442 Farm

View from the orchard

Along with gardening, singing is one of the things I love best in the world. Last night I went the Tuesday singing in Northampton for the first time in at least 4 weeks. Phew. Usually I am there every week, at least for the first half. Perhaps this is a sign that the garden is slightly in hand. Next year I want to make sure that planting season does not mean missing singing.

By singing I mean shape note singing, of course. I love all music and listen and sing other kinds of things but my singing home is Sacred Harp. And that is also where my family of friends reside. It was good to be home.

So, 442? That's the number of a song in The Sacred Harp, I just had to look up its word name. We call the songs by their numbers and even their numbers become imbued with meaning and memory.

At some point in time, the right name for my farm will reveal itself to me. For now I brainstorm along and keep a running list of possibilities. Because I love singing so much, I am drawn to using a name that reflects that love. 442/New Jordan has many phrases that are appealing: "living green", "generous fruits", "sweet fields". My recent little joke is to call the farm "442 Farm" until the right name comes along. More on names some other time.

This morning I will be taking pictures around the farm (Thanks again Leslie for loaning me a camera!) and will post some here. We had 1 inch of rain earlier in the week and everything has been growing like mad, including the weeds.




Champion Collards




New iris