electricity, garden, no school

I made this little video at nine last night from my bedroom window, just before the storm got very fierce and we lost power for the whole night.
The church bells were ringing for 9 o'clock but I only made it to 7; Fiona was downstairs calling Mom... Mom... Mom.  All the schools are closed here in town today because we still don't have power but Fiona is in school.  I spent the early morning cleaning up the crushed garden.

I picked a lot of kale but left some there, as you can see.  Most of what I left has ugly holes in it.  I think I'll give that to the guinea pig.

This nice big pile of kale will get used tonight for dinner plus I'll put some of it in the dehydrator and make kale chips for Fiona.  I also picked two pickling cucumbers for her... and some borage and one little calendula blossom. 

I've been picking calendula blossoms all summer.  I keep them in freezer bags and will take them out and make a paste with mortar and pestle when we have cuts and rashes.  If only there was no such thing as a rash.

Here are those pretty little blue borage flowers.  You can gather them at sunrise like Dr. Bach did and float them in glass jars (the blossoms and new leaves) and then add drops of the water to your drinking water to lift your spirits.  It's good for your heart.  I keep my little jars in the refrigerator because I don't add any alcohol as a preservative.  Dr. Bach was a fascinating person.  I love reading what he wrote.  He sounds like a Buddhist to me.
He didn't make a borage remedy.  I learned about that one from my naturopathic doctor best friend who sadly lives 3,000 miles away.  Woe.

But not too much woe, because Look! I got the cucumbers propped back up with some old drift wood and tomato cages.  And there's my studio in the background.  I start teaching yoga again next week.  Afternoon yoga for teachers just out of school.  I guess I better get out there and straighten things up and make it lovely.  And I'll enjoy the day off from school today; it's unusual to have school cancelled in September.  I've been working on a Master's in Education.  Most of my work in the schools has been with kids struggling with anxiety.  I teach kids who can't tolerate the regular classroom.
Ten years ago I was mostly working with kids who were struggling to read and write.  In the last three years it has been almost exclusively kids with debilitating anxiety.