Five Senses in my Garden
June 10, 2009 at 3:15 pm | In Basic Musings, Botanical Photos, Gardening | 1 CommentSight: We have so many beautiful and brightly colored flowers blooming, as well as about a million shades of green everywhere. I love our varieties of hosta, the round upright leaves of the water forget-me-not, the new growth on the rhodie.
Sound: We have baby birds in the birdhouse and they are noisy! I love listening to them and seeing the mom and dad hopping out to the adjacent bird feeder. Other sounds? The fountain in the pond, the noisy chickens
Taste: We picked a big bowl of peas and lightly steamed them for dinner a few nights ago. Delicious! I also love just picking them off the vine.
Touch: Curiously, this one does not easily spring to mind. I suppose I touch the dirt and the petals and the leaves. It’s been a cool start to summer, but we have had some sprinkler times. I do not touch the snakes that have decided this year to make their presence known 
Also try not to touch the poison ivy that that seem to crop up here and there.
Smell: Especially at night the scent of the roses and honeysuckle is positively intoxicating. Just lovely.
Spuds.
February 1, 2009 at 7:49 pm | In Basic Musings, Farm Share | 4 Comments
You may recall that we were inundated with potatoes from our farm share this fall. The other day I took a look in the basement at the potato baskets and it was like a creepy horror show. Look how tall the eyes have sprouted!!! We will not be eating these, needless to say.
The gingerbread house was put out onto our picnic table with a hefty dose of birdseed as a treat for the birds and squirrels. Here’s a happy fat squirrel enjoying it:
I swore that once my January stuff was finished I’d start devoting more time to my sewing/crafts/projects and I have at least started something ( a heart garland for Valentine’s Day), but am having trouble finishing it. Our Sunday morning was spent, as usual, just cleaning up toys. I swear our house looks like a toy store. In part because we don’t have much storage, in part because we delight in buying toys possibly more than our children delight in having them, and in part because let’s face it, playing is more fun than tidying. Anyway, hope to have something up here soon showing the latest crafty development. I also want to do more embroidery!
Happy New Year
January 4, 2009 at 7:37 pm | In Basic Musings, Christmas, Sewing | 2 Comments
So it’s 2009. Think back to when you were a kid–how space agey did anything past 1999 sound? We had a lovely Christmas here, lots of presents and cozy family fun. It was just the four of us on Christmas Day and I barely cooked anything. We love our Christmas Day breakfast, so that’s what I focused on. I make sticky buns every year and we always have bacon, too. This year of course we had an omelet as well with fresh eggs.
I received several gifts that I hope will yield results to share here. [In fact one of the gift tags was To: Sue Buttons] In my stocking were several iron on embroidery patterns from Sublime Stitching. I’ve started this little gnome and house, which I think I”ll turn into a sachet. I’m eager to do a robot on a shirt for Clark, but he says no.
Mom got me A is for Apron, and I can’t wait to make one from the many adorable patterns included in the book.
Paul got me Seams to Me, which not only has 24 cool sewing projects in it, but also lots of good basic information that I think will be really useful to me as I embark on trying more clothing (and the aforementioned apron.)
Like millions of others we have vowed to eat more healthfully in the new year, but that starts tomorrow. So we’ve been indulging in holiday baking and treat, including these snowmen cupcakes. They were on the cover of the December Taste of Home and Clark has been asking to make them for a month. I finally did when I was having my book group over and they came out quite adorable. ( I did only fully decorate 6 of them, the rest I just frosted and dipped in the sugar. There was really no reason to have 20 snowmen cupcakes.)
A happy new year to all! My resolutions include more sewing, more crafts, more time enjoying these things.
A Winter’s Day
December 17, 2008 at 5:16 pm | In Basic Musings, Botanical Photos, Christmas | 2 CommentsA few things to note today. It snowed last night and this morning looked a winter wonderland. A little deceptive, though, because it is basically slush. It’s cold and nasty out. But at first light the tree branches looked beautiful and I took a few pictures.
