Hello lovely friends.  I know it's been a while since I posted.  The farm season has begun and I am also working on building a website/business so pardon the lack of posts for this summer.  More to come at some point.  Until then feel free to follow photos on instagram:  http://instagram.com/olivia_clementine

May whatever you need, continue to be found
& To a beautiful and soul filling summer....

love
Olivia

Opening to Our Perfection

"Your freedom means you do not avert your eyes from anything.  In yourself or in anybody else.  Freedom means to be free awareness in what is.  No aversion.  No attachment." -Ram Dass 

This morning, walking through apple blossom limbs.  The overcast sky and wet fresh air puts the pink petals center.  It is hard to peel away from the delectable hue.  Circling about the trunks of these creatures and gazing, staring, imbibing.

And when I look at these blossoms, hanging, spilling over in their pinkness, some choosing to open up and other's wilting and worn and some tightly wound within them, it occurs to me that the individuality of each bud is insignificant.  I am holding view for the entire tree.  Accepting the complete show.  Seeing God in the flowers fallen to the earth.  Stepped on.  Dripping with dust and smog.  Flowers that might not make it to their full bloom as complete, satisfying, not an object in which judgements and condescend should fall upon.  It is not simply today that these flowers are worshipped and beloved.  Most often Nature's glory and perfection is magnetizing  and appreciated in all her forms.



In this luminous scene I think about what it is to see myself as God and therefore to see everyone as God.   The natural world reminds me of God, the felt God, and yet sometimes I forget that we humans are complete and perfect and God in all of our moments.   It is a curious thing to witness perfection in nature, as if the human soul is something distinct of this masterpiece.

There are certain parts of me I like to keep hidden and I have fears that I am in moments desperately trying to avoid playing out in my future.  I have judgements I lay on others, that are formed first by how I think I should be.  And I know my own suffering and I experience the struggle and suffering of so many humans and animals and earthlings.  And yet I am trying to understand what it is to be open to the flow of life in all it's forms, as suffering shows itself in the conceptual, phenomenal realm.

To open to the nature of change and the ups and downs.  That when one is open and allowing difficulty and ease, and delight and anxiety to flow, it is no longer such a problem.  It is no longer something to overcome as there is no longer that sense of resisting something.  But rather opening and accepting and being in life.

Ram Dass talks about keeping the balance of humanity and divinity.  To be empathetic to beings and to come from our hearts and at the same time have faith in the evolution of the universal law, the universal flow, the divine, the unknown.

Recently I have been quite tuned in to the instances I begin to feel my body contracting, or mind wandering into a feeling of revulsion.  When this occurs I remind myself that this quality or action that I am refusing to accept that is creating this revulsion ~ is God.

This part of me, my karma, is not only a part of my path, but is my path and is my greatest teacher.  When these old judgements are accepted, and not only accepted but worshiped, the tenseness of my body relaxes and I actually feel that all is well.  Not simply well, but perfect.  Breathing recommences and the tunnel of vision and appreciation widens.  I am happy.  As I do not have to fight the nature of being human.  All that I love, and all that I am working on, is an expression of God and not some dark thing I need to hide in the corner, or something that needs to be avoided or changed at all costs.

May we each continue to see ourselves as God.

And may we see our world and all beings from this place.

To being human

Much love,

Olivia

Spring Has Come

I saw my hands covered in soil and I felt myself.  That deeper me.  Working in the soil has felt so right.  So fulfilling.  So happy.  This year feels different.  I'm really seeing where I hold myself back from enjoying life and intending to have a more reasonable and easy growing season.

Hope you are doing well and taking care of your beautiful soul.  Sending you love and some photos from yesterday.  You will see there is an ode to Soil.

First Tillage for the Year! Thanks to my love.

Our winter anchors of soil: overwinterd Tulsi & Lemon Balm pulled out of the ground

Hello Spinach!

Winter, Spring & Murmuration {ps Smoothie Recipe included}

Eventhough I have been loving up wintertime, I went to Florida for a few days to visit a dear friend who recently relocated. I travel once in a blue moon so it was wild to step off the New England landscape.

Here are some moments of that adventure. 

 

When I returned, I celebrated my birthday.  I spent some of my morning in the greenhouse, taking in the sunshine and saying good morning to the plants coming to life.  This space reminds me of my friend Simone and her joy for propagating green life.  A handful of years ago she sent this video around to some friends and it always brings such tender goodness to my heart. Here it is.

Spring is now days away and so much energy is in the air.  I certainly feel the vitality bubbling up all over the place.  We are going to have a sweet Equinox celebration here, thanks to a lovely friend who reminded me of my seasonal ceremony intention.

