Life With The Crew

Light in Many Forms

Today is the Winter Solstice and I wish I had a lovely snow dusted Winter landscape to share with you.  Or perhaps candles flickering warm light in a cozy indoor scene.  Alas, the temps are above freezing, the ground is muddy instead of frozen, and since I apparently have a compression fracture in my spine, I cannot bend down to take any artistic photos.  So this is what I've got.

A little bit of sunshine captured in the morning before the clouds rolled in.  (And I just love how there is even pet hair on my evergreen display.  Darn cats knock it over at night.)

Sugar cookies made with my grandma's recipe.  The original Sour Cream Sugar Cookie recipe calls for oleo and margarine, neither of which are things I use, so butter it was.  They did not have quite the texture of Gram's, but the sprinkles were the important part for the little babe.  For me, it is the memory of making them with my grandma, putting green and red sprinkles on some of them and cinnamon/sugar/walnuts on the others.  She kept them safely sandwiched between layers of wax paper in a plastic Tupperware container.

And since we have a new baby in the extended family, I had to make something to keep her warm.  I had yarn leftover from the sweater I just completed for the little babe and it was just enough for a tiny little cardigan.  

The toddler sweater is the Anders Kids pattern knitted in Wool of the Andes from Knit Picks.  The little sweater is the Baby Owl Yoke Cardigan, but instead of doing the owl cable pattern, I did fair isle hearts.

This whole compression fracture occurred when I fell off my horse on Sunday.  My last horseback riding fall was twenty years ago and apparently I am not as soft and flexible as I was back then.  It was a very uneventful fall - I wasn't cantering through the woods or jumping over something impressive.  Frank just spooked at a loud noise and jumped back to the left; I flew forwards to the right.  After clinging to his neck for several long seconds, I went splat.  The embarrassed gentleman did not run away, but stood there looking very much concerned.  (No anthropomorphizing here of course.)

So Happy Solstice everyone!  Let there be light in your life today, whether it be a flickering candle, twinkling fairy lights, a dinner with friends, or the smiling face of a loved one.  Light shines in many forms.

 

Birkie B

12 years, 1 month, and 1 day.  That is how long Birkie B lived with us.  

We picked her up on my Mom's birthday.  She was the tiniest little Corgi with the funniest looking ears.  

Here she is looking for chipmunks with Ruby.

Squirrel watching with Molokai.

Three sets of Corgi ears and the odd Sheltie mix.

Birkie LOVED playing.  She had toys in the house and out in the yard and she always had one favorite at a time.

With her thick Corgi fur coat, she had a blast in the snow.

Until about two years ago, she was always game for a woods walk and climbing trees.  

My husband and I got Birkie during our third year of marriage and losing her makes me feel old.  We weren't ready for Birkie to die yet; we have other pets that we thought would go first.  So now we are down to just four dogs and we definitely feel her loss.  Oh, and the name Birkie came from "Birkenstock", my favorite shoes at the time of getting her.  It was a good fit - she was active, had a lot of adventures, wasn't afraid to get dirty in the name of fun.  She made us smile and now we hold onto the memories and remember that we gave her a good life and we made her smile too.  Birkie B had a great smile.  

 

 

Thankful Tuesday - 12.11.18

Today I am thankful for...

~a lovely weekend with my family.  

~a fun morning with friends.

~unexpected gifts.

~woods to roam and play in.  There is just something good for the soul to see a child running around the woods, unafraid and comfortable with their surroundings, immersed in creative play.  There has already been a request to go back today.

 

Getting Out for an Explore

The little babe and I haven't been out on a good explore for a while.  Between going to the barn in the mornings and the rainy weather we've been having, a good wander in the woods hasn't happened.  After dealing with some bad attitude lately from a six year old with a big vocabulary, I decided that enough was enough, we needed to get out.  I have said it many times before in this space and I'll say it again - getting out in the woods for some good old fashioned fresh air really does a body good.

It was like magic.  When we got in the woods, the stress disappeared.  I didn't hear the "NO" word once, except when I wanted to move on and she wanted to keep "ice fishing".  The weather was damp and dreary, in the low 50's, and we only saw three other people in two hours.  Pretty good. 

We squelched through mud, carried sticks, and told an ongoing rambling story for the entire two hours.  We held hands and discovered nature finds - giant oak galls that were used to decorate a tree and "the biggest acorn ever!"  We brought bird seed covered peanut butter balls and deposited them in chipmunky-looking places.  

No sun was shining.  The sky was gray.  But we were both happy to be out there in the woods.  I said it looked like it might rain.  She asked what happens if it does.  I said we get wet and walk fast.  She continued fishing.