Report from Reginald Montgomery “Chuckie” Hogbottom, Order of the Woodchuck, Recipient of the medal of honor “Marmota Monax” September 2019, Knighted as Groundhog of the Realm, May 2022, Recipient of the Order of the Garter July 2023.
Yes friends, I know you are thrilled to find this July update before my annual late season showstopper of a report in late August. It’s just that I have so much news, news that will doubtless tickle you pink.
So many visitors adored the little harvest gala I threw last season that my a legion of friends and relatives decided to stay here at the farm to settle in for good. I like a crowd, especially when I am in charge. I assigned everyone spots for new burrows on the property, and everyone has dug comfy homes and found plenty of food to keep fat and sassy.
The winter was one big love fest and so, voila! This spring has made us a coterie of baby as well as mature woodchucks. As you know, I am a modest woodchuck, but I must say many of the particularly attractive young ones resemble moi, Reginal Montgomery “Chuckie” Hogbottom. Yes, I entertained a fleet of girlfriends this winter and the results are evident throughout the gardens.
Fortunately the foolish humans here put in their usual zillion gardens of veggies and flowers. It was a particular joy to chow down early crops in the hoop house. One night I wiped out a lavish collection of cucumber plants complete with baby cornichons. Who doesn’t love a cornichon?
True confessions. I did get some help in my gourmet rampage It was a warm night, at least in the hoop house, and Felicity was with me. She always wears this intoxicating scent, “Evening in the Burrow”. Our progeny was asleep, and together we dined on EVERYTHING in the hoop house including the cornichons. In a single night! It was a stunning accomplishment, particularly as Felicity’s perfume was so beguiling that we had to take a break to frollick in the lettuce stubs. Now the place is a wasteland but what memories!
The silly woman who does all the gardening is often seen with a backpack of “Eau de Garlic” which she liberal sprays on everything including herself. I wish she would get the drift that there is no plan to share any vegetables with her. As in NONE. ZILCH. ZERO. After all we have babies to care for. Lots of them. But if she wants to waste her time with her garlic water strategy, good for her. Its a hopeless effort, but it is kind of cute. We watch her from our dozen burrows with much enjoyment. We don’t get WIFI down by the burrows so we have to find our entertainment somewhere else than on the internet. She provides plenty.
Today for example she stumbled on one of the kids down by the blueberry patch. Poor little Philippe got rattled and instead of acting afraid, he charged her then ran through a hole in the blueberry netting towards his den five feet from the netting. She threw a cinderblock on the entrance to his burrow, but we are always looking for projects with the kids. Tonight, after we feast down on what remains in the vegetable garden, we’ll do a little inservice with Philippe and the gang. We’ll show them how to dig around “immovable objects”. Its never to early to learn all the tricks!
Take precious care good readers. Rest easy knowing me and my prodigious clan are well fed, well rested and well informed about the charming foibles of earnest humans. Until next time, Bon Appetit!
(Skip this beginning and go right to the Rose photos if you want to avoid my rant about garden critters driving me nuts)
I’ve been very remiss about writing here lately. There are reasons- Slugs, crows, deer, skunks, black flies and GROUNDHOGS to name a few.
The gardens have been gorgeous. Despite weird weather, the Roses are putting on their best display maybe ever. There is so much to celebrate and savor, but I can’t say I am lounging around with a beach read on a chaise lounge savoring the garden glory. My days find me running from defensive project to defensive project, trying to outwit, outlast and outplay a vast horde of animals.
My backpack sprayer for the garlic spray is in constant use. I laugh at those experts who list plants deer don’t like. The deer read the lists just to prove these experts wrong. They eat Potatoes, Tomatoes and thorny Roses with relish. I used to spray just Deer favorites like Hostas, Day Lilies, Echinacea, Amaranth, Hollyhocks and Sunflowers. Now I just spray everything including myself. Eau de Garlic is my summer scent.