Birthday Smoothie

(two servings)

1 cup almonds

2 cups water

1/4 avocado

1 cup frozen strawberries

1 teaspoon bee pollen (optional)

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 tablespoon spirulina (optional)

1 tablespoon raw cacao powder (optional)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 walnuts (optional)

1 tablespoon flax seed (optional)

Self love

Step One: Blend up almonds and water.

If you desire, strain almond milk in a nut bag or cheesecloth

{*You can also soak the nuts overnight in the fridge to receive more of the enzymatic activity.  Strain out the water and throw those swollen delicious almonds in the blender}

Step Two: Blend up almond milk with everything else!

Step Three: Drink up this scrumptious smoothie 

Touching Summer: Making Healing Balms

The upcoming growing season is on the horizon and it's time to make sure that everything from the previous season is realized.  

This week we hand painted and labeled all of our 2013 honey jars.  Here is a photo from 2012's honey batch on a previous post.  

And we decanted all of our calendula oils and made balms.  As herbal medicine is the medicine of the people, the process of making balms is totally accessible and relishable. I wanted to offer a simple recipe which you will find below.  If you have questions let me know!  

Calendula Flowers

Calendula in Oil Sitting Sunside

A bit of strained Calendula Jojoba Oil                                   

Balm Making Session with the Lovely: Karen, Trevor & Jen.  Thank you!!!

  

Last bit of heart shaped beeswax melting in Calendula Oil

Step One: Gather Calendula Flower

Calendula flowers have beautiful seeds and take to the earth very easily.

Step Two:  Lay flowers out to dry for a day.  

Calendula's moist healing properties can lend themselves to encouraging mold.  

Drying them out a bit helps reassure a mold-free process!

Step Three: Place calendula flowers in a clean and dry glass container.  

Cover flowers in oil.  Let sit in a sunny spot until ready to use.  

If you were to look in a book for how to make an oil, it might recoommend to put calendula oil on a heat mat for 2-6 weeks.  

But before the time of heat mats, we had sunshine and I like the method of placing jars in a spot where it receives both the sun and moon.  

A greenhouse is a nice cozy spot as well.

There are many types of oil options. The oil you choose will be determined by your final product's intended use, 

as well as what oils happen to be in your home.   

In this batch I used a blend of cold-pressed organic olive oil and wildcrafted jojoba oil.  

Olive oil is highly nutritive, stable and an all-around good option and jojoba is a very stable oil, 

easily absorbed into the skin and a bit thinner than olive oil and so a nice option for a face balm.  

Step Four: Strain Oil into Clean Dry Glass Jar 

Don't forget to squeeze out the oil from the flowers

Step Five: Heat up Oil 

A double boiler system is fantastic, with a glass bowl over a pot with boiling water.  

Heat the oil on low heat

Step Six: Add beeswax & dissolve into Oil

I like to use for every 1 cup of oil, 1 ounce of beeswax.  If you don't have a scale you can slowly add beeswax, melting it in the oil, and taking a spoon to test samples to gauge if you need more wax.  We didn't have enough beeswax this year from the farm so we supplemented with wax from Healing Spirits  Herb Farm.  Thank you!!

Step Seven: Take off heat and add anything else.  

This blend will cool and solidify rapidly so this next step I like to do with some haste.  

Some ideas: Essential Oil: 5-10 drops to 1 ounce

Vitamin E

Step Eight: Pour into containers and let cool before sealing

Share & Enjoy!

Our Love as Everything

Hours before sunrise, we are shoveling and plowing
Bountiful Snow ~ waist high, thick, white
Everywhere.

The sun now showing, we recall it is another day of Love.
Today, Love meaning Space.

Space for the intense surge of devotion's pulsation,

rippling in waves and thunder and paradisal song. 

Space for mind's residing momentarily distinct,
and patient hearts waiting for remembrance of there,  
being no separation.

Space for sweetness & laughter and play.
Space for unknown karma.  The light and the darkest karma ~ so deeply personal, we can never explain entirely why in flashes our fires ignite~

This space we speak of is generous
It gratifies instantly
offering limitless potential to hold loves power.
How marvelous! to hold loves power!

& if love's energy is overwhelming ~ we extend.

Space for seeing our love as Everything.

Living Life from the Great Inside

I have been studying a lot over the years.  Bundles of glorious information on the vast capacity of being, as well as botanical medicine.  In the process I often devalue my innate knowing.  There is a place for knowledge passed down and shared, and a place for asking within for direction.  

Since the beginning we have asked for guidance.  When we have been at a loss, thrown, overwhelmed, we have asked Spirit, Goddess, God to show us the way.  We have laid our heads down and asked our dream world to offer us wisdom.  Nothing has changed.  This path of inner wisdom is eternally ours.

