A Claire Light shines on Harmony Hill.

It was our good fortunate that Claire Cohen and her partner Paul took a break from thru hiking the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada to stay with us.  Paul (trail name Charlie) is  a former zookeeper,  a man of many skills who is the most widely traveled adventurer I have ever met.  He stayed a couple of days before flying back to the UK to see his Mum.  Claire stayed a bit longer than 2 weeks.  She was a competent goat milker, horse handler, and cockroach wrangler.  She attacked each job with vigor and efficiency from scooping poop, harvesting goat food, collecting seeds, planting trees, to pulling weeds.   Claire is a silversmith and puppet maker.  She made the Chickens in the wonderful movie CHICKEN RUN and many other well known movie characters such as Wallace & Grommit.

Claire sewed a beautiful embroidered vest for Turkey to protect his feathers when it gets a bit cooler. 

She mended the horse fly masks, repaired  a chair with baling twine made a summer curtain for the front door,  crocheted a scrubby with baling twine, and taught me how to make felt with Llama hair.

We had great fun together at the  Native plant nursery in the National Park, Cattle Round up, First Fri. Party, Bunko, and  Kayti's Yoga class.  She rode three different horses, Twister at the Cattle Round up, Paint at Drill Team practice, and Cabarina at Harmony Hill. 

making felt from llama wool

 Our friends were captivated by  stories of her travels and adventures.  She left us better than she found us.  Allen and I will miss her but be following her PCT adventures on her blog

http://chippingalongwithcharlie.blogspot.com/2013/05/mile-650.html.

Berry Picking

 Picking blackberries in Lemon Cove with Edible Garden Club of Three Rivers followed by breakfast @ Harmony Hill.

Pictures by Janet King

Harmony, Hillary and thier new roomate

The Chick who thinks he is a goat

Charlene Maworera

@Kacey Fansett's Water Color Class

Charlene Maworera  a HelpXer extraordinare,  was with us a little more than two weeks.  Smart and hard working.  Here on political asylum from Zimbabwe, she has lead and is leading a fascinating life.  A warm, compassionate and helpful person, she has shared much about her family and culture. We will miss her.

Martina Schurmann was a farmstay guest from Germany who stayed for 10 days. We enjoyed painting with Kacey Fansett at the First Saturday art event in Three Rivers.



 

Double Luxury, Onions and memories

Allen asked for an onion with his eggs so I went to the garden and pulled two beautiful red ones.  I chopped and shredded the green tops and admired the shiny deep purple bulbs.  It is a luxury to bring them from the earth to the pan and enjoy their vibrant beauty  The double gift being that everything I pull from the Earth also releases a memory of the visitor or helper who planted and nurtured it

I recalled Kyung Ho from Korea and the day we volunteered at the Sequoia Riverlands Trust sorting acorns.  We found the small red sets among the acorns and he planted them in the pond garden.  The chickens dug them up after he left and the beautiful Isa replanted them and built a net cage to protect them.

I thought of her each time I watered them and watched them grow strong and safe. I  thought of her as I sliced them and remember they were also watered also by Chris, Makenzie, Ruth, Andrea, Grace, Sarah, Miceala, Tianna, Nicole and even Farid who left in the dead of the night.  Each visitor and helper has poured a little love on them and I remember them all with thanks.

Nicole Preziosi

The gift of Nicole:

I do not know what drew this beautiful spirit to our farm but she came at just the right time.  Huge blue eyes, wide open smile, cheerful, curious and hardworking.  Always on the look out for ways to be helpful.  We shared an interest in Weston Price, Nourishing Traditions and an allergy to wheat.  I made her stinging nettle tea and gave her some goat milk body scrub   She let me try her homemade coconut oil toothpaste which I will attempt to make soon.  We watched a video about fermenting Moroccan lemons, enjoyed roasting veggies and making quinoa among many other things.  Her first week it was just the two of us. She milked the goats, groomed the horses, gathered goat food, tended the garden chipped and chainsawed.   I put a french braid in her long auburn hair.   At our Health Club she gave the boys a run for their money playing in Pick up Basket ball games.  The second week we were joined by Farid Pitussi, a Frenchman who has been in Australia a year.

She taught him about the horses, goats, chickens and other chores relating to watering garden, weeding and chipping.  On her last day they painted the fence at Allen's office and she pointed her car, Mr. Magoo, North bearing lavender  and rosemary bundles, headed for some fun with her friends on the way to more farms and eventually Alaska.  We were happy to be a stop on her journey.

Thank you Sarah, Chervil

Thank you Sarah Smith for pointing out the Chervil in my garden growing among the stinging nettle, miners lettuce and mustard greens.  Another lovely gift from the Garden Goddess.

Chervil is a delicate culinary herb used frequently in French cuisine. A member of the parsley family, chervil has a mild flavor with hints of liquorice or fennel.

Chervil leaves are delicate and curly, somewhat resembling carrot greens. Because of its delicate flavor, chervil is used in salads and soups, where it will not be overpowered by the other flavors. Used it on roasted vegetables today putting it in towards the end so it crisped.  Delicious.