Our neighbors always hang a wreath on their barn, for which I am grateful as it makes our backyard view even more tranquil and beautiful.
I washed the dress I made for Tabitha and it held up splendidly!! I’m thinking of appliqueing something on the front of it.
The chickens are laying 1-2 eggs each day!
Every year when we decorate our Christmas tree we have a wonderful time looking at each ornament and remembering when we got it. Even before we got married we began a tradition of buying an ornament as a souvenir on our trips, so many of them bring back great memories. Also, we actually store them in boxes with labels and the date we got them.
We bought this one on our honeymoon on St. John. It always hung near the very tippy top of the tree.
This year when we returned for our vacation there we chose another ornament to mark our first time there as a family. It is by the same artist.
My mother surprised me by handing this down to me this year. It is a Santa from Germany, brought over by her great-grandfather. I am so touched to hang it on my own family tree from now on.
And these next ones are also from our honeymoon-a big flower and a parrotfish. We went snorkeling when we were there and saw many of them.
Last year we celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary and the traditional gift for that is “glass.” I got Paul a set of lemon and lime ornaments, and a set of heirloom tomatoes as well, to remind us of gardening together.
Here is one of the lemons, along with a beautiful bluebird we got after we moved to our house and happily discovered how many bluebirds live here. (And, by the way, no matter how often we see them we still remark every time and think it’s something wonderful and special every time.)
And this little guy we call “Sombrero Claus”:
The tree is rather amusingly decorated this year–all the glass and fragile ornaments are crammed onto the top 1/3 of the tree to keep them safe from Tabitha’s reach. We have many more and I love it that each has a story to tell, something to share each year. Aside from having children together (obviously), creating Christmas traditions and stories has definitely been something that made us more than a married couple, but a family as well. Oh, how I love this time of year!!
Glitter.
December 5, 2008 at 12:18 am | In Basic Musings, Crafty, Recipes | 3 Comments
This afternoon I went outside and gathered some pinecones so that Clark and I could decorate them with glitter. This was his first glittering experience (though I think he may have done some at school, where I suspect he was not really allowed to get as gluey and glittery as he did here.) As you might expect we have glitter everywhere and my modpodge (why wasn’t I using Elmers?!?!) will never be used for decoupage again.
He was having so much fun, though, that it was totally ok and now we have some glitterific Christmas decorations. It occurred to me that one of the pinecones I took off the tree may very well have been the wee baby pinecone I photographed back in May!
So,this afternoon I tackled a project that is always ongoing in theory, but usually happens once or twice a year, and this managing all my recipe clippings. I finally got myself to tear recipes out (of all except Everyday Food, which somehow I can’t bear to not have intact) and recycle the magazines. But then what to do with all those recipes? I do have a lovely recipe box, but I also have a big three ring binder. Into the binder the recipes go-taped onto a sheet of paper, and slipped into those plastic sheet protectors so that papers can go into three ring binders. Is this practical? I don’t know. I felt a fool while doing it. I mean, how many thousands of clippings will I have in ten years? And how many of those recipes do I even make?? A wee wee fraction, I tell you. Should I only keep the ones I love and put them in my box? Should I do something all online? Or should I say why the hell not? and just keep it up. I love my the recipes and clippings my husband kept from his mother. Looking through them is a little slice of socio-economic history. I like to imagine in fifty years one of my kids looking through and saying “oh wow, I loved this” or “ew, did you actually make ham balls in barbecue sauce?” (for the record, no, but I was so intrigued/grossed out by the name of this that I just had to keep it) I do wonder what other recipe clippers do….
Happy Thanksgiving!
November 29, 2008 at 8:39 pm | In Basic Musings, Christmas, Sewing, holiday | 1 Comment
Thanksgiving was two days ago, but we’re still enjoying the holiday weekend. our Thanksgiving was a lovely day with family and good food. I made the turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and brussels sprouts, and others brought the other sides and desserts. For an appetizer I made bacon wrapped dates, which were so heavenly I’ll definitely make them again. I just took about a 1/3 a slice of bacon and wrapped it around a date and secured it with a toothpick. I put them on a foil lined sheet and baked at 350 for about 17 minutes. The date became so soft and sweet and was a great contrast to the salty bacon.
