I have been a very bad Homestead observer lately.  I've basically ignored it, rushing about doing nine million in-town errands, barely giving her a second glance as I cruise down the road towards town.  It's gorgeous right now, spectacular, and I'm missing it.  Makes me wonder how many other things I'm neglecting and ignoring in a race to keep up with our busy slightly schizophrenic lives.

Do you see that crazy dusty pink lighting on the ground?  This picture was taken at dusk, while the kids and I were walking around checking things out.  Dusk light is something I can't get enough of.  It's hard to do it justice with a photo, but I try.

Today, while I walked from the root cellar back up to the house, a chicken waddled in front of me on the path we take to get from house to root cellar.  I got a profound sense of nostalgia, which happens a lot around here.  It occurred to me (once again) that this path was worn in by thousands (millions?) of footsteps before us; by chickens and Homesteaders who are long dead, who were possibly noticing the same beautiful quality of light that I was just noticing.  That is what gets me about the farming life.  The simple ritual of daily occurrences, chores, done over and over without the distractions of city life.  Thoughts become so much simpler, and satisfying.

There are billions of beautiful things happening in nature at any given instance, all the time, and that is crazy. The Homestead is profoundly artistic and beautiful, without even trying.   Andy and I were talking about how we were nostalgic for the present.  Someday we will move off of this Homestead.  And I don't want to lose this connection.  I want to remember that it is important to pay attention to birds, weather,water, moths, spiders, chickens, paths, all of it.  These are the most important things.

Axel getting up close and personal with the camera.

William Sr. and Emma Randolph

Asa, shooting the moon.

It has taken me over a week to post about our annual Fall Gathering last Saturday---because we are still recovering from all of its glory!  We are still finding things people left behind, evidence that fun was had here on the homestead.  So far we have found: a shoe, a plastic sparkly purple star, some serving bowls picked clean (by birds) of the food they once contained, a fuzzy Barbie kid's purse, a messenger bag, a small cooler with ice packs in it, and an almost empty bottle of Wild Turkey near the fire pit.  I'd say those things adequately describe the order of how things went down at this harvest-y party.  It was family-friendly with tons of cider pressing, and chicken holding, and tree climbing and rope swinging by day.  And fire-crackly, music-playing, whiskey-drinking (apparently), romantic-feeling by night.  And since I was up at the house getting the wee ones to bed by this time, I wasn't able to partake in this fun part of the evening, which is why there are no sultry pictures.  But, just wait!  In a few days I will post some of Niki's pictures of the fireside goodness, and you'll get a little taste of the brilliance that it was.  For now, here are some wholesome bits.

The weather was as good as it gets, sunny and hot for the first part of the day, and then cooling off slowly by early evening.

This year we had a heritage potluck.  So, people brought old family recipes past down from aunties and Grandmas.  The food was insane!  I wish I would've gotten a picture of the spread, but I was too busy trying to force my children to eat it.  Turns out kids don't really care about beautiful food when there are so many other people and things around vying for their attention.  And, as usual when things finally slowed down and I felt like I had some time to fix up a plate for myself, I found this....

So, sadly I made do with some cole-slaw and a hamburger bun.  Oh well, maybe next time.

It is at events like these that I don't want to be using my garage sale $5 digital camera anymore.  It's old, and the door that is suppose to shut to hold the batteries in is broken, so I have to hold it closed while trying to take a picture.  And, most annoying of all, it goes through a ridiculous amount of batteries.  I'm talking like a four-pack in a couple of days.  No wonder why it was only five bucks.  So, I am officially on a search for a better camera.  Got any hot tips?

I'm looking forward to a glorious fall, followed by the slowing down of winter.  And a new camera to do this place justice.