Nature has a psychedelic side.
You’re reading from a guy who’s a little rough around the edges; not prone to the more delicate side of things. Yet the crocus follows me around (along with ticks, crows and whippoorwills) far and wide. There are zones on the farmstead that remind me of subalpine terrain, where on rare occasions a crocus will show itself. Here on the farm a crocus has shown itself every year - only one - always in a different spot.
How do they do that *#!?
There’s no point trying to be clever here because we know there will be a perfectly good and scientific explanation (rhizomes or something); but that explanation isn’t going to satisfy me - there’s something else going on.
After the crocus last year was done, the mowing went on like it always does. This year the crocus showed up inside the garden fence, six feet away and safe from the mowing. Help me understand this.
My understanding goes as far as the supernatural and psychedelia, not much farther. Whatever consciousness is at work in the crocus goes well beyond artificial intelligence, classical physics and our current science. It looks a lot like survival tactics to me.
There’s more.
The crocus is the classical sun worshiper, open armed when in full sun and retracting when the sun disappears. Look fast because it will never show the same face twice; short lived and ephemeral, it is a ghost, and so the crocus has endeared itself to me.
WORKS FARM STORE
Pictured is an Appalachian post and rung foot stool inspired by Brian Boggs, the Berea, Kentucky chairmaker. Having studied briefly with Brian at his Ashville, NC studio, this is a licensed piece built to the strict standards of tradition and the lost art of chairmaking from green wood and riven from the tree. This stool was rived from The Winona Oak, 160yrs old and rescued from storm fall. More about Winona can be found in these pages. The seat is woven from the inner bark of hickory, a resource used for thousands of years for its toughness and workability when wet (as tough as leather and used as harness, rope, baskets etc.), for all purposes extinct in use. Chairs of this type have lasted for hundreds of years.
This is the last and best of a short run, there will be no more coming from me (prefer chairs) and comes with a custom shipping crate hand made from poplar. This stool is for sale and will go quickly. If interested, you’ll find a way to contact me.
Also for sale and much more affordable is this reproduction sliding lid candle box in cherry. Once again, no power tools were used, all surfaces created using vintage hand tools just like it would have been in 1770 including the hide glue for the dovetails.
Snag this if you can, once again my work is museum and heirloom quality; there isn’t much of it and it’s the real thing. A piece from me will be in your family for generations and comes with my lifetime guarantee.
Milo is coming.
Dogs are a fundamental part of WORKS (some would say the right hand of God) and we cannot be without one. In que is a dog with good blood lines ready to arrive from Georgia. This is a working dog as the farm cannot support a pet. Since money is always in short supply here, cashing in some work pieces is a noble cause when a canine is at stake.
American Staffordshire Terrier, Irresistibull Staffords and AmStaffs (pedigreed)
Country Wit and Wisdom:
never, ever kiss a turtle on the lips.
For sure 👍 never kiss a turtle on the lips 💋 he might latch onto your nose. David, each chapter is more interesting than the last. Keep up the good work. Next month I will start paying for my subscription.
Big Thanks: there's no paywall here so even if you wanted to pay you couldn't. Maybe one day a paywall will go up but for now the audience is too small. Even then you early adopters will never pay for content here. Readers are the objective in S&UP and take precedence over subscription metrics; enthusiastic readers are the best of all incentive. The best thing a reader can do is bring in other readers.