Greetings, earthlings.
I’m avoiding writing this email like I avoid phone calls with those friends I haven’t talked to in years. Do you know what I’m talking about? These friends live hundreds, maybe thousands of miles away. They were there in the salad days when everyone was absurdly hot and had nothing going on. They’re practically strangers now but I knew them so well then–intimacy comes fast when we can just be around one another, existing, putzing. Not so much when we’re texting one another about a good time for a phone call, slotting each other into GCal, making special plans like Disney Dads trying to entertain and win affection.
I adore these old friends and I wish I knew what was going on in their world, but a catch-up call is too potentially emotionally overwhelming to pick up the phone. Years pass, and they keep on passing, and the prospect of the catch-up phone call becomes even more overwhelming. How can we possibly sum up everything that has happened since the last time we connected? We can’t, so I avoid avoid avoid.
I love writing these newsletters but I have so much to say about the last few months and I don’t know where to start.
But maybe–like those phone calls, when they eventually happen–this doesn’t need to be a laundry list of events missed, but a checkpoint: who are we in this moment, right now? That’s good enough. Better, even.
Here are three things that lit me up this week:
1. This Elderberry shrub
After two years of working on my house, I was excited to turn my attention to my yard this summer. I have visions.
But I was gone in April and May, which are the months when people in Vermont plan for their gardens–starting seeds in their basements, ordering compost, etc. I moved back into my house on June 1st. My garden beds were filled with weeds and my grass was four feet tall. I thought it was too late.
I don’t know what I did to surround myself with the best people, but somehow… when I put out the call to friends for veggie/flower starts, my garden was full within a week. Friends helped me weed the tall grass out of my beds. They shopped for plants with me. They helped me put plants in the ground. They gave me advice and encouragement.
My friend Reese came over on Monday to help me plant stuff and he brought me this perfect Elderberry. I’ve been waiting for the heatwave to break to get it in the ground. I love it so much.
2. A YouTube clip I should take in daily like a vitamin: Eartha Kitt on relationships
A good reminder for women everywhere.
3. An album I can’t stop listening to: In Search Of The Turtle’s Navel, Will Ackerman
It’s gorgeous and will be gorgeous anywhere and anytime, but I was lucky enough to have this experience: I was on day two of my 10-day road trip back east. I was planning to take my time getting back to Vermont by visiting a bunch of interesting places I’d never been. I was in Santa Fe when I realized that after two months of living out of a duffel bag, I was done– my well of curiosity was dry and I wanted to be home as soon as possible. The next day I woke up at 5am, pointed my car northeast, and started driving straight home.
30 minutes into my drive, a crush–waiting for me back east, my last stop before Burlington–texted me. His text glowed in the early morning darkness like a beacon. It was a link to this album. “This on repeat,” he wrote.
I put on the album as I barreled south through the desolate New Mexico desert towards him, the sun rising to the west and the giant full moon hovering over the hills in the east, a pink-orange-blue gradient stretching across the sky, the warm satisfaction of following my instincts washing over me with the golden morning light.
Yesterday this big piece was installed in the downtown City Market:
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![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_720,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1d3df288-f873-4e06-88a9-aa7e1881d263_3600x6600.jpeg)
Words cannot express how lucky I feel to do projects like this, especially for folks in the food system. I want to work with rad people and draw farms and vegetables and flowers and cows and bees and magical humans forever and ever and ever and ever.
Thank you for being here!
Christine Tyler Hill
Website: tenderwarriorco.com
Email: tenderwarriorco@gmail.com