(from my garden last spring)
There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
~Anaïs Nin
* Want to take one of those cool vegetable gardening workshops but they’re not in your area or too expensive or don’t fit in with your schedule? The Veggie Lady has an online workshop that focuses on the full cycle, from design & planning to sowing seeds to crop rotation and more. Kinda rad. More of an instant gratification person? There are also really cool Edible Education videos on YouTube that include speakers like Michael Pollan.
* I love this article in the NY Times talking about the reason sand dunes, natural and manmade, are so amazingly awesome in helping prevent damage during tremendous storms such as Sandy. Sometimes the Corps of Engineers actually gets things right.
* While the rings I wear on my fingers are always simple – I have just two simple silver rings, acquired from a local vendor at Saturday Market – if I ever were to have something a little fancier, the Rustic series from sustainable jeweler Dawes Design are just my cup o’ tea.
* Speaking of tea, plans for two to make homemade chai with the fella may have been squelched, but I still am daydreaming about experimenting with the homemade chai recipe of the east coast homesteader, author & blog goddess Ashley English. Being someone who has always hated the smell of tea, the popularity of chai over the last ten or fifteen years made me happy happy 
* “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” ~Charles R. Swindoll. This is the quote that kicks off a really timely post on Being Patient Through Transformation, which a woman such as myself needs to read, over and over, to remind myself that I am being broken open, not apart. Open for whatever gifts the world has in store for me, in whatever form they may be. While the recent events in my life initially caused me to question myself and the love in my heart, I have come to accept the age old adage about if you love someone, set them free, and that if it was truly meant to be in the end, they will fly back to you. Tenderly, I release you, my sweetheart, my best friend, my love, my partner in crime, as you go into your chrysalis.
And as this life takes it’s next turn, I prepare head out to Manzanita for a quiet retreat that I hope will replenish these empty reserves – a soft bed to sleep in, a quiet sanctuary to write in, a spa to be pampered in, a yoga studio to breathe in, a beach to walk on and reflect next to.