On another front, our Red Shiso crop, so vital to our Flower Essence operation is alive and well, but this has taken near 24 hour a day attention as some mysterious creature has joined the slugs in an all out assault on the Red Shiso crop. If I leave the garden unattended for two or three hours, I invariably return to find something has ripped up all the mulch separating the rows of Red Shiso and covered all the still delicate Red Shiso plants. The task of going up and down every row to remove mulch and rescue baby Red Shiso gets old fast.
Red Shiso is a crop that thrives on love and attention. Well it is getting ALOT from me and these mysterious critter friends. We all have our theories about who the troublemakers are. Turkeys? Could be. A flock was spotted near the Red Shiso. Skunks? A definite possibility as their fragrance is noted as it mixes with the Garlic in the air. Crows? Well we keep on seeing them in the field.
And why is this mysterious critter doing this? Mulch shredding something I have experienced before, and I hope it is not one we have again. I have considered pitching a tent and sleeping next to the Red Shiso. It may come to that.
The vegetable garden is also a battlefield. While fenced in with an 8 foot fence which theoretically keeps deer out, this fence provides a sanctuary for no plant. I spray Garlic spray around the perimeter and I Garlic spray everything inside the fencing that we won’t be eating like bean foliage because every groundhog in creation has moved into the neighborhood.
One groundhog digs a hole in the center of the vegetable garden EVERY NIGHT and I fill it in with BIG ROCKS every morning. Things like Lettuce and Broccoli can’t be Garlic sprayed because even I, so redolent of Garlic, will not eat Garlic spray covered veggies. Need I add that the groundhogs have dined heavily on these unsprayed crops and we’ll be getting our greens from the local farm stand. The groundhog also busted into my hoophouse and ate all the lovely Cucumber plants I tenderly raised. This morning they ate the pea crop. I had sprayed these plants until the peas started forming. The groundhogs ate around the garlic sprayed foliage and just ate the peas. Grrrrr.
All is not lost. I have some new ideas for next season. I am going to try putting wire hoops covered in frost cloth over crops like Broccoli. And I’ll continue on with gigantic crops of Onions and GARLIC which seem not to appeal to groundhogs or deer. That is, if the family is willing to eat Garlic when already they live a life of constant Garlic perfume as the spray wafts over them wherever they are and whatever they are doing.
But enough complaining. Somehow the gardens have adjusted to all the Garlic spray and are really putting on a show. I’ll close with some pictures of the Roses flooding the gardens with their beauty and fragrance- a welcome change from Eau de Garlic.
Cardinal Richelieu Rose reminds us all to be true to ourselves and rid ourselves of the labels and definitions other have placed on us.
Julia Childs Rose helps us keep the faith and find our enthusiasm for the journey ahead of us. No surprise this Rose blooms in many shades of BUTTERY yellow!
Gallandia Rose offering us a template for a high vibration light body. An ethereal whisper reminding us we can make the shifts in vibration we are called to make right now.
This Rose is called Pink Pillar Rose. I am not sure why this name as not too pink and not a pillar. The place where I planted it in the garden grew shady so I moved it to a very sunny spot. It set back hard after the move but has come on well this spring. The deer ate a number of the buds when I missed it on a Garlic spray run, but a few made it. It has a really strong vibration of pure love which helps us find a bead on this too.
The Mary Rose helps us houseclean our hearts and so works beautifully as a purifier too. This is not a great photo of this gorgeous friend. I wanted to include it anyways as rhere is something so comforting about how this Rose supports us and I hope you’ll reach for her if you feel your heart is burdened and needs a housecleaning- It is not a violent cleanse but a deeply loving and restorative one.
This is Grace Rose, the embodiment of grace, that all pervading Divine reality of love freely given. Rose blossoms look different at different stages of their opening. This one looks really different when first opening (as in the photo on the order tab) and here where its generosity is so evident.
Pink Grootendorst Rose offers a liferaft of love when we feel beleaguered or simply need a Rose kiss. It is a sweetheart.
Madame Isaac Perriere Rose offers a vibration of consoling Mercy. Some of our most beloved Rose Essences have Madame in the name. I read that Rosarians growing new Roses often name their favorite Rose creation after their wife. This means that a Madame before the name often signifies that this was a Rosarians most loved Rose.
