I apologize.  It’s been awhile.

Spring is always this crescendo of activity and energy that can feel overwhelming at times.  There’s so much momentum, growth, doing.

Add to that a family illness nearing its end, a stay in the hospital with little LF, typical spring farm growth, and you have a tiny piece of the puzzle explaining my absence.

However, we’ve still had so much going on around here.  We manage to squeeze projects into any spare moments we can find.

I’d love to share some glimmers of our life around the farm with you!

We added a new indoor coop area in the barn to accommodate our expanding pasture-raised flock.  We have 13 new chickens in our yard this year.

Peek in the doors to find eggs!

We’ve found a few moments to enjoy my favorite part of spring — ephemeral wildflowers!  Here we found foam flower, ramps, trillium, and there are Virginia bluebells all the way in the back.

Another favorite: Solomon’s seal…

We finally installed our bat box. I haven’t seen any visitors yet, but they’ll be here keeping the mosquitos in check before long, I’m sure!

I also released the Spring Wellness Box; a way to support yourself as you step into spring with a strong body, mind, heart, and garden!  Learn more and get your own here.

In the gardens we’ve been doing a tremendous amount of weeding and planting.  I’m so happy for the moments to just sit and admire the quiet determination of the growing plants.  This is the second year of the medicine wheel garden. It’s inspiring to see the plants beginning to find their place in the garden, grow steadier, and thrive. It’s going to be so exciting when more of these plants come into bloom!

This past weekend was especially busy.  Leah Wolfe from the Trillium Center came to do a guest plant walk, a workshop about herbs for stress, and then I did an afternoon plant walk as well. Leah and I were amazed at the attention we gathered for these events — we’re  taking it as a sign we should keep collaborating in the future!

The Stress Solutions workshop…

(Look for more workshops at our farm by checking here.)

We added a new beehive this spring. We were so excited when we saw that our first hive made it through the winter. However, something appears to have gone wrong this past week….major bummer….We’re hoping it does not move to the new hive as well.

But on a better note here’s a wonderful sight for an herbalist to see in the garden . . . Goldenseal!!  It’s the first I’ve been able to keep over winter.

And while this may not look like much now, it’s a HUGE area of  keyhole gardens that were intensely covered with spring weeds.  Several weeks of hand pulling and digging weeds and we are finally planting here again!

The hops are thriving on their new and improved supports.

And yesterday we planted the  beginning of the three sisters guild.

Glorious, fleeting spring.

P.S. Please remember to check out the Spring Wellness Box here.  It’s on sale for $6 off through Friday! Use code SPRING16.