All posts by Molly

It Took a Village

Sometimes I expect it sounds like an embellishment when I say that we have had to bring the packages down off our hill on sleds in order to meet the UPS truck or that we couldn’t get to the mail because of snow or ice or mud.

I can hear you all saying to yourselves, “How steep can this hill really be? Can there really be a place left in the continental US that doesn’t have Dominos delivery, a Starbucks on the corner, or cell phone reception? Could the weather really be that weird?”

Well, with climate change affecting the whole earth, everyone is having weird weather. So maybe you are no longer wondering when I say, “It was April yesterday and June the day before but today it is January.”

But when I mention mud, I am not sure it comes with a clear enough visual. Like last week’s mud, on a day when it was March here.

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There is a reason why everyone living on this hill knows what you mean when you say, “Choose your rut wisely.” Once you get in a rut on the downhill run, you and your car go wherever that rut goes and often that’s not good. And if you find yourself on the bottom of the hill when it looks like this, the wisest course is to choose no rut at all but abandon your vehicle and walk. I can’t count the number of times dawn has broken to reveal an abandoned vehicle up to its axles in mud, smack dab in the middle of the road.

Yesterday, a snowy January day that behaved like a January day of old, brought an event that laid to rest even the whiff of a suggestion that we ever exaggerate about this wild and wooly hill where Green Hope Farm finds itself.

Yesterday, the town plow tipped over, literally TIPPED OVER while sanding our hill.

School was called off because of expected snow, but there was only a few inches on the roads. It didn’t seem like an especially bad weather day.

Yet somehow it was the perfect storm of packed snow and an undercoat of glare ice.

In the middle of the afternoon, several cars went off the road. The town plow sat at the top of the hill, right here at the farm, looking down to see if those cars were going to move. After a fifteen minutes wait, the plow driver started cautiously down the hill.

Almost immediately, Deb called out that she had just seen the plow tip over. There was a moment of disbelief for all of us.

A thirty foot multi ton truck had tipped over? Patricia raced out to look down the hill and called back into the office that we should call 911. The plow was indeed on its side. Blessedly, the driver was already climbing out of the sideways cab and all of us were most grateful he was safe.

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This was the view from the top of our drive. The driver said he had started down the hill and immediately realized, even with chains, his truck was in a full tilt slide. Worried about running into the cars in the ditch farther down the hill, he turned the truck to the left, hoping his plow would catch on a big dead tree and stop his progress. Instead, the plow caught and the then the truck went right over on its side. One of the firemen who has lived in town more than forty years said he could only remember this happening one other time.
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School teacher Jim was enjoying a snow day too. He began at once to help the driver to haul sand out of the back of the plow truck to stop the oil spill from the truck.
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When the road agent arrived, he came up the hill in a small plow which immediately did a 180 and then slid backwards all the way to the bottom of the hill.

He returned on foot with one of the town policemen and the fire chief. All of them sailed through the air onto the ground a few times as they climbed the hill.

At the bottom of the hill vehicles were everywhere, spinning out and sliding into ditches. People helped to push these rescue vehicles out of the way so that the other town plow could try and sand the road.
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Backing up while spreading sand, the other town plow could get no further than about half way up the hill before this truck also began to slide and spin.

The rescue people were calm and focused, but I did hear the fire chief call out, “Give her hell!” into his walkie talkie as he exhorted the second plow driver to try once more to get the sand a little bit farther up the hill to the scene of the tip.

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It was clear that it was going to be hours before the plow got moved. None of the staff could get their own cars around the sprawled plow truck to go home. So Deb, Patricia, Masaki, and Jane walked off the hill to Jane’s house about a mile away, where Jane gave them tea before taking them home in her daughter’s Jeep.

May it never be said that the Green Hope Crew wouldn’t walk a mile to take care of you!

Note, behind Jim and neighbor Susan, some of the cars spun out at the bottom of the hill and to the right of Jim and Susan, one of the first cars that went off into a ditch at the beginning of the big slide.
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Somehow, in language completely foreign to my ears, in sentences larded with catchy phrases like, “we got a six twenty with a four forty eight for a one seventy”, the town brain trust decided to use a front loader to right the plow.

While one of the firemen moved empty barrels up the hill to collect the oily sand, the loader dragged off its first detachable piece of the truck, the plow hitch.
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Kids and dogs collected to watch. May May tried to get into the middle of the action twice, but was not as well behaved as the sheltie next door, Bailey, May May had to go inside to watch from afar. She remains miffed.
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Former staff goddess Yessinia’s husband Eric is part of the volunteer fire department. He is in charge of the high school students from Kimball Union that are part of the fire squad. They are the only one actually in town during the work day and serve a vital role responding to fire calls during these daytime hours.

