Health & Wellness Investigations

Today, I embraced the rain. Literally. Let me back up. Today, Boyfriend and I decided that we were going to go blueberry picking. It was an overcast day with scattered showers, making it a poor day to go hiking, swimming, fishing, or any of our other usual summer weekend activities. We didn’t think we were going to get a chance to pick blueberries this year, and figured that since our hiking plans were a wash (pun intended), we would try to fit in a visit to a blueberry farm and a to see my parents, who live out in the country where all the good things in the world, like blueberry farms, reside. We looked at weather and it seemed like although it was supposed to rain fairly steadily in the morning, it should just be cloudy in the afternoon, so we planned to get to the farm around 2:30, picking until it was time to head to my parents for dinner. We spent a leisurely morning eating delicious cornmeal pancakes and taking Boyfriend's dad to the farmers market and watc...

As a kid, I loved summer and fall, but as far as I was concerned, winter stopped being fun after about a month and spring was an evil that was unfortunately necessary to get summer back. This opinion didn’t really change when I grew up - summer had sunshine and swimming and fishing, fall had cider mills and my birthday, and December had Christmas and playing in the new snow, but the rest of the year? Blegh. But now that I have begun to embrace a more natural, seasonal way of life...I love all four of the seasons, even rainy, inconsistent spring. Summer is still full of sunshine and outdoor hobbies, of course. Now as an adult, I have the added bonus of being a schoolteacher, with two months of the summer off to focus on my garden and improving my house. Autumn still has cider mills and my birthday, but now it’s also a time of harvest and preservation, and preparing for the winter. Although a lot of work (and the time that school starts again…), it is exciting and as beautiful ...