Thank you Winnie for your support, it means a lot to me, having you here. And everyone else, Welcome! I would like to have an adventure, lets walk down a trail and see what magic we can find, want to? There may be portals between the hedgerows and the corn fields so keep a good eye open. Whichever path we take let's keep nature close by our side and our hearts tuned to the divine, shall we? I have a feeling it's going to be grand. I'll meet you here by the blue door.
Sunday, July 04, 2004
Valley of Heat
by Trendle Ellwood
Morning comes fast on market day Saturdays. The birds are already singing before the sun has even peeked over Farmer Shaws wood lot. I always wonder about these birds, rising before the sun. Do they think it is their job to sing the sun awake? Usually I wish that they would just let me sleep a few hours longer, my body is not yet ready to rise, what makes them always so eager? Truly I am jealous of them and I wish that I had their zeal, but of course they were not up late past midnight re-cooking the Rhubarb jam that did not set, nor were they fretting over labels and putting the last flower stalks in place.
So wearily I rise from my bed and begin the day. We finish packing the pickup truck and off we go as the sun peeks through the humid mist filled July air. And like every Saturday morning we pass Amish man Dan in his carriage with his horses. Hubby pulls into McDonalds to grab a sausage burger to go and I have the sudden urge to run in to use the rest room. As I came out Amish man Dan is giving us a wave as he chuckles because he is passing us by.
Dan has brought his youngest child to market with him today. He is so cute, a tiny little tike all decked out in Amish style. Black pants and vest, dark blue shirt and an Amish hat upon his head. He cannot be over two or three. He comes to visit us and stands there with large brown eyes watching everything as I jabber to him and ask his name. Later talking with Dan I find out why the little fellow would give me no reply. For Dan informs me that he does not know English but only the German that is spoken at home. I give the little tike one of our dry erase boards to draw on, thinking he might have some fun with it. He goes back to his fathers stand and soon comes back with a word written on it. JOHN it says. So he must have understood that I was asking him his name.
As morning spins towards noon, it gets very hot. We have our awning for shade but still upon the black pavement with hardly any breeze, I feel much hotter then I did all week even out in the patch picking berries. Little John is crying and I give him an ice-cold water. My blood begins to feel as if it is curdling and Dan’s horses which are still trussed together as a team in the sun I can hardly stand to turn my eyes to. They keep trying to twist around to use their tails to flick the flies off of one another, and they stamp their feet in impatience. My heart goes out to them and little John and I am so hot, I feel as if I will faint. But I put on my smile and sale our wares, wishing that the time would come to leave. Farmer Bob helps out by playing his violin and I sing him the song that I wrote to my daughter when she was a child and we were both missing Missouri and he picks up the tune and plays it back for me.
July is hard ,I don’t do well with the heat, I go home with a big headache and a kink in my neck which I try to nap away. I didn’t even go out and pick the berries in the afternoon but let Hubby do it alone. Yesterday I had become boiling mad at the bugs. Bad enough the Japanese beetles with their scratchy little legs, but now a new bug that I don’t even know has come along. This one gets up into the red raspberry and ruins it. If it had been up to me, we would have burned the whole patch down yesterday. I can surely understand why people turn to poison sprays. It would be so satisfying just to watch them squirm and die. But to me it would be like throwing out the baby with the dirty bath water.
Speaking of water it is hard to believe with all the rain that we got this spring that we are in dire need of a rain now. It will rain sometime soon and I will worship it when it comes. I will stand out in it and let it soak into my skin. I will lift up my arms in praise and let the tears fall with the rain.
All night long I dreamed about Amish man Dan and little John. I dreamed that Dan had gotten robbed on his way home and when I came upon them the police had already come. Little John was in bad shape, very hot and thirsty. I talked Dan into letting me take him with me, so that I could get him home faster. But on the way home I got lost, ended up down in the Hocking Hills and it was snowing. I feared that I would drive us off the hilly roads and into a snowy ditch. All I had to give little John was water in a bottle. Finally I arrived at the Amish home, where Dan’s wife had hamburgers ready.
