All posts by Michele Couture

Perfect Yellow

Today is the beginning of “vacation” for Rob & me. Technically it’s vacation time for Rob and a little short term disability for me, but I am making the most of this and today was beautiful.

Because I’ve been home for four weeks with this ankle/foot/air cast thing, I thought it would just be like another week home, but it isn’t, and Rob is here!

We spent the day today enjoying the birds and the garden. The weather was perfect – warm with a cool breeze…and it really, truly felt like a vacation day. That timeless, nowhere to go kind of day that seems endless.

Being home hasn’t been so terrible. When I open all the windows and pretend I’m on vacation – it’s a little easier with this view out the living room windows of the Sunflower, Corn, Beans and Squash bed.

Of course, it does look more impressive from outside – but I love that I can see the plants while I am resting indoors.

And the view of Sunchokes through the front windows is amazing!

Today, we got a little surprise of a pair of American Goldfinches!
I saw some rustling in the flowers and it took awhile to see them because
they are the same color yellow. If you look closely, he is in the center of the picture below.
This was how the day started and I was so happy to see them!

This is how the day ended – blue skies…

Wine & Chocolates.

I’m learning more and more to take each day as it appears and make
the most out of what I have to work with. I could find faults with the day, the situation of 
my health, the noise in the neighborhood, etc. etc.
Instead I chose to focus on the things that I really have control over. 
My attitude, and my choice to enjoy the many, many things I have to be grateful for.
I hear the voices that say: it’s just a yellow bird, a few flowers and sunflower seeds are at the store and take a lot less work.
But I say that until you really look at the flowers and hear the song of the Goldfinch, sip that wine and taste the handmade chocolates from Vermont…Until you sit on a couch for four weeks with yourself and realize how much you have to be grateful for, you cannot know, and I cannot explain what this means to me. Every time I put my hands in the soil and connect to the Earth and harvest seeds from plants that grew in this yard…I realize that I would not trade this moment and this experience for anything. 

It is magical and I don’t want to miss a minute of it!
And by a happy accident, I don’t have to…