My brain has been in color spin cycle. My mind is blown. My little Rumplestiltskin moments have pushed me out of my zone and into a blazing nature, with yellow fields, soft green willows budding, blazing pink cherry trees, and the billowing branches in tones of white, cream and pale pink. Spring has been slow...creeping one step after the next...slowly, slowly, quietly under grey skies and cold rain. That grey gradient fooled me until the brilliant blue sky we had last Saturday which continued through this weekend to my absolute shock and delight. What a winter of darkness, a medieval time of slow and sadness, change and cold to the bottom of my heart. What a winter of solid work, solid walls, dreary days and weekends. And now, nature has splashed the world with clear, clean, spring color with lush green, blue skies and delicate pinks, roses and clear yellows. This assault of new, of clean, of hue and shade was such a shock that I had to exclaim my amazement and delight in having the new just arrive at my back door...beckoning with cool breezes and big fat bumblebees seeking our their spot in our new season, in the new life we have been given, and the crazy growy time we are immersed in. Finally. And yes, there will be an abundance of sour cherries and cider apples this fall. So my friends will have to prepare for a robust harvest and maybe robust profits too. The CSA folks are wildly planting and preparing. We have had some amazing spinach and fine, elegant russian kale (not the horse food we normally consume). And soon, asparagus, strawberries and raspberries. Heaven!

Ron's memorial service was last weekend at Mount Saviour Monastery in Pine City, NY (just outside of Elmira). Mount Saviour is a beautiful, peaceful Benedictine Monastery that was Ron's first project on his own just after he received his architectural license. It is a bucolic place with wild nature and a true, steep valley that leads you to the top of a hill where the monastery, the chapel and the outbuildings housing artists, craftsmen, farmers and thinkers live/ and have lived their lives in peace and community. The service was perfect in it's exquisite, simple symbolism, in the quiet and song, in the message of work and life and living. In the quiet of loss, but the hope beyond death in the life/ the spirit beyond. This meeting of people was truly the memorial I think that represented Ron the best in his spirit, his gift, and his vision. Seeing the Monastery now populated with a new group of monks, a younger group of men filled with a new vision, a new attitude about this lovely place--it seemed that there was a continuum, an apt progression from one generation to the next, placing Ron's legacy in the hands and hearts of a new group who will love, live and get to know Ron through the buildings he designed with the founder of this Monastery, Fr. Damascus Winzen OSB (1901-71). For more on Fr. Damascus Winzen>>

We soaked in springtime at the lake this weekend and I am beginning to feel that maybe I might be coming back to myself. It is going to take a bit of time, but what with the color, the birds, and a hugging dog and chatty husband, things might take on a bit more levity appropriate with this glorious time.