Summer's End

The summer went by so rapidly. My consulting assignment was very demanding and now it is about done. The new Executive started her work a week ago and I am only helping to orient and make a smooth transition for everyone.

My dearest, best friend J arrived with her husband in late August. The first day she was here she slipped and fell and broke her wrist, which required surgery. She stayed an extra nearly two weeks to recuperate and her husband went home. My friend V left the end of August and is home packing to move to Minnesota. Big changes ahead my darling blog buddies.


As you can see from my photos - one of things I promised to myself and delivered on this summer was preserving food for the winter. I have canned raspberry jam, ginger peach jam, crab apple jelly, dilled green beans, pickled beets, whole tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, sauerkraut and made frozen pesto. Applesauce and apple butter are on the schedule for next weekend. It is great to capture the bounty of summer's goodness and look forward to eating it next winter.

I know I have been MIA but I am back and have lots of new things on my horizon. I hope you are enjoying these last days of summer as Autumn arrives - today is very blustery and even I little chilly - I started the wood pellet stove this morning to take the chill off and it is so cozy and pretty.

Take care - a lot more to come.....

Nine Nine O Nine

Tomorrow - the anniversary of the day Tom and I married. Tom loved our wedding date - when we set it he said, "nine, nine" how can I ever forget. I think he was talking about more than the date. :-)

We reveled in our nine, nine, ninety-nine celebration without a thought that one of us might not be here for the next set of "9's".

Last night I laid in my bed and longed for my husband - I know, I know in the deepest part of me, I know he is gone from this earth - yet I just want to hold him and be held in his arms one more time.

I have walked this path of grief, of pain, of healing, of coming to my own terms of the loss of the love of my life. The days of wild-eyed wailing are over. And yet, last night I hugged the pillow and cried - not the gut wrenching sobs of the past - but the tears born of the ache I will always have for HIM - my man, my companion, my friend, my teacher, my love. Remembering.

Catching Up.......................

This is the longest I have gone without posting in the four years that I have been tending to this blog. It seems very strange = here is my story.

Of course, I am still doing the executive transition project - it is nearly done, the new CEO begins September 21! I shall be released! The work has been crazy-making and one of the most profound blessings in my entire consulting career.

My friend V was here for a month and we had a lovely time. He has decided to relocate here from Seattle and will return in October - much more about that to come. :=)

My best friend J arrived on August 23 - a few hours after getting here, she slipped, fell and broke her wrist in 4 places. She had surgery on August 27 and has been staying with me to recuperate. It has been a very trying time for her = painful and filled with tons of heavy duty pills, therapy and rest. She is healing nicely though and the rehab therapist tells us that she is going to have a complete recovery of the use of her wrist and hand.

Yesterday was the Farmers Market and as you can see from the photos, I put up ginger peach jam. I made pesto for the freezer (and our tummies last night). Downstairs is 60 pounds of tomatoes awaiting the canner later today, which I will tackle after I go to my personal trainer for a Pilates session this morning.

J has her follow-up session with her surgeon on Tuesday and is departing for home on Wednesday. Twelve days later we welcome the new Executive to the beloved organization. Once she is on board - I will have plenty of spare time.

Even though I haven't been posting, I have done my best to drop by my dear blog buddies' sites. I hope you are still dropping by here for a visit and I promise that I am truly back on the planet.

As summer turns her face towards Autumn I hope you are enjoying these waning days of warmth and the bounty of the harvest. The journey continues....... Namaste

Still on the Planet

Life is rolling along. I am beginning the end of this all-consuming, 5 month long organizational transition project. It has been an amazing journey of service, hard work and many lessons. The economy is taking such a toll on nonprofit organizations. I have been engaged in this work for the past 22 years and I have NEVER seen such a tough funding community. It is frightening - things will be more difficult in the funding arena in 2010. I do not know what we will do to serve the least among us - those needing the basics - food, shelter, health care, freedom from abuse --- safety and security.