Our Alika Roses have taken over an enormous area of the garden, anchoring the entire southeast quadrant of the main Rose garden. It offers a vibrational lighthouse sort of energy and helps us all be beacons of love and light.
I long time ago I was given this Rose by Ruth Joly, a wonderful gardener in Cornish NH. She didn’t know its name and somehow it became known as Coral Pink Rose even though this really isn’t a coral pink. Anyways, its a marvelous Essence for when we are anxious and fearful that something bad is going to happen. It carried a soothing vibration that everything is going to be okay.
Climbing New Dawn Rose had a very good winter here at the farm and has climbed up its arch so much higher than ever before. Its fragrance is very strong even after a dousing in Garlic spray ( because the deer seemed particularly focused on eating this Rose). As with so many I have shown today, this is a great one for right now as it helps us trust the Divine plan.
Charles de Mills Rose restores us when we are frazzled or electrically short circuiting. This one has a vibrational energy like standing next to a waterfall with the ozone washing through our system. Refreshing is too mild a word for this one.
This is Konigin von Danemark Rose. She is a damask rose which means she is from the family of Roses used in perfume. I tenderly look out for this Rose because I love her so much, and she often has a tough time getting through our winters. As a Flower Essence she helps with shame spirals, helps us soften our view of self and helps us recover from patriarchy with its emphasis on being “perfect”.
Rosa Mundi is an ancient Rose that looks like it was freshly minted yesterday. Energetically it helps us when we feel shredded by events and weary of the strange journey we’re on. Rosa Mundi reminds us we are timeless spiritual beings having a physical experience not visa versa.
This is Alex MacKenzie Rose. I reach for this one a lot as it helps us do what we have to do with courage and fortitude.
Last one! This is Ispahan Rose from ancient Persia now Iran. This one also helps us find a clear sense of personal direction and clarity about what we need to do.
There are common strands among Roses. They never fail to uplift us whether in person or as a Flower Essence. They encourage us to dump the unreal and all we don’t need and find our true eternal self. They flood us with divine love always. They are Flowers like no others.
Right from the start, it was important to us to give Flower Essences to the plants growing at Green Hope Farm. Plants provided with Flower Essences germinate better, grow better and remain healthier and pest free throughout their life span. For greenhouse plants, Flower Essences helps them keep free of white fly and other bugs through the long winters when they are cut off from nature in a less than ideal environment. Our greenhouse plants wait impatiently for their summer season outside with their pots sunk in mulch and their leaves and branches refreshed by rain, sun and wind. Flower Essences help them get through the wait.
As soon as we started making Flower Essences, it felt cumbersome to make up a mix each day for the plants so we created Green & Tonic. We were in a silly mood when we came up with the name ( I don’t think we had Gin & Tonics at the ready, but who knows). The mix has been a godsend. Like today. I’ll be using Green & Tonic all day. With our hoop house filled to the brim with baby plants, other plants that can handle a light frost ready to be transplanted into the ground and our greenhouse plants impatiently waiting for the frost free days of summer, I will use a lot of Green & Tonic in my watering can. This time of year I am not the only one leaning on Green & Tonic, and we’ve run low so this morning found me making up more of the mix from our inventory of mother Flower Essences.
The recipe for Green & Tonic was the creation of the Angels overlighting the farm. They really got serious here with their choice of Flower Essences for the mix. It is complex, layered in its support and full of surprising ingredients. Plants grow in amazing ways with a swiftness that astounds me. I am grateful to have Green & Tonic to offer the plants here and the plants in your care to help them be all they can be.
Green & Tonic covers so much ground that I have been uncertain how to even tackle discussing it.
There are Essences supporting the challenges of growing far from one’s native habitat and often in a pot and expected to thrive when weary from these complexities including Home away from Home, Pink Tecoma and Mallow. Larkspur. Self Heal and Mutabilis Rose helps turn a situation around and give confidence when a plant is ailing.
