I am continually reminded it takes a village to raise a child. I am lucky that our small town and the communities around are the villages helping to raise mine.

So many places and so many people are so manicured, so cultivated, and so forced into rules. So many places you are expected to be continually self evaluating to avoid judgment and miss placed moves. I needed a place I could be happy, a place I could be sad, a place that was ok with the weeds and flaws but still showcased its beauty while embracing the blemishes. A place that exposed process and exposed reality. A place that was genuine, a place that was True Blue.

I find this with my life and little ones too. What I think is stationary is busy moving onward without catching my eye. So here is my reminder to myself to take some time to remember the best memories are made in the mundane.

June brings a little bit of a slow down on the bouquet front. The early spring blooms are done and the bright summer plants are busy growing. While the flower stand maybe open a few weekends with peonies and ranunculus, the true summer schedule won’t start until July at True Blue Flower Co.

There is a beautiful buzz about this time of year. A palpable energy that moves through and transforms a landscape. These long awaited changes happen quickly. One morning you look up to tints of green where brown, slumbering buds once stood. With the first fifty degree days the fuzzy white of a pussy willow bud transforms into the nectar filled flowers welcoming the pollinators back for spring.

I have never been a big fan of concrete goals, but instead have loved the idea of over arching themes, feelings, or abstracts. I find that reaching for a concrete goal can lock me into something that might not be the best option as the months stroll through. January me can’t predict the life changes that the new year is bringing. I want to be able to adapt to those changes without feeling like I failed to meet my goals. This is where my words or phrases come in. How do I want to feel in 2022? What do I want to make my priority in this year?

"If you are open to it ... give up trying to make [those with dementia] be something - which we all need to do anyway in life. Just let people be who they are. Try to figure them out before you start thinking how they should be...[when I did this] I started to learn all kinds of things I never would have learned [if I hadn't]."

Century old carbon sequestering Minnesota bogs are being destroyed so we can better our own gardens…but they don’t have to be. A heartfelt plea for you to stop, reduce, or at least be aware of your peat usage.

Living in planting zone 3 I get to watch all the other flower farmers starting seeds while patiently waiting for it to hit 12 weeks before our last frost date. Guess what? It’s my turn now! This week I started making soil blocks and planting my earliest seeds. Every evening True helps me make 600 soil blocks and every evening after he goes to bed I plant 1,200 seeds into those soil blocks. Am I an expert in all of this? No! Am I willing to share my minimal knowledge with you? Absolutely!

If I keep trying to plant larkspur seeds in the way of celosia seeds, so few will sprout. Its not that the larkspur seeds are poor quality or defected, its that they were made for something much different. But when the larkspur seeds needs are finally met they gives off unequaled displays of light, airy true-blue flowers.

I think contentment comes from taking time to see a little good in the unchangeable things instead of convincing ourselves what lies ahead will be so much better than the present. January might take a little more effort to love, but it’s well worth the effort it takes.

I finally gave myself permission to have this dream and to pursue it too. I stopped labeling flower farming as a hobby, and started treating it like the full time job I wanted it to be. 

I’ve always been attracted to a life that follows the earth’s natural rhythms. A existence that stirs in the spring and quiets itself at winter’s call.

In life we are often told not to sweat the small things, but the truth is when they are looking you in the face very few things seem small. So maybe we should also be told not to sweat the big things either.

Sometimes it takes an immersion in something so deep, so everlasting, and so untouched by our illusion of control that your world may never quite be whole. but it will be bearable, it will be livable, it will feel like life again.

Making a conscious decision to reduce plastics an put a natural spin on holiday decor.

Sometimes life isn’t about wake up and hustle, sometimes is about wake up take a moment to say this is pretty damn good too.

What can I do, what can I buy, what can share to make this season of fog, bare earth, and the muted browns of decay as beautiful as the last? I can’t. I can’t rewind this season back to the last and I can’t fast forward it into the next. I can only appreciate it for what it is, practice contentment, and take time to find beauty in the season we are in.