I expect to be about done and welcome the new Executive Director of this organization sometime around September 15 - I will spend a bit of time helping her get oriented and then I will have a break. What a blessing - I haven't had much summer this year.

My friend V is still here and we are enjoying our time together - it is much different to have this be more than a visit - just everyday life.

My bestest friend, J and her husband are arriving for a visit on Sunday and it will be fun to take a few days off and just play. I hope you are all enjoying your summer. I will be more present soon. Namaste.

Life Moves Forward

My friend Vince arrived from Seattle last night. He is staying for a month. We are trying this on for size. Walking a new path. I will keep you posted. Yes, life does go on.

The Bounty of Summer Begins

Yesterday, I canned 10 half pints of raspberry jam, put up 3 quarts of dilled green beans and dried a lot of my homegrown herbs. It is very satifying to preserve food for the winter. It will be so nice to open one of those jars and taste the summer sunshine in a glistening spoonful of raspberry jam. It is particularly important to me because I can control the amount of sugar - this jam is made primarily with light agave syrup and a bit of organic cane sugar. The agave syrup is much lower on the glycemic index scale and better for you than a big blast of refined sugar. I put some of the jam in a small container to use now and it is good.

When my children were small I did a lot of summer canning. This year, I made a personal pledge to preserve as much local food as I can for the winter ahead.

The Farmer's Market and my own little container garden are bursting with summer's bounty. I had so much fun yesterday - I am bitten by the bug.

Soon - Soon - Soon

Things are going to slow down a bit now for me - I am beginning my deliberate start out of the organization in transition. We are in the early stages of Executive Director interviews.

I come to an organization in transition and from the first day I prepare to leave. Now is the time to make it more transparent to everyone in the agency. Soon, I will leave like: water across thee elements or water off a duck's back, quack, quack. That is the beauty of doing this work - arrive, work side by side and work hard - and leave without a ripple.

I will be posting more regularly very soon. Thanks for your kind words of support - it is a tremendous mission to provide safe sanctuary and support to battered women and their children. Mission matters!

Summer in Minnesota

However, one would never know it from our weather the last few days. It is socks and sweatshirt weather with zero sunshine. This is NOT what we are used to here in the Northland. Even in the winter - it may be cold - but it is sunny. We get a grumpy after a few gray, cloudy days.


Here are a few photos I snapped with my IPhone when I came home from Pilates this morning. I also harvested my first zucchini, which I will eat for dinner tonight - it is so neat to grow these things in containers - nature is amazing. More photos to come - I will take some tomorrow with my camera.

It has been a very difficult week - a very difficult week - OK, OK, OK - I won't repeat myself again. I am delighted to be home - rain, sun, clouds - no matter. I am here and going to read, write in my journal, watch a movie and just relax. I hope your weekend is all you need it to be.

Summer Veggies

My little container garden is beginning to produce vegetables. I have harvested arugula, herbs, salad burnet, the first tomatoes and lots of Italian Parsley. Right behind now are tiny zucchinis and yellow pear tomatoes. The eggplant have set on the plants, the peppers are coming along, the bush beans have their first little flowers and the rainbow chard is beginning to look like chard!! I also have brussel sprouts and 3 other types of tomatoes. I will be swimming in tomatoes - my plan is to can, can, can later this summer. Whole tomatoes, sauce, ketchup, and tomato paste - all from my kitchen.

I will take photos soon and post so everyone can see the amazing amount of food one can grow in pots - I am happy. It is about the only thing I have had time for so far this summer. Sorry for my blog-silence these days - I will return to regular posts soon. The client work should slow down in the next 3-4 weeks.

I haven't visited with you as much as I usually do and will try to make the rounds and catch up. I am so looking forward to life returning to normal. Cheers.

Friday

I came back from vacation to more than 500 unread emails and lots of work. I am really glad that it is Friday. I have a busy and highly creative day ahead and am looking forward to it.

