Diary of My Country life-November 27th, 2025

The original source of this blog: https://www.lotusandmichael.com/blogs/diary-of-my-country-life

11/27/2025 Thursday 33-45F Cloudy

I must apologize--recently I was too busy; I planned to write this diary at least once a week, but now it has become every other week. Each entry is about one thousand words, which usually takes me about two to three hours sitting in front of my desk without disturbance. That’s my issue: I just can’t land two planes at one time. If I must do some other things while I was writing; when I came back, I would have lost my train of thought.

Now winter has arrived; most events and marketplaces will be paused, and there will be very few things for me to do in my garden, so I suppose I can do some more structural and time-consuming things, such as writing, painting, and even cooking.

Last week a beautiful little maple tree fell in the park. We happened to pass by and noticed it. An idea occurred to my mind: Perhaps I could use its branches to build a solid rack for exhibiting my garments in the holiday boutique event. After confirming with the guard in the park, we sawed a few branches and took them home. Actually, building a hanging rack wasn’t something new to me. Last winter I built one for my sun-cured pork belly ham; it was quite simple and sturdy, withstood all the gales, rainstorms, and big snows. Now it is still standing silently in my back yard, alongside its’ younger brother--weeks ago, I built another one so I could use one for basking my comforter while at the same time the other one for sun-drying vegetables.

I just can’t love this type of rack more. They are so easy to assemble and disassemble, basically just tie and untie the branches. I love their authentic, natural look—the bent shapes, the nodes, much more beautiful and robust than industrial metal rack of wood ones assembled with screws. I replaced three older branches with the maple ones to make them prettier, and they did. The red leaves which I purposely left on the branches added more color and interest to the racks, like a girl’s red ribbons in her hair.

I received a lot of compliments from people regarding my new maple rack during the Holiday Boutique event; one lady even asked me what I would do with it after the show since obviously she admired it. Well, I would keep it in my house to display the garments, and I would use it for my new season’s photography—I think the garments will look more real to be hung on a natural rack than my dummies.

Another thing I love to do in winter is sawing firewood. When the day is sunny, the air is dry, I like to go pick some fallen, hardwood branches in the woods, drag them into my back yard, then saw them into one foot-ish long firewood with my little handsaw. I know a chainsaw can make this work much easier; or just simply buy firewood from the market. But the fact is that I like to hand saw these branches. When they lie on the ground, or pile on each other, they look miserable since they know their only destiny is getting rotten. But once they are sorted out, stacked and drying under the sun, they look happy and healthy. Sometimes I like to count tree rings, a three- or four-inch diameter branch can have lived twenty years, not even to mention the several-feet-across trunk where it came from. The close touch with them is a way for me to observe them, to appreciate more about Nature.

 

To me, my current life is a perfect balance of brainwork and physical work. Designing, drawing, editing, painting—these works demand a lot of time sitting at one spot; while carrying boxes, packing and unpacking garments, gardening offer me the chances to move around, to sweat, to get outdoors and take a break from all the thinking. Especially when I saw the wood, the wind is blowing, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the little pile of my firewood keeps expanding, and my body, which at the beginning feels stiff and chilly, becomes relaxed and cozy—the winter will be secured, my mind rests, it’s a win-win deal. 

One day I would like to have a farm, in the mountains if possible (I love mountain spring water). The farm doesn’t need to be big, perhaps ten acres will be enough for me to run. I will cultivate a flower garden, a vegetable garden, and an orchard. Chickens, ducks, goats are must-haves, so I can provide my little restaurant with my own farm produce. I will be the chef of the restaurant, no menu; I cook what I can harvest that day. My food will be fusion but not fancy--since eating fresh, clean, simple, and healthy is my pursuit.

Next to my restaurant will be a fashion boutique and gallery: My paintings will be hung on the wall, while the garments I designed will be neatly displayed on the racks—no doubt that the racks are built with natural branches 😅.

On the shelf will be the books I wrote, in the cup will be the tea leaves picked from my tea plants… Life sounds so beautiful and idyllic, BUT, there will be at least one big issue: How can I travel? I must feed my livestock and tend my gardens, and I need to serve my customers who come to the restaurant. Like now, I only have a tiny vegetable garden less than one hundred square feet, plus eight potted plants, and I already feel restrained if I want to go somewhere for a few days.

Alas! Let me withdraw my daydream and be realistic. Today is Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving to everybody! I need to go help my husband prepare our turkey and cranberry sauce.