tao1776

Everybody's talking at me I can't hear a word they're saying only the echoes of my mind.... Silence is a great source of strength....Lao Tzu Yesterday by day's end, I found only two eggs adorning the light blue nesting boxes lining the eastern wall of Fort Seuss. "You're holding out on me," I scolded the girls, and today found an unheard of eight eggs before ten a.m. They're late layers, sometimes waiting until several hours after noon before producing their precious poultry prizes. Rain was expected later in the afternoon so I hastened to get all my chores complete before a day of doing nothing began. So much to do. Nothing to do. Nudging the border of it being almost overwhelming. I needed quiet. Solitude. Recharging.                                                                                                                                           Gaia Girl and her study of herbs and plants, both foreign and domestic, found me se

Go jump in the lake, go ride up the hill Get out of this house It's a house of your making, it's a house of ill will, Get out of this house. Go listen to Buddha, go listen to Joe, Get out of this house If anyone asks, you tell them you don't know Get out of this house - Shawn Colvin  Well, now it is official. As of April 20, 2012, TaoSpring is up for sale. I had hoped to delay so that the gardens would be in, the coop would be painted, the house washed and the grass cut and manicured. Not to mention the interior odds and ends. But no delay could be found - the ex wife in her usual contraire form; all is to be the opposite of what I want. Even if all the world agree. Maximum curb appeal be damned. Greater profit be damned. Get out of this house. If life is for learning, I've had some of the best teachers that life could offer. I've never been the best student. The gardens will still be planted. I want a big beet plot in particular - and I

Ever seeking to entertain the troops I attached a large eye bolt screw to the end of a thin rope and hung it from a Birch tree roost which is at the far end of the run. I've suspended a head of cabbage several times but have found that unless you wrap the head in wire, chickens will make short work of it every time. Now green apples, on the other hand, that's another thing entirely. They still seem to tear through it rather quickly but it is not without some very hard work. The apple bobs and weaves and swings madly. I tried it with one apple. With two; and have found that the one apple routine is the best of all. Our loud and very opinionated Barred Rock, aka "Big Fattie" can be heard above the din squawking in protest because the damned thing refuses to be still. It is the most hilarious thing to see.

Having grown up in a small New England town in the fifties and the sixties, tradition was having an Easter Sunday with  Christian-religious movies on television, waking to Easter Baskets filled with candy eggs, chocolate bunnies and marshmallow chicks - and putting on your Sunday best in preparation for church. I think that it's fair to say now that far less of the population in 2012 attends church on Easter Sunday. The emphasis at present is on pulling the family together for a good old fashioned Sunday dinner. The religious observance without mention of Crucifixion or Resurrection, Passover or Seder has become more a time spent remembering family. And this in itself is more holy than it appears. With the ever shrinking family unit, Gaia Girl and myself, like two lost souls, (who are not) and who have no place for to lay our plate and spoon on this day of chocolate, marshmallow and ham (thank G_D!) drove up to  Salem, MA  to visit the Peabody Essex Museum . We were especiall

...they cannot see the value of the life we are in daily contact with, our present civilization, where men hold a cigar in the right hand and a glass of whiskey in the left hand, listen to music, watch dancing and eat delicious food. We might say that these are two extremes of human life. Perhaps you will ask, what value is there in that quiet and aloof way of life? The monks would ask the same question of you. What value is there in passing your nights in a night club? -   Sasaki  . I am an introvert.   - An IFNJ to be precise. I turn on my computer each day to catch a few headlines, read e-mails, check a few Facebook status updates and to also read a few blog posts. There's so much information coming at me. Like Lucille Ball and the conveyor belt episode , it can be overwhelming for me. Some of the information I see is good while some I'm indifferent to. Some content really bums me out. There are many days when I feel that I would be better off by not turning on the co