“Find Joy In Each Day” ~Saint Philip Neri We all have difficult days that are challenging. However, when we strive to SEE the seemingly small things in our everyday worlds, we often appreciate that there is more joy than we realized. For instance, the beautiful butterfly alight on my great-grandmother’s lilac shrub, the bunny rabbit that visits the courtyard garden […]
The chicks are about 7 weeks old and looking more and more like miniature chickens these days. They’re finally ready to come out of the coop and explore the outdoors. Although it will be a while before they’re free-ranging in the pasture, these little guys have plenty of room inside the safety of the aviary for now. Today was the […]
Last Friday afternoon was gorgeous. It was one of those sunny, blue sky days that’s just so uplifting. The sky was filled with the most beautiful clouds–enormous, puffy, cumulus clouds. They were really quite majestic. I got a little carried away and took tons of pictures.
The chicks are a month old now and scampering about like crazy. Instead of the tiny fluff balls they were just a few short weeks ago, they are beginning to resemble small chickens. With their increase in size and activity, it was time to move these little guys to their permanent residence–the chicken coop. So, after scrubbing it down […]
This looks fantastic!
These photographs were taken in the spring a few years ago. I especially love that Clover, one of my favorite sheep, seemed to enjoy watching the chickens scratch in the grass and chase bugs.
As I was lying in bed tossing and turning between 2 and 4 this morning, a wonderful poem by Jack Prelutsky crossed my mind. Mr. Prelutsky, an American writer of children’s poetry, was named the first Children’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation in 2006. He lives in Seattle, Washington and spends much of his time presenting poems to children […]
I had to do quite a bit of digging through family photo albums to find these gems. You can probably tell by my lovely, patterned trousers that these time capsule treasures are circa 1970’s. I am an only child and the daughter of a mother who documented almost every moment of my childhood. I am fortunate that she took […]
A number of years ago my husband and I had the great pleasure of meeting Carla Dirlikov, a mezzo-soprano and world class opera singer, at a dinner event for our local opera, Opera Roanoke. A performance of Bizet’s Carmen was planned with Ms. Dirlikov in the lead. Not only is Carla Dirlikov an amazing talent, she is also a humanitarian, animal lover, […]
Originally posted on barnraised:
“Everything you want is on the other side of fear” –unknown I was teaching a “saddle club” group lesson the other day with my teaching partner, a lovely lady who is passionate about teaching “riding lessons”. She does not, however, have the background I have in working with children, children with special needs and in…
My name is Tonya, and I grew up on a 300-acre farm in rural Virginia that has been in my family for over 100 years. After graduating from college, receiving my master’s degree in speech and language pathology, and living and working in a small city for six years, I decided to return to the place of my childhood. Here, in this rural area, on this patch of green, where for four generations my family has farmed, gardened, and lived, I, too wanted to be a part of this continuity. As a fourth generation farmgirl, I have many interests that not only include, but also go beyond the basics of farming, gardening, sheep and chicken-keeping. It is all of this and more that I plan on sharing in this blog.