There is support for dealing with strange weather and environmental stress, now a part of every growing season everywhere including Jade and Summer Snowflake.
Green & Tonic is so much more than I could possibly describe. I very much hope you give it a try with your plants if you haven’t already. They will appreciate it so much.
When I sit down in the morning to figure out what to do in the gardens for the day, I usually get clear directions from my Elemental and Angelic partners on topics that we have already discussed. Like Sunday’s instructions including, “Yes, this would be a good day to make Peach Flower Essence. Make Trillium too.” and “Keep weeding that Rose bed but first water everything in the hoop house.”
Peach blossoms ready to be made into a Flower Essence
Trillium too.
Rose beds on left weeded and mulched, Rose beds to right still in process.
When the guidance is vague, there is usually a reason as in there is an X factor I am unaware of that is about to impact the day. Early Monday morning I stood on the front porch asking what the priorities were, and there was this sort of thick static indicative of an X factor, and the prompting to take a couple of bushel baskets down to one of the sheds, the one we call Rock Riley. Returning bushel baskets to a shed didn’t seem all that important, but I did it.
As I walked to the shed I knew why the odd direction. On my route across to Rock Riley, I saw the problem. A vibrant beehive which Jim had strapped to within an inch of its life to keep it safe from bears….well that hive was in smithereens. Every frame of honeycomb and grubs had been ripped to pieces and eaten. Broken pieces of the demolished wooden frames lay scattered on the ground, covered in what looked like dead bees.
Gathering myself, I went down to Rock Riley where the bee equipment is stored and hammered together ten new beeswax frames and slid them in an available hive box. I found an unbroken bottom board and set to work giving whatever bees had survived a new home. I put on my bee suit, but it was unnecessary. The bees were dazed and not at all in the mood to bother me. I hoped they had made things very unpleasant for the bear, but who knows.
My friend the Bear had the temerity to leave perhaps the largest poop I have every seen right at the scene of the crime. It was about the size of a bowling ball and of much interest to the little people in the neighborhood who came by to inspect it in the afternoon. I considered taking a photo of the poop to share here, but Jim had moved it on to the compost heap. Just imagine the biggest poop you have ever seen (unless you work with elephants) and you’ve got it.
The question was and still remains, did the Queen bee survive the attack? I scooped every last cluster of bees I could find into the new hive box but there weren’t many clusters. If the Queen is alive then the hive will maybe survive. If she was killed, the bees can’t make a new Queen because the bear ate all the grubs. I have been watching the hive box all week, and I can’t tell if the Queen is alive. I am certainly not going to bother them by opening the hive box to check, so I am just sending love and waiting to see.
Our other two beehives are on a small second floor shelf area of Rock Riley. Its been a challenging place to work with the bees (low ceiling, open to room below and therefore dangerous) , but its been necessary because of the bears. Our neighbors who also have beehives use an electric fence that carries a lot of voltage. We decided this was too risky for us with so many little people around the place.
Given our past experiences with bears (including a night in which I made the poor choice to throw apples at a bear attacking a hive), why was there a hive available as an appertif for a hungry bear?
This third hive was from a swarm late last summer. Since it is complicated to move a hive (you either move it many miles away before returning it to its new place or you move it a few inches at a time to its new home), we decided to leave the hive right where the swarm happened and strap it well for bear proofing. This has occasionallyrarely maybe never worked and I am very sad we tried this again.
The bear took apart the hive like a toddler stomping on a Ritz cracker.
The winter was peculiar but mild. The garden is putting on a spectacular May display with Flowering trees in particularly good form. The planetary vibration is on one of its upticks right now which means more light is flooding into the planet. and when there is more light on a planet of duality this means more shadow. The bear was just doing his thing. He isn’t really a villain, and I doubt his behavior is in response to the rising vibration, but it is hard not to notice that as the vibration rises, like a soup pot coming to a boil, there is a lot of scum coming to the surface.
Monday didn’t end with the bear attack. It was a day when there was a lot of surfacing scum. Feeling overwhelmed, in the early evening I beat a retreat to my bedroom to get a quiet message. It was another rendition of an oft repeated message. Here an amalgamation of these messages.