Since the beginning we have asked our plant world for guidance.  We have asked what is needed to bring back wholeness to ourselves or someone in our nation.  We have communicated from our soul to that same soul within the plant kingdom.  The deep inner to the deep inner.  Plants communicate through chemicals, light wavelenths and contact - putting out and receiving information from their environment.  From what we understand, they emit sounds waves through audio acoustic emissions.  And there is a world of plant communication, the mystical, the unknown that we cannot conceptualize. Yet our intuition recognizes that the universe of greenery works in subtle and powerful ways.  Many believe that when we step into the woods with a yearning for medicine, our clear intentions communicated can change a plants chemical compounds to make the perfect remedy requested.  I do trust this is possible, as plants shift their chemical make up for survival all of the time.

I am remembering this relationship.  The days when I am bewildered by my life decisions, bewildered by an imbalance in my system, I am remembering to ask the Great One to show me the way.  I am holding both the books of knowledge at hand as equally important as this inner world of knowing ~ connected across all beings:  land, human, animal, flora, bacterial and so on.

We often know what we need more than we allow ourselves to believe.

Now let us remember.
Let us step back in tuit
Asking spirit to guide the way.
Let us live life from the inside
Where the root and heart reside.

The New Year of Ceremony

I have been preparing all week for the New Year.  I deeply cleaned the house and wrote up my Vision for 2014.  The general focus being to live in love.  Make decisions from my truth.  Live a nourishing and flowing life & to live abundantly and generously.  I could say so much about this, but more importantly, What is Your Vision?

Just give yourself 10 minutes to sit with this and write down whatever comes to mind.  This is the time to begin freshly.  What do you want your 2014 to be?  What can you do in terms of energy and attitude to make this happen?  There is no need to know how you will logistically make this happen (for now at least).  Dream HUGE.  Our thinking mind is too small to know how the universe works and how our path will unfold.  Then each morning first thing, come back to what you have written.  Intentions work in mysterious ways.

{Space here to take a pause and begin your visioning}

Part of my vision has been to have more seasonal ceremony in my life.  And my vision is already taking place!  Today we are marking the New Year, by doing our farm's first New Moon Wassailing.  It has been a traditional ritual in England for pear and apple trees, but has also been a ceremony for the good health of all on the land.  We will go from each garden and to each pasture and offer up an elixir and a rhyme (see below) and will make noise, shake bells, roar in laughter or chatter.  We will burn sage and clear the old and make way for the new.  Awakening the cold stiff world to become familiar with it's future of fertility, vitality and resilience.  We will end the ritual in the garden by a fire.  

Here is our Flyer for those who will be partaking in this.  And all of the earthly, heavenly and water spirits are warmly invited!  

The Farm At Locusts

1st Annual Wassailing

January 1, 2014

May our Growing Year Be Abundant & Healthy

May We Coexist in Harmony & Gratitude

From Somerset comes a most powerful rhyme for calling blessings down on beasts and crops:

Good luck to the hoof and horn 


Good luck to the flock and fleece 


Good luck to the growers of corn 


With blessings of plenty and peace

Wassailing

By Rowan (Originally Published at Samhain 1996)

On the bitter cold and frost of a January night, with the stars sparkling overhead in a clear sky, small groups of people, muffled against the chill, process down darkened paths into orchards or to lone apple and pear trees. Some may process in silence, others with as much noise as they can muster. Some may carry torches or burning brands, others drums and shotguns or pots and pans. In each case, one of their number will be carrying a ceramic vessel filled with a steaming brew of beer or cider, carefully trying not to spill it, the steam from the bowl mingling with the cloudy breath of the participants ......

This is the popular image of the traditional folk custom of wassailing fruit trees - a ceremony intended to begin the process of waking the fruit trees from their winter slumber and the first fertility festival of the folk calendar.

The word wassail derives from the Old English words wæs (þu) hæl which means variously 'be healthy' or 'be whole' - both of which meanings survive in the modern English phrase 'hale and hearty'. Thus this is a traditional ceremony which seeks to start off the first stirrings of life in the land and to help it emerge from winter and to ensure that the next season's crop of fruit, especially apples and pears, will be bountiful.

The most common date for this custom to take place is the eve of Twelfth Night or Old Christmas Eve, ie 5th January, just at the end of the midwinter period when the Wild Hunt rides and chaos traditionally rules as the otherworldly horde broke through into human realms. In some cases, however, the ceremony takes places a little later, on 17th January, depending on whether the celebrants prefer to follow the old or new calendar. Either way, we might see this first fertility ceremony of the year as marking a return to human "normality" after the dark and dangerous days of midwinter. Either way, the date on which wassailing takes place is at least a couple of weeks before Imbolc, the festival which for modern pagans is generally as being the first fertility festival of the year.

With all the thick and thin that life holds, 2014 is going to be a bright and fruitional year

Love and Light to you!