gratitude is always found in the garden

it's a quiet sunny sunday morning. my favorite kind of sunday morning. 

full of gratitude from a day spent at a garden yesterday. it was sleepy and slow in the garden as we approach the soltice. but so full of life. there was rosemary, thyme, chives, and luciano kale towers still sharing their harvest. while some rows were tucked into their winter beds with blankets of burlap and clover. 

a community garden in a sense I haven't seen before. learning garden labs: about 12 acres of layered gardens--teaching gardens, urban apprentice gardens, school gardens, master gardener plots and family run plots, a magical summer playground for kids, a community orchard, and huge greenhouses.  Each area with it's own shape and function. Each area full of the energy of the many hands who have dug in the soil. Of stewardship.  

I got there a bit early. I was there to get a tour from a friend and help out with a wreath making workshop. The hand painted sign Orchard this way >>>> called to me. there I found espaliered apples in their full winter glory. some pruned, others not. 

orchards always call me. they bring me back to the many saturdays spent planting, pruning and caring for the orchard on that foggy hill in San Francisco. Of learning how to graft. And finding a home for my little apple creation in another garden I call home by the ocean. she has grown strong, kissed by the salt air. of walking the heirloom orchards with Gary at Seed Savers Exchange. 

These gardens, growing food, they are home to me. 

And the new faces with open hearts, so excited to call this space in Portland a piece of home, excited for the peace and pause of soltice. of exploring outside and also getting cozy with food and books and family. good people on good land.

and I wreathed. even though I've never wreathed before. and it wasn't all bad. and it's all oregon grown and dried. it dressed my bike ride home. Next year: this bike may just become a wreath of unto its own. 

here's to finding home in places of cultivation and community. and the cultivation of community.