Eric modeled his outfit for me, remarking that he looked a bit too crisp and that I needed to take the shot after he had been there for a couple of hours digging up oily sand.
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With the plow and the sander unit both detached from the truck, the front loader dragged the denuded truck down the road to a place where the loader could get at it from the side in this drive way.
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It was growing dark by the time they got her back on four wheels. The use of the loader pulling the truck this way and that with chains showed an impressive knowledge of physics.

As the truck lifted off the ground, I was surprised by how long she hung at a forty five degree angle before finally setting down. Everyone watched and waited while she hung in the balance. She’d become a real personality to all of us by then. I am only sad that after she was righted, her frame looked twisted beyond repair.

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In the pitch dark, the Kimball Union kids kept on cleaning up the oil spill. Eric was looking a bit less dapper, but we’ll give him the glamor shot with this blog. He deserves it!

Jim, Will and I retired home to be greeted by understandably sulky May May. I remain impressed that while it ALWAYS takes a village, when it comes to righting a plow truck on the steepest, slipperiest road in town, we have a great village.

Viva Rhino!

Yes, OF COURSE that was Rhino in the beach shot at Salt Pond Bay. Rhino is a cheap date, requiring no airline seat of his own. Therefore he goes on all family trips.
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He doesn’t need many snacks on the road, but he does insist on stopping at every scenic overlook.

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He loves swimming almost as much as William.

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AND he is a natural at snorkelling.

More Old Friends

Our walks to the beach were a time for me to

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dawdle behind the group visiting with Flower friends. I have no idea how others travel through the world but for me, everywhere I go I am so happy to see Flowers I love. When in St John I get to visit with Flowers I don’t see very often. The visits are so sweet because of their rarity.

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Though were I to live in St John, these visits would be a daily occurence. So many Flowers are like Dandelions in New Hampshire. Momordica charantia, on our line up with its nickname Maiden Apple is one that grows on wastegrounds everywhere. This makes her no less special. As a traditional herbal, Momordica has a lot of nicknames including jumbie pumpkin. I was delighted to get a picture of this jumbie pumpkin for you as well as an overdue picture of its Flower, so reminiscent of northern squash blossoms.

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I had been warned last trip about these vivid red seeds. Everyone had a different story about whether the squash was edible or not. I like how Flower Essences bypass the issues of toxicity by simply not being about the chemical components of the plant. I can look at these fruits and seeds not to consider whether it would be a deadly snack, but to consider what they tell me about the wisdom of Maiden Apple’s Flower Essence.

These startling red seeds contained within this elegant yellow squash suggest to me Maiden Apple’s wisdom about containing our life force wisely and expressing ourselves clearly. As Maiden Apple says, ” I AM a radical friend but also one that helps you move peacefully, confidently and clearly towards your destiny.”

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Speaking of startling red, I was thrilled to find Wild Red Morning Glory blooming. This was an Essence I made on a trip to St John in 1997 and I had not seen this plant flowering since then. My St John Flora and Fauna remarked that this was a rare plant for St John, found only by the NY Botanical botanist who wrote the book right where I had seen this plant myself, in the upper Maho campground parking lot. This time I found it growing in a different spot, giving rise to a hope that it was expanding its territory. I love how Wild Red Morning Glory is a such an unabashed fiesta of morale support. We certainly still need its affirming gifts about the power and glory of womanhood.

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Ginger Thomas also known as Yellow Elder, Yellow Cedar, Torchwood, and Christmas Hope. This small tree, native of the new world, feels like a wise elder that sits and listens to any sorting out of our troubles and then helps us translate these jumbled thoughts into a settled and wise course of action. Every time I lifted my head to see its blossoms in the branches above my head, I felt cheered on. Elder indeed!

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Coralita! Coralita! How overdue a picture of this gem is. We have long been using this Essence in our mixes including “Watch Your Back” and offering it as an individual Flower Essence for its stunning ability to untangle electrical tangles in the main chakras and generally recharge and revitalize the electrical system of the body. What a sweetheart! What a powerhouse! This Flower reminds me that Love conquers all.

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Bacopa monnieri comes in a variety of shades. Here she is a soft shade of pink.
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Here she is in a deeper shade of magenta. Always Bacopa brings information about finding joy in daily life, unfettered happiness and delight no matter the circumstances.