The organizational transition in which I have been engaged in since March is moving along quite nicely. We are in new program development and human resources restructuring mode now. The search for the new executive progresses and I should be ready to quietly leave in September.

The garden is exploding with color and lots of veggies. I will take new photos and post a bunch this weekend. Have a wonderful Friday - it is a beautiful day in my backyard, hope it is in yours too.

Vacation

That's right I am on vacation.............hooray!! My friend V arrived this morning after being stranded in the Sea-Tac airport for 12 hours - poor guy!

What are we going to do?? Well, cook some great food (tapas is one thing on our menu), drink some good wine and perhaps a margarita, go to a museum, see some fireworks, sit on the patio in the new chairs (that's them in the photo) and just have a good time. I need this time off so much. The past few months have been extremely stressful and worthwhile. I am tired and ready for this quiet, relaxing break.

I hope you have a terrific holiday weekend - I will try to post more during my vacation.

Birthday News

This has been an incredible birthday and because I am having a birthday weekend - it is not over yet.

My life contracted after Tom's death. I was surrounded by my angel-friends - thank God. However, the entire fabric of my life was bound so tightly around me, it was dark and suffocating and lonely. Solitude is imperative; isolation is different. The isolation (and it was there even when I was in the company of others) was profound - it was to a greater degree that I was even aware.

This birthday was a living embodiment of how my life, my TRANSFORMED life, has expanded.

I worked at my interim executive director job all day on the actual birthdate and was overwhelmed at the amazing outpouring of good wishes and love. I got so many emails, voice mails, text messages, facebook postings and phone calls with Happy Birthday wishes. I got cards, notes, a cake from the staff at work, flowers from the board of directors. It was so lovely. At some point during that day I realized how expansive, how loving and how different my life is today than a few years ago. Transformed!!

I am so grateful - I am so blessed - I am humbled, honored and filled with joy. I saw Shellie, the soul reader, yesterday. It was incredible. I will blog more later - now I must go and enjoy some more of this birthday weekend. Namaste.

PS The photo was taken on my sixth birthday.

Garden

I took these photos just after dawn this morning as I wandered around the yard with my coffee and my IPhone. I will take better photos this weekend with my real camera. We are expecting a beautiful and much cooler day today. Enjoy yours!!

Still on the Planet

Such a busy time. I am preparing to take a break - V is arriving from Seattle the evening of July 1 and I will be off work for a week. I am so looking forward to time to myself and time with him. I got an email from QuitNet this morning reminding me about one of the best things I have done for myself in a long time. So here my friends are my quit stats for June 23, 2009:

Your Quit Date is: Sunday, April 23, 2006 at 9:35:00 PM
Test Time Smoke-Free: 1156 days, 6 hours, 41 minutes and 55 seconds
Cigarettes NOT smoked: 17344
Lifetime Saved: 4 months, 12 days, 11 hours

The garden is looking wonderful - I will have photos to post soon. My plan is to take Friday off for a long weekend - time for reflection on my birthday. It is really HOT here in Minnesota - heat index 105 degrees - if you are in the heat take care of yourself and stay cool. Blessings

Garden

It has been a weekend - I did not feel well Saturday and Sunday but am back to normal today. The client work continues to be incredibly stressful. Here is the progress on the garden so far this year. The pots lined up against the wooden wall are all vegetables and edible flowers. It is fun to watch them grow - cucumbers, zucchini, beans, hot peppers, eggplant, edible lavender, and parsley. The space in front of the house has four types of tomatoes, basil, chamomile, chives and lots of edible flowers.

We are in drought here in the Twin Cities - I am thankful for the hose - all my containers are mulched. I watered the lawn and trees in back very deeply during the spring and they are doing well in spite of so little rain. Soon I will post photos of the back gardens - very beautiful. I will keep the photos coming as things grow strong.