The scum on a soup pot remains a good analogy, but just because you notice the dynamic doesn’t mean it is your job to deal with it.
Keep checking before you go anywhere and do anything to see if it’s a good idea vibrationally. It’s a volatile time. Guidance and following guidance remain vital.
Vibration matters! You know this! Trust your read on situations. When you get a slight niggling feeling going somewhere or doing something is not a good idea. TRUST THE FEELING! If you get log jammed and are uncertain what to do, don’t charge in. Stop and check in with us. Don’t pursue something that feels low in vibration. That includes what you listen to, watch on tv, read, discuss or engage in.
If you stumble into a low vibration scene, get the heck out of there. If things are off or heavy, there is no point in you joining in. There is no sense in getting weighed down by low vibrations when they are not even yours and there is nothing you can do about them. We’re not advocating a closed heart. You can be kind and loving without diving into something that is not yours to fix.
Yes, we can hear your, “But but buts.” Being a born brother’s keeper, your first instinct is to think it is YOUR business to help. When you find yourself in a low vibration situation, before you dive in to “save everyone” ASK US IF IT IS YOUR BUSINESS. When confronted by difficult situations, if you get that it is NOT YOUR BUSINESS and there is nothing you can do, LET IT GO. Remember the old chestnut, “Is it my problem, is it someone else’s problem or is it Divinity’s problem?” If it is not your problem then give it to Divinity.
IT IS ALMOST ALWAYS NOT YOUR PROBLEM. Divinity can and will handle it. So let go!
This is a variation on a message I have been getting for at least four decades maybe centuries. The message comes in shorthand now with humor. My beloved dog companion Sheba sits there watching me laugh at the messages. Perhaps she is thinking, “My human is slow on the uptake, but at least she is still laughing at herself.” Perhaps she is wondering, “Will she ever get it?” I appreciate her restraint as she watches calmly, leaves me to my own problems and models love with detachment.
I never thought I would aspire to be Baba Yaga what with her rather formidable house on chicken feet ringed in glowing skulls and her unpredictable decision making. However, there is something about Baba Yaga that feels aspirational. She is completely her own person and makes choices from her own inner compass. What’s not to love about that?
When I was in my twenties, an older relative said to me that women who tried to live within the values of the culture were doomed to depression as they got older. She said going outside the boundaries of the culture as in going eccentric in our choices, was the solution.
I didn’t quite trust this relative. She seemed locked in her own struggle about who and what to appease. The demons of our family drove her both to an enormous worldly career in the tradition of patriarchy and also drove her to drink. Where did authentic, outside the box choices show themselves in her choices? I wasn’t sure they did.
Even as I was uneasy about her, what she said rang true to me. Since a small child, I had been in my own struggle to live outside the bounds of my family’s values. It had already been an epic war with so many skirmishes, victories and defeats. I wasn’t sure the battles, inner and outer, would ever end, and her example didn’t fill me with optimism. Perhaps now, I could meet this relative with more compassion and not the frisson of fear I felt then, as I heard her wisdom yet saw how bound she still was. Perhaps now I could console her that patriarchy can and will be dissolved completely.
Yes, our old nemesis patriarchy….. familiar in its constraints, golden in its worldly promises, rigid in its rules and inevitably leading to train wrecks. We have long been lulled by its familiarity and the promises of rewards if we follow the rules and stay in the boxes we’re assigned. We’ve also been encouraged to see the train wrecks as aberrations not the logical consequences of stifling choices. But our own hard earned wisdom and Baba Yaga’s says differently.
That’s the thing about dismantling patriarchy. It’s been hard work. Still is hard work. Sometimes our doubts about the wisdom of dismantling patriarchy have made the process worse. Sometimes we’ve had brilliant breakthroughs and had a chance to catch out breath. We’ve gone forward and backward in demolishing the whole thing. Really, is it any wonder we aspire to badass Baba Yaga? She just gets it done. Full stop.
