Snowneck, our Full Moon chickenToday is a full moon, what my daughters have named the "Snowneck Moon", in honor of our large white-necked 'black gourmet' breed hen. The name I've chosen for this day, The Starry Night Birthday is in honor of my mother-in-law's 75th birthday (today), and inspired by a tiny gold bell that we gave her called "The Starry Night', created by a silver/goldsmith on the island. This beautiful bell has a cityscape etched in it, and if you peer through the 'celestial dome' of its microcosmic sky, you can see a star pattern. It reminds me of cutting an apple open, sideways, and finding the star at its center! So on this bleak, dark, wet midwinter's day I dream a kaleidoscope of images ranging from the dazzling -- inspired by that celebratory bell and Van Gogh's Starry Night paintng -- to the mundane, with an appreciative nod to the plain old nature of our large hen Snowneck, Queen of the Crop, with her deep grumbly voice, and who strides through the chicken yard and the field! And I also remember to wish upon a star (cloud-obscured!) and offer good wishes and gratitude to and for the generous, kind, discerning. and courageous woman who is my mother-in-law, Denise.
As the night descends, I wander the field, gathering radishes here, beet greens there, mustard greens, mustard blooms, baby greens, red-jewel chard, crinkly kale, and stalks of parsley and celery, and a couple of sage leafs. The CSA (community-supported agriculture) subscription has completed, and so we are able to wander, wonder, and nibble our way through the fields as we will, enjoying the immense bounty and beauty of this good earth and of the careful, lovingly seeded and tended crops by the Mathias family - the family that owns and operates the Journey School Farm Community and this CSA. I am absolutely awed and filled with gratitude at what is thriving here in the earth-stone heart of winter.
pictured above: Van Gogh's "Starry Night"
