Life With The Crew

In Our Yard (late April)

The little babe is on a foraging kick, mainly for "tea" for her sick friend Misty (an imaginary cat).  Garlic mustard, onion grass, dandelions, and wood violets - feel free to pick them, honey! - and lemon balm, mint, and spinach snuck from the garden.

The only edible in our garden right now, other than chives and mint, is spinach.  I am totally stoked about this spinach - it is real spinach that I grew and protected from the rabbits!  (At least, until I just typed that sentence, probably.)  It is covered with a plastic net that is stapled down to each side of the raised bed and in order to pick it, I have to squeeze one hand under at a painful angle and can only pick one or two leaves at a time.  Luckily, a grilled cheese sandwich with salsa (still have a couple jars from last summer) and spinach doesn't require much spinach!  (And the little babe just likes to "forage" for it, not actually eat it.)

Because of the early warm Spring weather, our lilacs are blooming now.  Normally they are at their prime around Mother's Day.  The little babe and I picked a couple this week, but I want to save some for our graduation garden party on Saturday.  It is amazing how fragrant they are.  It only takes a couple blooms in a vase to fill the room with flowery lilac scent.  We also borrowed a couple of branches from one of the neighbor's flowering trees.  They were hanging over the street behind their house and they never even see them.  And who would say no to a cute toddler begging for sweet smelling blossoms?  (Other than myself of course.  If I see anyone coming near my lilacs, I am running out to slap their hand with a wet dishtowel.)

What garden goodness are you excited about right now?

 

My Chickadee's Journey (A Petal Capelet)

This is the journey of my Chickadee, a sport weight yarn the color of a bumblebee.

Bought in October in the state of Maine, it sat untouched until the month of May. (Actually it was April, but that doesn't rhyme.)

It was going to be a Lucinda cardi, but (after procrastinating several months) decided it wasn't for me. 

Miriam was next and I actually cast on for her, but then was discouraged by the tiny needles - size 4!

Then I saw this Petal capelet and it made me smile, but was it too much granny style?  

"Caplelet" doesn't have the most attractive ring, but I thought this scarf/wrap/shawl would be just the right thing.

The pattern calls for a worsted weight yarn and size 9 needles, but I figured that since it doesn't really have a defined shape, the sport weight yarn and size 8 needles would work fine.  I really enjoyed knitting this.  The Chickadee, which felt way too small and firm on the size 4 needles, was very soft and open on the size 8.  (Go figure.)  The pattern uses short rows, which was a new skill for me, and they kept the repetitive pattern from getting boring.  There was also an air of mystery (or just plain confusion) for the first couple of sections because I had no idea what part of the capelet I was knitting.  After several sections I could see where the neck hole was going to be.  The size Small called for 6 repeats, but I had to do 7 to make it fit around me since I was using smaller needles and yarn.  This is a nice weight for Spring and chilly Summer evenings.  As I was knitting, I imagined draping it over my shoulders for a stroll along a Maine beach at sunset, but that will have to wait until July.  Sigh.

I hung the capelet outside to dry and discovered these tiny orange specks on it at the end of the day.  According to my bee expert husband, this is bee poop.  Since it is the Petal capelet, I guess this is fitting.

 

 

 

Thankful Tuesday - 4.26.16

Today I am thankful for...

a small bouquet of pretty yellow flowers.  Weeds?  I dare not diminish their loveliness.

What are you thankful for today?

Spring Wildflowers

I spent a bit of time trying to identify these wildflowers that I saw on another recent trip to Shaver's Creek and I did not have any luck.  If you're saying, "I know that one!", I'd love for you to share in the comments section.  I want to be able to share this knowledge with the little babe, but identifying flowers is much harder than mammals!

~I thought that the leaves on this tiny delicate flower looked similar to columbine?  This was my first time seeing this plant and I only saw four specimens in one specific area.

~Is this a type of Hepatica or a Rue Anemone?

-Bright green unfurling ferns.

~I have no idea about this one.

~I feel like this is a common Pennsylvania wildflower that I should know.  The closed buds are dark purple, but the flowers are daisy like and a golden yellow.

~And obviously not a wildflower at all, but I thought the blue color of these turkey tail mushrooms was beautiful.

There is so much beauty in this world and always something new to learn!  Do you have a favorite Spring wildflower?

Breakfast at the Bog

Breakfast at the bog, smoothies at the swamp.  We weren't really going to a swamp or a bog, but giving it an exciting name for the little babe is half the fun.  It is really just a series of small shallow ponds in our local woods.  Depending on how much precipitation we've had they can be quite large, but this year we did not have much snow and it has been a dry Spring, so we were able to walk on ground that was covered by water last year.

The morning was beautiful, it was supposed to start raining later in the day, and my husband didn't have to rush off right away.  So I packed up a blueberry bagel topped with butter, pb, and honey, whipped up a "sunshine smoothie" with kefir, banana, orange, and coconut, and away we went.  As we were walking around the water, the little babe called me out on the fact that I said we would eat breakfast at the bog, so we munched while we walked since there wasn't a designated picnic spot.

We saw a ton of tracks in the mud - big goose feet, little bird feet, raccoon, and maybe fox or coyote.  

We also found salamanders and then found these salamander egg masses, which we believe are Spotted salamanders.  I have seen frog and toad eggs before, but this was my first time seeing salamanders.  Pretty cool.  Then I realized, geez, we probably shouldn't be walking around here in case we are stepping on some, and we headed back to firmer ground.

We also saw both Wood ducks and Mallards circling around, plus three Killdeer that were playing in the water.  It was a great little outing - all before 9 am!

Thankful Tuesday - 4.19.16

Today I am thankful for...

