Merciful Tea, Comforting Orbs, and Orchard Dreams....

Mint tea reminds me of visits to Grandma's house, always a recycled glass jar of meadow tea in the fridge and a kitchen filled with the aroma of mint, pears, and bacon? (She now sits lonely in a nursing home for most of her days, and my heart breaks for her and longs for her comfort.) I have been trying to grow mint tea since we moved into this house over three years ago... unsuccessfully, or so I thought. This spring I had given up trying, between the cats and the chickens, the tea didn't have a chance, or so I thought. Much to my surprise there are now numerous patches of mint tea coming up all over my garden! None of it is coming up anywhere that I actually planted it, so I can only assume that it was planted by Nature herself.... (or perhaps the comforting orbs?)

Chester took this picture of the ivy covered barn, or is it more than that? I was a little disappointed at first at the "blotches" in the photo, but then I remembered that some people consider them to be a sign of significant energy that is not detected by the human eye. Some believe that the color of the orb is significant... these peachy orbs would then be a sign of a comforting presence. Science says it is just light... (as if light itself wasn't a miracle) and I suppose these fringy thoughts could be offensive to some of my more religious readers, but where did the idea of halos come from? I don't mind the thought that there are comforting spirit energies floating about my barn and garden and home, these days there is quite the need. Matter of fact, I very much want to believe, maybe that is because I am a bit of a dreamer, always with an eye for what could be.... take our orchard for example...

I had a humorous conversation with my father-in-law the other day. He also has a young orchard, and he also dreams of the future sweetness of each delicious bite of homegrown fruit. Matter of fact, he is a little bit worried about planting the wrong variety of trees, who wants a bushel of plums to sit and rot for lack of use? His wife was quite the calming influence when she assured him that too much fruit was highly unlikely, between the bears and the birds, they have been lucky to get any harvest at all so far!! We shared a chuckle and I completely understand.... two Christmases ago when asked if we had any wishlist desires Jason and I only had one... a cider press, for the bushels of apples our orchard will produce.... just below you will see a picture of one of our favorite apple trees in our wonderful orchard....