Category: Short Essays Page 12 of 14

TEN MOTHERS

All ten of my mothers are enclosed in a single garlic bulb. Garlic is medicine because it is full of amino acids, anti bacterial and antifungal agents, lowers blood pressure, strengthens heart and lungs, detoxifies the liver, balances the metabolism, and on and on. It is 100 mothers.

When I owned Sow Love Reap Joy Farm in Manorville, I planted garlic on Halloween. This was my way of stocking up the medicine cabinet. By the first frost, tiny sprouts peeked above the soil. Tiny roots set the process in motion. I mulched the plants with dried leaves and cast some soil on top of them to hold them down. Winter for garlic is waiting time.

Around March, the sprouts start getting bigger. The clove I planted last fall is feeding the seven garlic leaves that hard neck garlic develop during the spring and summer. Those seven leaves produce the “medicine” which travels down the stalk and build into seven cloves. Garlic cloves are heavy feeders. I had added compost and cow manure to the soil.

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Nancy and I took care of a pair of Australian Zebra Finches while Darrel Ford recuperated in the Hospital. Soon, we were charmed. When Ford returned home, he gave us the finches as a thank you gift.

We called the male “Sweetie” and the female “Dear One” after our nicknames. We bought a larger cage because finches love to fly and need space. We researched and learned how to take care of them. They are a substitute for furry pets because Nancy is allergic to hair. The finches soon became members of our family.

I learned a lot about bird behavior in a few months. He chases her several times a day. She avoids him until it stops and they perch. She has a sad call, his is a high-pitches series of notes. They take baths. They shake and jiggle so fast that drops of water fly outside the cage. They spend a lot of time primping. They are messy. Life in a cage is boring. They eat all day long and deposit droppings on newspapers. They gnaw on the cuttle bone and swipe their finch bills on the perch to clean them. They also spend a lot of time preening.

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July 3, 2016:

Massive does not describe a tree growing close to the Theodore Roosevelt summer home in Oyster Bay Cove. This tree is a frozen contrarian, a wrinkle skinned gray monolith.

The tree was its own wisdom. On one level, it suggests steadfastness in the face of disease and strong weather. On another level, the roots provide another message…stay put in order to know your community and hold on tight to family, friends, and neighbors.

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Laughing gull calls / wind passing through poplar tree leaves / mourning doves in the early morning / song sparrows while I work in the garden ‘ spring peepers across the street from my Manorville home / crickets at dusk / Screech and great horned owls calling at 3AM / breaking waves lapping and crashing /wind clicking tall dry grass / wind passing through pitch pine needles /osprey overhead / gurgling water beneath the hull of a small sail boat / chickens clucking at egg laying time /spouting whales as they surface / frog calls – green and bull / a swan flying by /wing beats of the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird / wood thrush calls early morning deep in the pine barrens / herring gull calls / great blue heron taking flight / catbirds, veery’s, fish crows, American crows / the oven bird high in a tree canopy / house wren and northern oriole / honking Canada geese / piping plover peeps / screech of two touching tree trunks / the wining wind seeping through cracks in my man cave / the faint snap of a wisteria pod opening / sifting compost through a screen / crunch of gravel stones as I hike uphill on a well—worn trail in Manorville Hills / thump of large, green black walnut tree nut hitting the ground / in early spring, robins in early dawn / a rock avalanche on Lyell Canyon, Yosemite National Park /  crinkly of dry corn leaves / hairy woodpecker hitting a hollow tree branch