~ so many signs of new life.  Vibrant colored raspberry leaves - just look at that red and green! - strung with delicate spider webs.  Birds, birds everywhere, doing their mating thing.  I saw two sparrows get it on 4 times in two minutes - busy little birds!  It seems like every day I discover a new nest.  On Saturday, I was startled to find that the entire basket of the apple picker is overflowing with a sparrow's nest.  The long handled picker rests on the beams in our woodshed, which is the perfect place for it.  Hopefully this nest will be protected from the starlings; they have already pulled three newly hatched chicks from their birdhouse and destroyed a large nest.  The sparrows are constantly under attack from the starlings.  Just this morning I discovered a robin's nest in the large rhododendron bush that is directly out our front window.  We will have a perfect view of the babies!  And I love hearing the calming coo of the Mourning Doves - it is such a contrast to the noisy ruckus of the starlings, grackles, and jays.

-the joy that children find in simple things.  Despite what mass media and industry tells you, kids do not need store bought toys.  What exactly makes something a "toy" anyway?  A toy is simply an object for a child to play with - why does it seem that the two options are cheap plastic junk made in China or expensive "natural" toys made in Germany?  I'm not busting on the natural toys made with sustainable materials and fair wages for the craftspeople who make them - my daughter has her fair share of them and if I am buying a toy for her, that is what I want to support.  However, I have come to see that my daughter really does not need to be given "toys" to play with because she will play with or without them and for the most part, the play is much more creative when she makes up something on her own.  Some scrap wood becomes building material for a little house and farmyard fence.  Baby clothes that she has outgrown are just perfect for her dolls and buddies and I can knit and sew her doll clothes from my project scraps.  Paper dolls are made by simple painting and cutting, then elaborate stories are told with these props.  And the large cherry tree trunks that are still scattered around our backyard?  Sliced into rounds of different heights, they make a stump walk that is perfect for building balance and jumping skills.  

What are you thankful for today?

Bees in the Blossoms

Short and sweet this morning.  The air is warm, the cherry tree is in full bloom, the bees are happy doing their busy buzzing bee thing.  Spring is really here!  

Mother's Little Helper

So yesterday I had a bit of a rant here, then went out in the woods and came home with a tired little babe who took a long nap.  A dose of nature is good for both myself and the little babe.  I don't need a little yellow pill and I certainly would never buy an instant cake or a steak (read the lyrics here if you're not a Rolling Stones fan and are totally confused!), but time out of the house with nothing to do but wander and explore and listen to the silence and sounds of the woods is just as good as a drug.  And it's free!

~Beech - the last tree left in the woods that is refusing to relinquish its leaves even as the new ones are forming.  They looked lovely shining in the sunlight and they were making a soft rustling sound.

-Early spring wildflowers:  I spent a fair amount of time trying to identify these.  If anyone knows what they are, please share in the comments.  My best guess is a type of Hepatica? This website has beautiful pictures of Pennsylania wildflowers.

~These delicate purple flowers were on a side trail tucked on the side of a tree root.  It was a new trail for us and I told the little babe that we needed to be brave and go on adventures.  We then saw these flowers that we did not see anywhere else in the woods, so it was a perfect example of why stepping off the beaten path is a good thing.  

-I don't know what type of shrub this was, but the reddish new leaves were such a pleasant contrast to all of the other green leaves that are emerging.

Happy weekend!  Hope there are beautiful signs of new life in your neck of world.

 

 

Not Really Feeling It

These are pics from our trip to one of the local parks yesterday.  I don't have anything enlightening to say.  (Not that I ever really do.)  I don't have any fascinating nature facts to share.  I'm in a bit of a blogging slump, wondering what really is the point of this?  When I started this blog, I shared much more of my personal life.  Pics of my little babe, recipes, stuff that I now don't feel was necessarily worthy of sharing.  Over the past couple of years I've decided that I don't feel comfortable sharing so many pictures of my daughter without her consent.  When she is older, I don't want her seeing tons of pictures of herself on the web and asking why they are there.  I mean really, isn't it kind of bizarre that strangers know what she looks like?  As for sharing recipes, I've gotten to the point in my cooking ability where I don't really use recipes and hardly ever make the same exact thing twice.  I'm not an expert on anything, so I don't have anything instructional to share with people.  I feel that there are too many homesteading blogs that just share the same thing over and over.  The things that I feel safest about sharing are pictures of nature.  There is always something new to see or at least a new perspective to view the same thing.  So I guess this little anti-blog rant is just me being in a bad mood - the little babe has been a challenge lately, she is in that strange age where she is very independent, but still needs assistance with so many things and there has been a lot of tantrums lately.  People blog for many reasons and I guess the main reason that I blog is to share nature with people who might not be able to get out and enjoy it themselves and to encourage people to appreciate the natural world around them.  With all of that said, I'm now going to make some butter with the little babe and then head out for a woods adventure.  I need a dose of nature - it always puts me in a better mood. 

April (Snow) Showers Bring...?

On Saturday morning we looked out the bedroom window and saw snow.  I never see the point in moaning about the weather, it is what it is, but I was a bit concerned about the poppy and chamomile seeds that I had planted.  The peas, carrots, and spinach were covered with cold frames and so were protected.  During breakfast the sky was overcast and cloudy with flurries continuing to fall, but then the clouds parted, the sun sparkled down through the snow, and the sky turned a beautiful blue.  Outside we ran!

The sun only shone for about half an hour and in that amount of time, most of the snow had fallen off the branches and was starting to melt.  The gray clouds moved back in and the rest of the day was a slushy mess.  However, for that brief period, the world was beautiful.

Hope you have some magic in your day.