May 2015

Spring finally feels like it has arrived around here!!  The temperatures have finally risen to coats-optional, grass has finally appeared from beneath snow and is even starting to turn green!!  And…..things are starting to poke out of the ground!!

It’s all new for me, as this is our first Spring here at Clear Day Farms.  I’m finding all sorts of treats – like a whole fence line of tulips which I hope will gift us with loads of blooms soon!  Crocuses { really just three } are growing out of my lawn, and the east bank is very soon going to burst forth in shades of purple.

Our yard hold promises.  Promises of colour, promises of work and promises of beauty.  I love the promises that Spring holds for us.  Renewal.  Re-growth. A chance to start again.

But the neat thing with this promise is the promise of fruitfulness and of harvest.  But not without effort.  I’m so excited and overwhelmed with the size of our garden.  I can’t wait to get digging in there and seeing the efforts be rewarded with a tasty carrot or fresh lettuce or whatever else I decide to plant.  The girls have plans and I think I have a friend who would like a corner of this field of dirt, too.  I know I want tomatoes and sunflowers, not much of a plan, but I have to start somewhere!!

I’m really excited to see this:

Why, you ask?  This is the quintessential ‘old homestead’ flower.  This is a lily, what kind or what’s the proper name?  I have no idea. This is what you find around all old abandoned houses and old farm houses in this area.  To me it speaks of timelessness and longevity.  It speaks of years gone by and the hardiness of the people.  To me, I’ve made it.  I own a home that has history, a past.  These flowers have bloomed and bloomed and then bloomed again, regardless of what was happening in the world around it, they carried out their sole purpose.  To bloom and to promise colour, and to show us that Spring really does exist!

To be continued,

Lori

Yesterday I got real.  I spent the day at a business workshop that I would highly recommend to anyone who wants to grow their business, connect with like-minded people and get plans written down.  It was put together by the dynamic team of Sam Madore from Bliss Productions and Jenn Rodgers of Jenn Rodgers Communications & Customer Experience and it was so neat to see them work in tandem!

Our workshop was held at the Clay Cafe in Truro, which was a switch that happened the day before but couldn’t have been more perfect!  It’s such a bright, colourful, creative space and I wondered if we’d get to paint since we were there….and we did!! We all worked together to complete a 12 tile design the said the delightful quote from someone or other….maybe Mr. Rogers???….’Grow ideas in the garden of your mind’ and that become one the the themes that ran through the day.

I’m not going to pour over all the details of what all we did, eat and talked about but it was exactly what I needed.  It was what I needed to give that boost of confidence in myself and in what I am doing here with Farm Fresh.  I connected with people and was presented with opportunities to build my business, which is very exciting!

The women who gathered around those tables were so varied in career paths.  But for as varied as we were, we were so much the same.  We all had the same fears, the same hopes and the same challenges.  Someone would share something and everyone else would be nodding in agreement.

We wrote things down on actual paper.  I know that sounds odd, but to actually see thoughts that have been rattling around in your head and in your heart written with ink on paper….makes things pretty real.  But it is so good to do that, and I don’t do it enough.  Everything is in my head and it isn’t enough.  Setting goals or acknowledging fears in an environment like Sam and Jenn created for us yesterday was very good and healthy, too.  All too often we keep everything in and hold our fears and dreams so close to ourselves but giving them space to breathe and to give them a little room can be very empowering.  When you get real, fears shrink and dreams grow.

I’m looking forward to following the progress of these new-found friends and what they ‘grow’ from our day together.  A huge thank you goes out to Sam and Jenn for organizing this and for following through on an idea they had.  Thank you for making us feel special and really listening to us.  I’m looking forward to moving ahead with my goals!!

To be continued,

Lori