Beauty Berries & Birch Trees

You could say that I've been on vacation this past month ... not really ... but it sure could be considered something like that.

Time has flown since the last post ... lots of time.  Time that was necessary to heal a few things from my psyche.  Oh ... and we've been a bit busy.

We began our morning walks again ... not as frequently as last year ... but morning walks none-the-less.

Fall is amazing in town ... the leaves are changing, the Beauty Berries in bloom, and every now and then, you stumble across a peeling Birch Tree.

Fred has some new friends.  After a few weeks' getting to know the place, they've become part of the family.  Quite the talkers they are ... gigglers, too.  They've recently discovered how to get out of the garden and chuckle between themselves when they get caught ... literally.

No eggs from them yet, but it's winter and eggs will come soon enough.

With Christmas just around the corner, we're finding ourselves a bit short on cash, yet abundant in the realm of imagination and resources.  For all intents and purposes, it looks like it will truly be a hand-crafted Christmas.
And with less than a month to go, it's looking like I'd better get started  =)

In the meantime, with 2013 just a few short months away, we've started on our Spring/Summer 2014 clothing lines for the runway.  Lots of organic fabrics in loose-fitting designs.  And with the recent opening of opportunistic doors, there's more potentials for 2013 than ever before imagined.

In addition to children's clothing, we're expanding our line to include grown-ups ... an avenue that is becoming quite the adventure.

For now ... that's about all there is going on in our little corner of the world.  There have been trials and tribulations, challenges and clearings this past month.  And I expect there to be more before the year is out.  Hopefully, those on the horizon will be a bit easier to navigate than the ones up until now have been.

Cheers!

Lucy & Pepper

My husband wrote this tonight ... I've been an emotional wreck ...

so, tonight I had a few moments of almost return .. of the turning back of the clock and down of the vibration.. it was a difficult while.

I didn't get out and close up the ducks early enough, at about 8, I went out to put them to bed for the night, safe and sound in their duck house.. Fred was the only one I could find.. the two hens seemed to be missing.. it's a big garden and there's still a lot growing out there, and brown ducks can hide pretty good, but not that good, and I'd run a raccoon out of the far end..

He went up a tree just across the wall between us and the convalescent center next door.. Caryn came out to help me look and a neighbor walking by said, "ten minutes ago, there were two by the fence here".. then as he walked on, he stopped by the pond and said "hey! there's two raccoons here"..and then "I think they have one of your ducks"

they did.. Lucy and as they ran she flopped trying to get away. I grabbed her and held her close, and we looked for Pepper.. Caryn found a bad sign, feathers by the back wall where I'd seen the first big coon.. she asked how Lucy was and I said "not so good, she's bleeding quite a bit" and she left to get a blanket to wrap her in.. while she was gone, I found Pepper. She was hanging on the fence where the raccoon had either left or lost her in it's haste to get away from the approaching human. Pepper was not with us any longer.

I met Caryn by the gate and we took Lucy into the shop to clean her up.. she was a mess, her neck completely torn up and several bites in her back and sides.. we gently cleaned her and put salve on her wounds, and then wrapped her in a light blanket for the night. Twenty minutes later when I went to check on her, she was gone too.

We both cried, and then wept a bit, and then .. I didn't go out and kill every raccoon in a three mile radius, but for a minute, I thought about it. I didn't even curse these three. We lost two members of our family tonight.

Pepper and Lucy were our friends. They and Fred live in our garden and eat bugs, and duck food. They lay eggs and we feed them, and pet them, and they keep the garden for us.. we'll miss them..

I really am ready for a time when everything on this planet doesn't have to kill each other.