Terraced fields in the Pyrenees.
When People and Land Lose Each Other These days we in the Napa Valley are spending a great deal of time on the politics of land use. I am running some previous blogs on the relationship of people and land and what happens when they are separated. Migration has torn our relationship to land, leaving deep wounds in the… Read more »
Two reasons we farm biodynamically!
Acres: Article on Biodynamic Farming This month Acres magazine published an article about our entry into biodynamic farming. Along with the story of why we began farming in this way, we offer suggestions about how to start gardening or farming this way yourselves. One of my greatest pleasures is to know that when I walk through the… Read more »
Learning to listen with Wesley
Biodynamic Farming Heals the Farmer The nonviolent approach does not immediately change the heart of the oppressor. It first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it. It gives them new self-respect; it calls up resources of strength and courage they did not know they had. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr…. Read more »
Charlie Toledo
When I was interviewing Napa therapist and water activist Charlie Toledo, Executive Director of the Suscol Intertribal Counsel, this week, we had a conversation not directly related to the drought and water that I found particularly healing. She told me that in pantheistic times, people had more fun. “When I speak to elementary school kids,… Read more »
This week I had the good fortune to interview water activist Charlie Toledo about the upcoming election ballot measure Proposition One that provides funds for alleviating some of the water problems in California. We are in our third year of drought. Suddenly the general population is acutely aware of the implications! There are some big… Read more »
Animals are an important part of Biodynamic practices. Not only do they help with weeding, but their manures provide fertility, all part of an important feedback cycle. Biodynamic Association Listing The Biodynamic Association website has a new feature in which we farmers, growers, processors and producers are… Read more »
Rainy Day Meditation on Drought
Patient meditation as lower pond fills. Two frogs woke me in the night, croaking back and forth right under our bedroom window. Yes, I welcomed them! I haven’t heard them in weeks! It is raining at last! Almost 3 inches these 24 hours and it’s still pouring, periods of heavy rain predicted throughout… Read more »
Pond bottom. It has not rained for some time, so far only 25% of average for this time of year. Farmer’s Almanac said it would be a cooler, wetter winter. They got the cooler part right! This year in northern California is the driest ever on record. Our small reservoir is bone… Read more »
Drought
Drought The vineyards are quiet; the nights, cold; the goats, rowdy with too much rest. This is the time to sink into the sofa and seed yourself with Spirit, whether that be from meditation, dreaming, or from reading. These books are some of my own reading that I have gotten a great deal from this… Read more »
Waning 2013 and Dark Nights
Waning slip of moon, December 29, 2013. The old slip of moon rose this morning, the Valley Oaks backlit by the beginnings of Dawn. It is the end of 2013, the darkest time of the year. I admit: I love the dark, a time that it is easier to live inward. The plants… Read more »
© 2024 Patricia Damery.
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