when the hill is a farm

( love this pic, taken by iphone the day before)

I am sitting here typing away, a few hot summer day past leaving a gentle blend of cool air,  perfect for  the biggest list of chores i have to do in preparing for winter and my upcoming trip to europe. in the next few weeks my blog will look like it has been highjacked for the lack of a better word by certain events surrounding my good friend aran's upcoming book but i promise to leave you with a post about the fog and life on the hill before i go. ( perhaps more for me than anyone else).

i returned from Whistler BC, tuesday morning at around five am after traveling for  about twenty four hours only to arrive to the hill to begin a half hour later the cutting of fields and haying. for a few days a year the hill feels like a working farm. I love haying so very much and as the tractors danced all over the field i slowly looked on at the disappearing golden rod, weeds and tall, tall grasses. how quickly the  view changed as round bales began to stud the open fields. Our farrier came to trim the horses hooves, our horses go barefoot which  in truth i feel should be the only way. I loved watching the farrier trim and hope to give it a try in the near future.

yesterday between the dinner i prepared for k and the movie we where going to see k ( les intouchables, i highly recommend it), the dogs and i decided to walk into the fields as the sun began to set. I jumped into the tractor and turned it on, how i love the sound of a 1950 tractor, i dream of having one of my own one day. gosh this time of day on the hill is the most magical of all, when golden sun hits our skin and highlights what i love most of the hill, everything.

* dear friends i am traveling to france for a work but then will spend a week traveling from switzerland to paris stopping in italy i think on the smallest budget that ever was. if you think there is something i should see, visit i would love to know or if you would like to come along i am so open for that too! yes i am very last minute i think sometimes i am that way cause i hardly believe i am going to do it- then i slowly realize it is happening.

for those who asked. i will spend a weekend in switzerland 9/28 oct 1  arriving in zurich and a weekend in paris oct 6,7 8

it is the in between time that i wondering what i should do, having trouble deciding on car rental or train might meet friends in Abruzzo, Italy for a night but i am wide open on sudgestions even meeting along the way for coffee.

* photographs taken with fujix100 and iphone.

a warm sky and the rainbow

i started writing this on the train from ny too home while enjoying the sunset on hudson river. I thought about these images while walking the hot pavement in the city, i had a nice time and hope to go back very soon to do a few things i just could not do this time around. i will be able to show images from this
trip only in the fall.

 i thought about how it seems as if the night before i leave the hill  the sky is even lovelier than all the days before as if letting me know that this is where my heart resides and why i must come home.  the evening before i left,  I was sitting at the kitchen table with my mother after chores, when i looked up i saw the warmest tones line the sky, a quick rain shower before had formed a rainbow, as all this was happening the sun began to set. i stood on the grass with my bare feet, this is where i live, i function & breathe. within minutes behind me the sky was the colour of wild fire, while the front was a mix of soft tones with a rainbow of vibrant colors ( not captured well).  the air was a mix of cool and warmth like a swim in lake on hot summer night, the leaves moved against the window making the sound of pouring rain without a drop, birds and fire flies flew about and the air played at the back of my neck.  i stood, i paused, i stared and inhaled and now four days later, i finally exhale.

I watched my mum and k drive down the driveway heading to montreal this morning, strange that i am not with them, but  knowing that one and half days of solitude i have craved will help me press reset and prepare for the arrival of my niece & nephew for their summer on the hill. i will weed the garden , listen to music as i am right now and maybe lay in the hammock at some point looking up at the sky through the trees while it grounds me. this evening i will welcome the sunset from the table in the barn while eating dinner made solely from my garden.

hope you guys are doing well, but even better than well.