Community of the Holy Spirit
July 2012
Urban Garden on the Rise
Black Star
Flowers: A Universe Revealed
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Dear friends,

Summer is fully upon us now, and in spite of a long string of miserably hot and humid days, we've received enough rainfall to keep the gardens happy, both in the city and at Melrose. We ache for our neighbors in the Midwest, suffering from the most severe drought since 1956 (with no end in sight), and yesterday's news brought our attention to a second tragic shooting in Colorado.

Sometimes the suffering around the world seems more than we can bear, so as we enjoy the peaceful work of weeding, digging and planting, our intercessory prayers continue without ceasing.

May your summer be blessed with rain, but not too much; may you and those you love be safe; and may you hold the suffering world in your heart and prayers.

The Community of the Holy Spirit
Urban Garden on the Rise

 

When you mention "Community of the Holy Spirit" and "garden" in the same sentence, most people think of our beautiful organic gardens at Melrose. That's where all the vegetable pictures in our new brochure came from, that's where crop rotation, seed saving and harvest preservation are all done on a thoughtful and intentional scale.

 

But now that we have (in some places) over ten inches of dirt in our urban street garden, where growing something bigger than a baseball sized watermelon is becoming a reality. 


The peppers have not flowered yet, but the tomatoes are over three feet tall and the eggplants are thriving. Over a dozen of my best watermelon plants were pulled up by our over-zealous landscaping interns, but we still have four or five that are trying to throw out their tendrils, and do something spectacular before the frost hits them in the fall. Our neighbors smile when they see us out watering. It's too soon to tell whether we'll be sharing our harvest with them. I hope so.

-- Claire Joy, CHS
Black Star

 

Back in March of 2008, after constructing an A-frame coop in our yard, I drove to the post office to retrieve a small 12x12 inch package containing twenty-six day-old Black Star chicks. They spent their first month in the storeroom at St. Aidan's, in a cardboard enclosure under a heat lamp. On April 8th they graduated to the coop, named appropriately St. Eggbert's. The note in my chicken journal says "All OK, big and friendly".  

 

Which is why we love Black Stars. They're a cross between a Rhode Island Red rooster and a Barred Rock hen, and the hybrids produced are big, friendly, brown-egg layers.

 

In the ensuing years, hawks, fox, coyote and old age have exacted their toll. In fact, just one hen remains from this original flock. In the interim we tried Red Stars, Rhode Island Red, New Hampshire Red, and Barred Rock, all good layers, but none with the friendly, pick-me-up-and-pet-me attitude of the Black Stars.

 

So this past May 7th I made the drive to the post office again to pick up the package of Black Stars from Murray McMurry Hatchery. Suzanne and I spent many hours sitting in the storeroom enclosure with them till they thought nothing of hopping up on outstretched legs, pecking at gold wedding bands and eating from our hands. They're almost three months old now, and have been outside for a few weeks. We look forward not just to their delicious eggs, but to the fun and friendship that are Black Stars.

 -- Bill Consiglio  

  Flowers: A Universe Revealed

Datura ("Moonflower")
Black-eyed Susan

In May I made an amazing discovery. In an effort to give our "Facebookian friends" a better idea of what we do here at Bluestone Farm, I started taking pictures to post on Facebook of life on the farm. I learned how to use our digital camera, including the "macro" function which is used for close-ups. One early morning during harvest I snapped a few pictures of borage flowers. When I downloaded the pictures onto my computer, an utterly fantastic miniature world sprang into view. I had no idea that the borage plants in our garden, all of which are volunteers (meaning we didn't plant them intentionally, at least not this year), had such intricate organization and such outstanding personalities. It was as if the plants and the individual flowers were communicating irrepressible life, noble intention, and thrilling uniqueness. Each flower seemed to be shouting, "Here I am!" and while each seemed to be a unique face of the Divine, each also seemed to be working together with all the rest to create a complex "civilization," the entire plant. I sat stunned at my computer.

Black-eyed Susan

This one experience compelled me to bring 

Borage

the camera to work with me every day, so that I could snap pictures whenever I saw something beautiful or intriguing. The world as revealed through the camera lens continues to amaze and uplift and teach me. I am becoming acquainted with the garden in a way I never dreamed possible.

 

 

-- Helena Marie, CHS 

   

 

   

[Ed. note: The photos here are but small hints

of the wonderful world of Sr. Helena Marie's photos.

Be sure to  visit the Facebook page to see their glorious detail in full-sized photos.]