Yesterday we began decorating for Christmas. Last year I had an idea for this year, which was to decorate our great big tree with shiny balls. We bought a whole bunch of giant decorations on sale after Christmas and yesterday got out the ladder and decorated the part you can see from the road. Of course we could only go about halfway up, not having a cherry picker. I think it looks wonderful, though. Here are the helpful decorators:
I’ve been hard at work on Tabitha’s dress, but reached a stalling point when I couldn’t figure out the yoke/zipper area. I’m determined to finish by tomorrow night though. It looks like a real little dress though with sleeves and everything.
Urchins
November 24, 2008 at 10:36 pm | In Basic Musings, Family, Funky Photos | Leave a CommentMy kids love getting messy. Clark especially is not only a very messy eater, but he also loves to play in the dirt and mud. The more mess, the better. (I can’t really say the same about Tabitha yet, she is just a baby and by nature not yet able to eat neatly. )
I think these pictures of them are fabulous and love them and capture childhood. Either you do, too, or you are horrified and it makes your skin crawl.
Extreme Close Up
November 24, 2008 at 4:23 pm | In Basic Musings, Funky Photos, Sewing | 1 Comment
This weekend we had our friends at Interchangeable Parts over for dinner and games and they brought their big ass macro lens with them. Here then, some pictures (above is an advancing squirrel army-these are silver salt and pepper shakers I inherited.):
a funky fossily coraly rock we picked up at the beach
A close up of a hammered brass lamp
Close up of detail of a silver dish that was my great-grandmother’s
In very exciting news I have started work on the dress I am making for Tabitha. I bought a beautiful soft chartreuse babycord fabric. It is a bit sheerer than I would have liked now that I am working with it. Because they didn’t have any printed corduroy (which is what I wanted) I bought some ribbon to adorn the bottm of the dress with.
the last leaves
November 13, 2008 at 1:39 am | In Basic Musings | Leave a Comment
It pains me how much I have NOT been writing the past month or more. It’s almost as if with the garden and fall winding down I’ve just petered out. I suppose we all go through lulls of things, though. I’m inclined to say I haven’t done a domestic thing at all lately, but that’s not true. I made delicious pumpkin bread with dates in it and as always, after baking with dates I wonder why I don’t use them more often because they are delicious. I made some wrapping paper for Christmas by making potato stamps and stamping some plain paper. I ordered a copy of Ottobre on eBay, so hopefully I really will try my hand more at sewing.
I went away last weekend and two things happened: all the leaves came entirely off the trees (except the Japanese Maple, which looks like it is on fire) and Tabitha started walking. To be fair she was suddenly doing 4 or 5 steps in a row already so it wasn’t like I hadn’t seen it all, but now she’s going all over the places and fairly confidently walking.
We continue to be fascinated by our chickens and eagerly check each day to see if they’ve laid an egg yet. I fear with the timing of the year that maybe they won’t even start laying until the spring, but I hold out hope that they will do so now and on their own (without me having to put a light on in their coop.) Tabitha has had her finger nibbled by one and the chickens seem to have taken to me right away and happily eat out of my hand. They’re not so sure about Paul, yet. We love to watch them go in and out of their coop:
I’ve also just been taking boatloads of pictures of the kids lately and not so much the nature around me, which also accounts for fewer posts. So I’ll just finish up here with a couple of kid pics:
Clark feeds the chickens:
YES WE CAN!
November 6, 2008 at 2:16 am | In Basic Musings | Leave a Comment
I’m being a copycat to Paul here, but I just had to put this up too. If this blog chronicles my family life, then shouldn’t it also mark this important day? Yes, it should. Someone pointed out to me that my children will grow up not having known of a time when there had never been a black president before. That thrilled me. But more than the fact that our country has finally elected its first African American president, our country has elected someone whom I truly believe can make a difference in our country, turn it around, and make us all proud Americans again. Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!!
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