New photography prints available now with or without white matte.
Take a look.
New photography prints available now with or without white matte.
Take a look.
For days now, two hens have been brooding in the same nesting box. Their body language is different every time I go to the coop.
Could you turn around? The view isn’t pretty!
Boy, I try to improve the view and then you sit on me! What’s up with that?
I’ll tell you what’s up with that! You’re taking up all the room. I need a break!
You’re on my back again, and now my head is stuck in the egg tray.
That’s a good place for it!
Stop trying to make up!
Hey! Help me keep an eye on the hen next door. She might try to squeeze in.
The other morning, when I looked up from the kitchen sink and saw sunrays drift among a faint fog through the silver maples, I ran for my camera. I knew it would be months before fog and the sun’s rays meet up again. We had very little fog this past winter, and this was a moment not to be missed. I had to run, camera in hand, down the driveway before nature’s magic disappeared behind the trees. As I looked through my camera’s LCD screen, I could see the visiting light, shadowy lines, and soft mist quickly disappear from sight. Within seconds the attributes that had created the scenes below were gone. When I turned around, white vapor hovered over the green pasture in the distant valley between rolling hills.
I suppose this was a small farewell to winter and the last of nature’s moisture until summer passes and we enter the cold season once again.
This morning I watched the autumn light
and felt its warmth on my body like a hug and a kiss.
I gawked at the season’s hues,
studied how one color offsets another,
then yearned to travel the world
so I could pocket God’s mysterious creations . . .
the simple and the complicated wonders of nature.
My pockets would be full, no doubt,
and my eagerness with little or no self-control,
for every day I would take out autumn’s light
and hold it in the palm of my hand,
not once, not twice, but more times than I could count.
I would hold spring’s brilliant blossoms,
unbelievable sunsets, weird and strange creatures,
only to marvel and repeat this question,
“How’d you do that God?
How’d you do that?”
–©Dianne Marie Andre 2013
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This year I’ve been fortunate to visit several private and commercial gardens and farms. One of my favorite farm tours was Abbondanza, Shenandoah Valley, which means abundance in Italian. The farm’s entitlement is also reflective of owner Daniel D’Agostini, retired ecology teacher, leader in school garden programs, renowned photographer, and author of Into the Earth: A Wine Cave Renaissance.
D’Agostini’s passion for horticultural first developed while growing up on Abbondanza among a bloodline of farmers and grape growers. During D’Agostini’s teaching career, he introduced organic gardening to his classroom curriculum. In 2000, he established a large school garden at Barry Elementary in Yuba City, where students experience hands-on organic concepts, and yes, eating veggies, a product of their labor.
After teaching more than twenty-five years, D’Agostini returned to his childhood home to care for his mother. Although she has passed, D’Agostini remains on the inherited property and home where he practices a blend of organic, permaculture, and Biodynamic techniques. According to D’Agostini, “My methods are guided by an inquisitive mind that sees interconnections between everything.” His farming systems include cow manure compost contained by straw bails (two high), compost teas made from yarrow, chamomile, dandelion, valerian, oak bark and nettles, cow pat (http://www.biodynamics.in/CPP.htm), and buried cow horns in producing preparation 500 and 501 (http://krishisewa.com/articles/2011/biodyn.html).
D’Agostini germinates seeds in a greenhouse he built from new and repurposed materials. Seasonal transplants then go into a half-dozen raised beds he constructed a few feet from his home’s back door. In a clearing beyond the raised beds, he grows over 70 tomato plants, lavender and corn crops. Mindful of his artistic spirit, a variety of vegetable seeds were direct-sown in a huge S-shape bed. Also on the five-acre property are English walnut trees from his childhood, a mission fig planted by D’Agostini’s mother in 1914, and other various trees and vines.
During the farm tour (sponsored by MotherLode Harvest), D’Agostini shared tips such as hand pulling weeds, rotation, and cover crops to control fungal and pest problems, and helpful books including Pests of the Garden and Small Farm: A grower’s Guide to Using Less Pesticide, available at Amador County Master Gardener Office.
D’Agostini’s produce is sold at the Plymouth Farmer’s Market, and periodically used at Taste, The Union, Amador Vintage Market, as well as the MotherLode Harvest (http://www.mlharvest.com/)
For more information on D’Agostini’s school garden work go to:
http://www.dagostini.com/School_Garden/school_garden/school_garden.html
To view D’Agostini photography go to: http://www.dagostini.com/
Note to my readers: My refurbished computer arrived and it’s working wonderfully. I love Windows 7. However, it seems that Softcom isn’t maintaining their dial-up system and the connection fades in and out while I try to open my blog or other sites. I guess wireless equipment takes priority these days. This means I still can’t post from my house. Until other options are available in the rural area where I live and garden, I’ll have to post when I have the time to load up my laptop, articles, and photos and go to a Wi-Fi site. Thank you for hanging in with me. I hope you enjoy this article.
While my husband kept his eyes on the road during a Sunday Drive, I took these photos through the windshield
Amazing what the soil, and nature, can produce without our help.