her own artwork.  You'll also notice that she likes to sign all of her work with quite the little flourish!

Below Rachel's picture on the sidebar (you'll recognize her--she's the only one up there right now wearing a beret--the artist that she is), you'll also find some recommended links to websites whose focus is to reacquaint children with nature as well as to provide some real how-to information about getting kids involved in gardening at an early age.

I hope you enjoy her take on things, both the sublime and the peculiar, and that she  might encourage all of us to look at the world just a little differently--perhaps a little more simply.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Contact Me



You can contact me by posting a comment at the end of a blog entry, if you don't mind sharing your question, and my response, with others (sometimes a learning experience for all of us). 

However, if you need to send me a private e-mail, you can contact me at juniperhillfarm [at] comcast [dot net]. Sorry for the cryptology; I would love to simply give you a link to my e-mail address but, sadly, we live in a world full of spam.
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