Agape Center, a Sanctuary for Life-Minded Creatives

For serenity and creativity, for organic fresh and garden teas and salads, for quiet and simple designer decor, for beauty and arts galore, visit Agape Sanctuary for gluten free, ecological food and surroundings. Pictured are the living room/yoga room, the upstairs bedroom, the slate porch and the house located in uptown Kingston, NY. Location is minutes from the bus to NYC and the Thruway #19 exit. The music is sweet, the gardens are friendly and birdsongs are a symphony of joy. In all seasons, Agape Sanctuary is filled with spiritual light, divine love and healing thoughts. Email Bardet at egoddesses@aol.com for more info.

Visit Agape Center Overnight in the Hudson Valley

Birds are singing, weather is divine. Agape Center is a spiritual refuge in the uptown part of Kingston, NY. It is accessible to everyplace in the Hudson Valley, 20 minutes from Woodstock, 10 from Rosendale, 25 from Rhinebeck and Saugerties. This is one guest room which shares a bath. House is gluten free and all foods are organic and fresh tea is served from the garden. More pictures coming as soon as I can get this program to work.

New York Chocolat Other Sweets

I made her do it. It was all melted in my back pack and I did not care if I got it all over me and I convinced Sandy she did not care either. So we licked it and got chocolat all over. It was fun to be little girls again on a walk in the sun in the early spring.
The next photos are portraits of my new sweet friends, the 350 sprouting seedlings I have in my greenhouse. We are talking heirloom purple tomatoes, arugula, morning glories, mesclun, califlowers, brocs and manymore. They are quite a crew. Outgrowing their cradles and demanding bigger peat pots. They teach me so much about being an individual. Some sprout up overnight. Some take days and days and days. Some like it cool and some love it hot. Maybe they are just reflecting my many moods.... And the laughing daffodils. With shining faces, looking at the garden and I swear they sing. They have asked if I can get them into the Agape International Choir. Since I want to do that too, maybe we will all ship ourselves out to Culver City (city of Los Angeles).
Last night I thought about what I would pray for if I decided to pray. I answered myself "I would pray to hear the voice of God in my head like I used to. To have a closer relationship with God within". Deciding not to venture out to dance, I laid on the couch with the summer type breezes caressing me and I heard, "I AM HERE". I AM HERE. And it was here and is here and everywhere all at once, loving me and loving each one of us. To feel this is a gift of a prayer - a sweet sincere prayer on a sweet saturday night. May everyone who reads this be open to this sweetness; chocolat, singing plants, friends walking and the peace of feeling God's presence.

Clothes Line Heaven

After 7 years, time to replace the clothes line! That means getting the cotton line with the nylon cord at the center from Herzogs. First measure how long your line wants to be. Then double it cause you want it to glide along on those cool wheels attached to each end. Then you need the line tightener, this cool metal thing that you send the end of the cotton line through after you tied the other end to the ring. It just pulls the line tight. You are simply making a huge long loop. Be sure you get the funny looking wooden things that make sure that the line does not sloop too low when you hang stuff on the bottom of the line. And WOODEN clothes pins in a basket or cotton hanger.
Why go to all this trouble???????????????????? As the British magazine, Selvedge says, if we all hung our clothes on the line, do you realize HOW MUCH ELECTRIC WE WOULD SAVE? ENORMOUS AMOUNTS!! DRYERS TAKE UP HUGE AMOUNTS OF ENERGY. THINK ABOUT IT. HEAT AND SWIRLING TUMBLER.
But the BEST part about the clothes line is that you first of all get to be outside in the air while accomplishing something. Secondly, you are creating art. Fabric in the Wind can be so beeeutiful and you can watch your clothing and linens float themselves dry. (they like it so much more than a dark hot dryer). Third is when you get them inside and sleep with them, you can not believe where that delicious scent came from. I still can not, after a lifetime of hanging out the laundry, figure how they pick up that amazing fresh scent. Unlike that horrible stuff that they put in all those detergents now that assure that everyone knows you haven't a clue about environmentalism if you smell like them. Anyway. try a clothes line. I am on a campaign. If you need help, let me know. I will help you solve problems. I have always had a clothesline, Colorado, Poughkeepsie, Sausalito, Williams Lake.... Celebrate Spring with a new clothes line.
This photo is Aquaria in one of my gardens from the past. Carol took the photo.

Utopian weekend, Flurry of dancing, singing, & music

These are pictures from the Flurry in Saratoga Springs, NY which happens every President's Day weekend. You would love it if you like smiling, dancing, music, happy people, all ages, spinning around and getting high, no drugs, no alcohol, no ego!!!! Not one person spent a lot of money on an outfit to wear to this thing!

4000 plus people gather for something like 800 different events of all the above including the HUGE contra dance you see in the photo. Imagine. Dancers from 2 to at least 80's if not older. So many young (teens, 20's, etc) and young feeling people are here that you feel you have gone to heaven because everyone is happy. My fave was a French Circle Dancing from the 16th century which had us jumping up on a beat. It was called something like popping peas. Quite esoteric.

The other pics are about the teens, the children, the English Country dance and one of Bill Vanaver sitting around practicing with friend.

Think about joining next year. Oh yes, the pic of me is my new crazy collar knitting pattern. It uses all your leftover yarn.