In this photo it is early dawn. Just as we adjust to the days with less daylight it starts to change again. Many people do not consider when daylight begins and sunset ends the day. This is because of modern electricity and often people have lights on all hours of the day and night.
It seems that in this modern world there needs to be a better plan to not upset our Circadian Rhythms. If we could only let our bodies adjust to morning light and evening darkness naturally.
There are things we can do at home to bring a more settled and restful state in our home.
It seems to me that it helps us to wake with a softer light and give our body time to wake slowly. A blog friend and I were just discussing this the day before yesterday. She had been researching Light Pollution and the effects on health.
Charles and I try to wake early enough so that we do not have to rush. We seem to have a better day when our morning was not rushed.
But for us, the most important is our evening routine. We must go to bed early enough to get proper sleep. We are also trying to slow things down before bed and slowly dim the lighting to adjust to darkness. There is much artificial light in this modern world and I am trying to break habits of checking emails late and letting my eyes rid of this kind of light. It just makes sense. But I have to break bad habits and I can do that, I must keep working at this.
Charles and I are working on thinning out our kitchen items that are high on the shelves in the cabinets and items that are not necessary. We are also trying to set our kitchen to where we have the more appropriate items that can serve multiple purposes easy to get to.
I have moved the flour to a crock that I have lined with an organic bag. We are using an older variety of wheat and it has taking quite a bit of practice of using it. It is more expensive so I so not want to waste any of it. We did this out of need because both Charles and I react to gluten, we are not allergic but it seems to cause us inflammation. If we use this flour in moderation we seem to do okay.
We have been on this journey to learn about the past and live more like the past and we keep picking parts of the past that makes sense to us. We want to live comfortable but not wasteful and we need to have the right tools to do as many repairs ourselves so that our savings does not slip away.
One of our biggest concerns is medical. Insurance and medicine is expensive, doctors and hospital bills can be extremely expensive depending on the sickness or emergency. It can ruin a family's bank account if it is something serious.
So we try to keep ourselves healthy and live in a way that expenses are not draining the budget but adding to savings.
Charles and I do our best to drink an appropriate amount of water. We do not drink sodas or eat processed snacks.
Dehydration is a big problem for many people today and drinking water and keeping hydrated is a very sensible thing to do. Elderly people can have quite a problem with dehydration but children as well. This is a sensible thing to do to stay well.
We are eating the last bin of sweet potatoes that came from our small garden plot from last year. We are looking forward to planting again this spring and we are actually already starting to plant this week.
Charles planted regular potatoes a few weeks ago and they are starting to emerge from the top of the soil.
It is a bit too early to plant the squash but I will take a chance and plant out a few zucchini seeds because I have extra seeds and if it freezes I will just start over. I will also plant cucumbers today.
The warm soups and stews and chicken pot pies have been nice this winter but we are ready for those fresh garden vegetables.
Food preservation is all about eating part of it while it is fresh and preserving part of it so we can eat from our larder later.
Cooking from the larder is a wonderful thing because it is an important part of living sensible.
We fill our larder with home preserved food and store bought food. We try to be careful with what we purchase so there is no waste. You may notice that we often eat similar meals over and over because that is what we did in the past and it is easier for me in the kitchen to cook what I know.
Also I always follow the Ball canning books for home canning.
It feels like warmer weather is already here to stay but it can be tricky for us because we have seen this and then we have an unexpected freeze. Here in the south if we wait too late the heat can get so bad so quickly that many things will bolt or burn.
Spring is an exciting time, we can start putting all that winter planning into action. The birds seem so happy and their songs are so wonderful. Pictured above is one of the peach trees that is starting to bloom.
The fig tree is letting us know it is about to add leaves.
One of the plum trees is oh so pretty....
And the apple...
We had a few fall plants that managed to stay alive during winter. The snow peas have given us a special treat. We eat them raw like candy.
Charles is especially happy about this....
Some of our herbs stay green during winter. The rosemary...
Parsley. I love growing parsley and I will find a place most anywhere to poke some down in the ground. I also do this with oregano.
If there is a bare spot, I will often fill it with a herb. I have to remember to give it room to spread. This is flat leaf parsley here. The other was curly parsley.
The Wooly Lambs ear that I showed a few post ago has made a lot of progress with all it's new baby ears.
This coming weekend will be time to spring forward our clocks. I am never happy with messing with time, I wish we could just keep it the same but there is much about a lot of things that I cannot do anything about. So we adjust and hope that one day we can leave it alone.
I am not sure we are waiting for spring, I think spring will come when it is ready.
The seasons teach me to try and work along with nature, observe and learn. We should learn all we can about everything that is around our area where we reside. Ask, what does that tree or plant need? How can I do my best to help it because we need plants and trees. We need bees and birds, butterflies, moths, frogs and geckos. We do not want to bring harm to them or add anything that would be harmful to them.
There is also other things to think about when we plant. What plants are compatible? Not all plants like other plants. Some trees need other trees for pollination and it needs to be two trees of a compatible variety. There are self pollinating trees but if you have a tree that will not make fruit then it just might need a companion but we first have to find out what type of companion it needs.
Here at our house there is always something to learn. Never a boring moment and I am happy about that.
Grandma Donna