Copyright © 2004, by Trendle Ellwood. All Rights Reserved.
Morning comes fast on market day Saturdays. The birds are already singing before the sun has even peeked over Farmer Shaws wood lot. I always wonder about these birds, rising before the sun. Do they think it is their job to sing the sun awake? Usually I wish that they would just let me sleep a few hours longer, my body is not yet ready to rise, what makes them always so eager? Truly I am jealous of them and I wish that I had their zeal, but of course they were not up late past midnight re-cooking the Rhubarb jam that did not set, nor were they fretting over labels and putting the last flower stalks in place.
So wearily I rise from my bed and begin the day. We finish packing the pickup truck and off we go as the sun peeks through the humid mist filled July air. And like every Saturday morning we pass Amish man Dan in his carriage with his horses. Hubby pulls into McDonalds to grab a sausage burger to go and I have the sudden urge to run in to use the rest room. As I came out Amish man Dan is giving us a wave as he chuckles because he is passing us by.
Dan has brought his youngest child to market with him today. He is so cute, a tiny little tike all decked out in Amish style. Black pants and vest, dark blue shirt and an Amish hat upon his head. He cannot be over two or three. He comes to visit us and stands there with large brown eyes watching everything as I jabber to him and ask his name. Later talking with Dan I find out why the little fellow would give me no reply. For Dan informs me that he does not know English but only the German that is spoken at home. I give the little tike one of our dry erase boards to draw on, thinking he might have some fun with it. He goes back to his fathers stand and soon comes back with a word written on it. JOHN it says. So he must have understood that I was asking him his name.
As morning spins towards noon, it gets very hot. We have our awning for shade but still upon the black pavement with hardly any breeze, I feel much hotter then I did all week even out in the patch picking berries. Little John is crying and I give him an ice-cold water. My blood begins to feel as if it is curdling and Dan’s horses which are still trussed together as a team in the sun I can hardly stand to turn my eyes to. They keep trying to twist around to use their tails to flick the flies off of one another, and they stamp their feet in impatience. My heart goes out to them and little John and I am so hot, I feel as if I will faint. But I put on my smile and sale our wares, wishing that the time would come to leave. Farmer Bob helps out by playing his violin and I sing him the song that I wrote to my daughter when she was a child and we were both missing Missouri and he picks up the tune and plays it back for me.
July is hard ,I don’t do well with the heat, I go home with a big headache and a kink in my neck which I try to nap away. I didn’t even go out and pick the berries in the afternoon but let Hubby do it alone. Yesterday I had become boiling mad at the bugs. Bad enough the Japanese beetles with their scratchy little legs, but now a new bug that I don’t even know has come along. This one gets up into the red raspberry and ruins it. If it had been up to me, we would have burned the whole patch down yesterday. I can surely understand why people turn to poison sprays. It would be so satisfying just to watch them squirm and die. But to me it would be like throwing out the baby with the dirty bath water.
Speaking of water it is hard to believe with all the rain that we got this spring that we are in dire need of a rain now. It will rain sometime soon and I will worship it when it comes. I will stand out in it and let it soak into my skin. I will lift up my arms in praise and let the tears fall with the rain.
All night long I dreamed about Amish man Dan and little John. I dreamed that Dan had gotten robbed on his way home and when I came upon them the police had already come. Little John was in bad shape, very hot and thirsty. I talked Dan into letting me take him with me, so that I could get him home faster. But on the way home I got lost, ended up down in the Hocking Hills and it was snowing. I feared that I would drive us off the hilly roads and into a snowy ditch. All I had to give little John was water in a bottle. Finally I arrived at the Amish home, where Dan’s wife had hamburgers ready.
Copyright © 2004, by Trendle Ellwood. All Rights Reserved.
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