Baba Yaga exemplifies igniting the divine spark within us all into a total inner fire of complete authenticity. So much for daily and tiresome dismantling of each chain of patriarchy. So much for stomping out little fires of goal orientation, perfectionism, hierarchy and other insidious illusions. Here’s to Baba Yaga who is herself without clutching onto anything else. She flies off in her mortar and pestle as the spirit moves her. She lives her own moral code that comes right from source. There are no cultural filters slowing her down. She is free and unburdened.
This is aspirational to me. She doesn’t make eccentric choices for the sake of eccentricity or to establish herself outside the culture. These would be actions that involve the culture. The Baba Yaga I aspire to listens to her own heart and following her inner wisdom without constraint. When we do this, we naturally leave the confines of a patriarchal culture which stifles us into diminished roles and stereotypes.
Nestled in our heart’s truth, all things are possible. We can embrace our inner Baba Yagas and find a totally authentic way forward. Patriarchy would tell us becoming our authentic selves is a move towards anarchy and chaos. That is just the way patriarchy keeps women doing too much and cleaning up all the messes. This is bull. It is in living in alignment with our inner selves that we join a collective unity as Divine beings. Living as our authentic selves is the harmony that blows patriarchy right out of the water and reveals it as a passing illusion that at long last holds no sway.
Living as our authentic selves ushers in a new way of life. And yes, I think it is women that have to be the leaders here. We have been enslaved the most by patriarchy, so as we give it up and live authentically the whole thing flips. Viva the flip!
Here are some Flower Essence suggestions for our flight into freedom
The Sacred Feminine– This deeply layered combination mix helps us birth our most sacred and eternal self. It’s time for this birth, nothing can stop it now, but this remedy can midwife us through so we feel loved and supported during the birth.
Hops– This one called out to be included, explaining it supports immense spiritual leaps, the kind so vital and possible right now because of the light pouring into the planet.
Wintergreen– Personally I feel a lot of the territory of leaving patriarchy is saying NO. Wintergreen helps us abandon our doormat tendencies once and for all and find the strength to say NO when we need to (which is a lot more than patriarchy would like). This is also an excellent remedy for those who say, “I’m sorry.” all the time. We have been trained to apologize for being! Enough already.
Cosmos– Sometimes our heart burns with the knowledge of what we know and feel, but it is hard to express these truths in words and actions. Cosmos deeply encourages and supports this self expression.
All Ego Contracts Null & Void– Sometimes I think our egos are just ideas the culture has dumped on us. So time for us to dump all these bindings and find the freedom to be who we are.
The Alignment Garden– This works so well in combination with All Ego Contracts Null & Void because it aligns us with what is there after we dump the ego crap. This is our wondrous, expansive, infinitely precious true self.
Kirengeshoma– This one has been a bit of a sleeper on our shelves and that’s a crying shame. I think Baba Yaga must have had a big patch of Kirengeshoma next to her hut. It helps us know our truth and decide what we want to do with this then do it .
To find our freedom, Discernment is so vital. Check out all the suggestions under discernment in the Flower Essences for Common Concerns document. Here are a few that jump out as particularly relevant.
Puenta La Reina– Discernment about who really supports us and our spiritual work. It’s time to get real about this. Think Baba Yaga level discernment here.
Manjarin– The Essence of discernment in our collections. Among other things, it helps with discernment about what is actually going on, discernment about red herrings (patriarchy gets us with a lot of these) and discernment about what actually feeds our soul AND WHAT DOES NOT.
Pavonia Spinifex– Helps us discern lies and helps us handle lies and stay in our truth and face the lies with poise and equilibrium.
Alpine Forget-Me-Not– Discernment about what is our business, what is Divinity’s business and what is some one else’s business. This is where patriarchy has gotten us particularly confused as it helps patriarchy to have us tied up taking care of stuff that is not our business versus living our truth.
Fly be free!
As a community of Flowers, Angels, Nature Spirits, Dogs, Cats and even some People, Green Hope Farm can be a funny place……and I love telling you all about it!
