Goats at Play

Who doesn't love bright, playful art for the garden?  I'm a huge fan of our locally made farm and garden signs from Bainbridge Farm Goods.  These signs are made by a local artist and crafted here on Bainbridge Island.  They make great gifts and help brighten up barns, chicken coops and vegetable gardens.

I recently won this sweet "Goats at Play" sign through a contest at Inside Bainbridge.  Click here to see my winning entry, and also to check out our local online newspaper.

We installed the "goats at play" sign very appropriately on the goat barn.  And the goats watched this art installation with their usual curiosity.  Lily immediately stretched as high as she could on her hind legs, and nibbled at the bottom corner.  Of course...

Thankfully she quickly discovered that this artwork is out of her reach and not very tasty, so I think the sign will avoid future goat abuse.

Lily "at play" in front of our much more colorful goat barn.

Other signs from Bainbridge Farm Goods that I love:

 

A Few of My Favorite Things...

As I work in the garden, I am almost always inspired by something.  Sometimes its the tiny droplets of water lit up in an unexpected ray of sunshine, or suddenly seeing a tree frog right next to where I am working.  And for a moment, I pause what I am doing.

But this past winter was a very long, cold one, and seeing how little I posted to this blog shows me how little I was inspired.  Or at least how little time I had to write about what inspired me :).  But Spring--at least our soggy Northwest variety of Spring--has finally come and everything seems to be blooming all at once.

With such beautiful blooms all around me, I am finally compelled to pause...

I'd like to say that I am always present to the nature around me, but that isn't the case.  I have three busy adolescent daughters....need I say more?  Throw in a husband who works shift work, a calendar filled with volunteer commitments, family commitments and work, and a hefty does of female hormones and my brain hums along at full speed.  So like every other working mom I know, I race through my daily tasks--not really a recipe for a healthy, balanced life!  But this small act of stopping what I'm doing, and truly seeing something, gives my brain a chance to cease its incessant worrying and planning.

I am grateful for the respite the garden offers.  

A few snapshots of my daily breaks....