Another potent rainy day on our #sovereignhomestead and I wake up from a much-needed nap after a very short night, as 
graciously brings me hot soup on the 'sofa'...
I'm snuggled in under a duvet on this pallet-seat, having slept poco - after another 1am meeting of the ongoing discourse around the Blessings Of Liberti. I'm tired, buzzing mentally and creatively, and thinking about where I can most usefully put my ideas and energy (with the least physical effort!)
This day takes a different rhythm as I digest the night's meeting, look over the etude documents for the next one, and think about what other research I could be bingeing on.... Like this glorious Ultimate Guide To Rebuilding Civilisation.
Days like these, super rainy, everything sodden outside, and us quite out-of-rhythm with sleep, ask for basic needs to be met first. Well fed and watered, we'll go out and check the effects of the intense rains, if the sun appears. We already got to the hotel for a hot shower, and want to minimise sweaty, muddy engagement with outdoors, for a change!
We've kept an eye on the landslide: it certainly has a bit of life in it yet, and we're just observing, as we're observing the whole property, the surrounding mountain landscape, and the seasonal elemental changes. There is much to note!
Fruits are beginning to form on the cherries and fig trees. New flowers and herbs seem to appear daily.
This elegant tulip popped out quite unexpectedly, just after our planted ones finally flowered last week. Though it's smaller, it packs such a lot of beauty and exotic into one wee bloom: perfectly raggedy edges and a shocking pink-red glow that we can see from the top of the hill. And a quite stunning centre, with a bluey-purple sheen to it. Wow.
We make circles of stones around any particular plant or sapling that we want to protect, and the hillside is now littered with many of them. Rocks are super abundant here, so we can easily move them from one point to another.... emphasising a plant here and a path there.
The growth continues to be voracious, with the vital greens, e.g. nettles and burdock, racing together towards the spring skies. The path need to be trodden daily, or we'll lose them until the hot summer!
Vincent and I are also beginning to dismantle the top of the well, which got caught up in the moving landscape during the last floods. It being mostly compromised, we're taking apart the upper hillside above it, which threatens to swallow it completely. Once we create some space, disentangled from the thick bramble roots and giant centipedes (!) we'll see if we can't adapt the leftover well structure into some kind of a spring (or well!) house. We have a great couple of books on stone-building that help us to think on this.
Looking back over the week's snapshots of the land, on a rainy day like this, is most full-fillling. Coming up on these final months of our first year in this place, there's a particular energy of reflection, of reviewing and taking stock of it all.... Little to interfere with on the land - we are more like Natural Law shepherds than folks 'working the land': still using maximum a pair of loppers, snipping and moving twigs and branches, laying down hedge-like boundaries, sitting down a lot and snacking on our own nuts and foraged fruits, gathered herbs in our hot tea as we rest from another gentle session.... We're gaining strength, resolve, attention spans and visioning capacity ❤️🔥💝🙏🎨
The steepness of the land continues to inspire and guide us!
Another day slows to a finish, as Vincent offers to make a (divine!) apple crumble, before we go for a sunset walk around our paths, to see what the rain has made happen. A day of rumination and rest. Perfetto and much needed, before the next deep-dive into making our homestead more comfortable and weatherproof!
With Love to one and all!
