Harvest Festival Sunday

Last Sunday was Harvest Festival time at the South Whidbey Tilth Farmers' Market. I'm slowly getting more stable on my feet after a fall three weeks ago, and was glad to be part of the beautiful day. I took most of these pictures seated on the stumps circling the fire pit. The photos above are that of our friends and Tilth members Paula and Janet Richards and their dog Ollie who was most appreciate of the shade we created for him. Thanks Paula for permission to share your family photo here.

 Above us the Wind and Clouds were creating a harvest dance of great magnificence. My camera loved it, and my eyes embraced them.

 Pete joined me for a selfie on the stumps between his rounds of helping with apple pressing, setting up this and that and generally being busy.

 The Cranberry Bog Bluegrass Band was Harvest Festival entertainment.

 That's Pete playing the "Guess How Many Game"

One of the most gratifying experiences of a Sunday Market is seeing families enjoying the space. This is the Gonzalez Family. Shown here with their permission, I drank in the joyful times they had together, introduced myself and learned a little about them ... truly, a fine expression of the meaning of "harvest."

The Gonzalez family is Yumiko, Emmanuel (9), Michihiro (6), Ren (4) and Ezekiel (1) and Christian.

There was pie! A call to pie makers resulted in a table lined with pies. Each pie maker baked and brought two pies: one to sample and the other to be raffled off.  A $2.00 investment into a single raffle ticket put visitors and pie lovers in line to win a whole pie. Your ticket entitled you to sample ALL or any of the pies. Your favorite pie got your vote (into the Mason jar it went). Before the market closed, winners were drawn and a WHOLE pie was your prize.

Two winners, photographed with their permission, show us how their investments paid off. On the left is Kathryn Burgomaster with a French Apple Pie, on the right is Cormac Nazarian with the Blackberry-Apple Pie.

It takes a lot of energy and many volunteers to pull off events like this. Many thanks to each and every one of the volunteers, and Farmers' Market Manager, Kirstin Clauson for their time and energy. And, to the Elemental Gods and the Eagle who flew above us on his/her way to the water's edge thank you for your blessing, too.

Like nothing else

 The Sky, Wind, and Atmosphere are large. In life anywhere on Earth, and for us here on the Prairie Front the Elemental Gods make themselves known to us. We observe their presence, and try to remember that we are just a speck, a blink, in the time-space continuum. We are humans being so many different versions of a spectulation of importance.

 Ripe plums are gathered up from trees that share their abundance with us. Lucky us. We remember to say 'thank you' when we bite into their thin skins and juicy flesh. Fruit.

 Earlier this month our son came to visit us for two days, one day on each end of a longer-journey to visit a good pal and go on a hunting trip in Idaho. There were adjustments to be made prior to the hunting; and I got to learn a little about the details involved in archery.

 After the hunting we had one more day to hang out, play music, sing songs, keep time with our feet and enjoy the company of family that is like nothing else.

Mahalo for it all!

while LUNCH is being readied

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons, "Amal Women's Training Center and Moroccan Restaurant"

I left this comment on ElsaElsa's post today about the planet Pluto transiting the 12th House, to remind myself of what deep and often hidden work I do, beneath the surface and behind the scenes, as I resolve issues and prepare for LUNCH.

"I so easily relate to your post, if I don’t over-analyze. So I won’t. Pluto has been through my 12th House and is Retrograde within one degree of my ASC in Capricorn. My spiritual mining has been, and contines to be deep and so fully tied with my feeling-body (Natal Moon in Capricorn/12th House). Service through expression, and blogging, has been my way through. Who is served? Some of them who are served, I will never know. But, I keep at it.

With Pluto on the edge, so am I. My blogging service is changing as I leave this comment. I am recovering from a real-life fall that brought me to my knees (Capricorn applied:) And What is important is being reconsidered. Who I appear to be to others? Can’t predict. So I keep serving LUNCH, metaphorically and work on what that ‘tastes’ like literally.

Glad for the space to relate here. Thanks Elsa." - from ElsaElsa

There is plenty to do behind the scenes for our life lived on the edges, from a small golden wagon, in the public yet so deeply private. We are learning to live under scrutiny without losing the essence of what is evolutionary and wild in our natures. I for one, remember not to edge god out (and play god with my ego leading the way). Tripping and falling is one clue to who was in charge that fate-filled Sunday morning in September.

The last post I wrote, soon after I fell while on my way to cut flowers for Sunday Farmers' Market, and distributed via email blast, was this one. So many clues were tucked into the poem, but only a few people in my inner real-life circle know the details of what's involved in resolving issues, and healing from wounds that don't really go away, but perhaps, can become less burdensome. 

LUNCH @ The Safety Pin Cafe is being prepared.The taste of things to come is still in process (a flavor of the content is here, and on the sidebar of this blog). Keep us in your best wishes, hopes, dreams and pencil sketches (link for a very, very fun time with pencils) and send us your thoughts and questions about what LUNCH might mean for you.

A hui hou,

Mokihana and Pete

P.S. A huge and grateful mahalo to Satori for her generous permission to use the quote that inspires the flavor of LUNCH at The Safety Pin Cafe. She has inspired us with her writing for many years on the ElsaElsa blog. Her quotations have tintilated the writing of medicine stories, and I count her as a Believer in my well-being. Mahalo nui Satori!