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Arriving at the beach, there is always gorgeous Seaside Mahoe, offering her gifts of vibrational support for anyone grieving the end of a romantic partnership. There is something so soothing about this Flower, so intensely beautiful as well.

And after my sweet moments with all these Flowers, it was such a tough gig to have to jump back into the water with amphibious William to cool off.
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Visiting with some old Flower Friends

As I work on definitions for the new Flower Essences I brought back from St John this trip, I pause to share photos I took of some of the St John Flower Essences we have offered during the last decade.

Today, I start with those Flower Essences made in the desert like terrain of the eastern coast of St John in the Salt Pond Bay area. Very little rain falls here and the vegetation includes cactus and small scrubby bushes that thrive in the extremes of much heat, much wind, and little moisture.

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Here we begin our hike up Ram’s Head, the eastern most tip of the island,

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moving up through a terrain thick with cactus including Turk’s Cap Cactus.
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You can see the hint of pink that forms the Flowers in the part of the cactus plant at the bottom of the picture.

Turk’s Cap Cactus Essence is all about helping us to unapologetically know our right to be who and where we are. It also supports us to gracefully move on when the circumstances call for change and we know its time to go. The prickles of this beauty underscore this plant’s understanding of boundaries and the right to be. This cactus transplants itself across a landscape away from shade always towards maximum light, reflecting its clarity about moving as necessary, ever clear of its right to be where it wants to be.

At the end of Ram’s Head we looked east and south east with only the island of St Croix between us and Africa.

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One plant thriving in this eco-system is West Indian Sage.

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When I visit with West Indian Sage, I always rub its leaves. Its essential oils create an intense penetrating fragrance. This fragrance, like its Flower Essence, brings us into a vivid experience of SELF experiencing itself more deeply.

All the Sage Essences orient us in time and space, giving us a clearer sense of where we are and who we are. This one, with its tremendously strong presence in an extreme landscape, reminds us how to have a vibrant experience of both self and the inner life of our soul, even amidst an outer life that is extreme, challenging, or distracting. West Indian Sage has an ability to create a “stop all the presses” moment that anchors us to the eternal verity of our souls.

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Coming down off the cliff, we encountered a very old Flower Essence friend.

This orchid, with the cumbersome name of Psychilis macconnelliae, rises dramatically about five feet above the scrubby landscape. It is always such a delight to meet up with this Orchid again.

This Orchid helps us to ground ourselves emotionally and physically when we have been grafted to a new landscape. The Orchid helps us adapt to change. including both vibrational as well as human made changes on earth. Psychilis Macconnelliae recommends itself for finding stability amidst any kind of radical change, be it our movement to a new location or our accomodation of the rapid changes in our world right now. The very fact that it can thrive season after season in a landscape so alien to itself reflects its vibrational wisdom about thriving wherever we find ourselves.
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William and I walked over to another extreme environment, the salt pond at the base of the Ram’s Head. All around William is a mass of Sea Purslane, a Flower with an Essence that supports us to expand our definition and experience of love. This Flower thrives in an environment of flying salt foam and relentless salty winds.

After a visit with Sea Purslane, it was time for
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more swimming!

Hello Again!

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Over the holidays, we left the serious snow and all access to the computer behind….. to camp in one of our favorite places, St. John in the US Virgin Islands.

Among other things, it was a chance to re-aquaint ourselves with lots of beloved plant friends including

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this gorgeous Papaya
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and this Jerusalem Thorn Tree, sporting an iguana in its branches.

The island was in better shape vibrationally than it had been two years ago when we were last there. Because there have been fewer hurricanes, the water was cooler so the coral was healthier. The sea urchin population, so important to reef health, was also on the rebound.
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On land, there were many Flowers blooming that I had not seen before and all the plant life seemed more vibrant.

I was particularly delighted to encounter honeybees everywhere we went. I had never seen honeybees on St. John before. With their gifts of balancing the vibration of land, I give them a lot of the credit for bringing the landscape of St. John back into better balance and harmony.
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Here a honeybee, laden with pollen, heads for the flowers of Sea Plum (chrysobalanus icaco) on St. Francis beach.

Chickens on the beach were also something new, though none of us credit them with anything but an ability to eat our snacks every time we turned our back.

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I made a lot of Flower Essences, both old and new and took pictures of the Flowers in their natural environment. I look forward to sharing these Essences and these pictures with you in blogs to come.

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We’ll dive into all this in the next few weeks!