as cozy as spring

Creepy

We awoke to heavy fog and dew. It was perfect spider web hunting weather (and super awesome timing since I had planned on a spider lesson today). I sent the children out to look while I prepared breakfast.  But there were few to be found.  Next to none, really.  Is this connected to our recent drought or due to the surge in our lizard population that we noticed in August?  Neither?  Both?  We can't say for sure, but we have our theories.  We went looking for webs and we found a myyyssssstery...

Really, I just like this picture and all things creepy and crawly this week!  Tomorrow, on to bats!

Tiny Flowers

Happy #3 - Dotted Saxifrage found growing on a large, very rocking clearing in the woods. I snapped this photo without thinking and it remains one of my favorites.  I love it when that happens.  (Though it's driving me up the wall that it isn't perfectly focused.)

And also, it has rained for the last two mornings. If you blink, you might miss it, but there is wet stuff failing from the sky.  The weather man said something about "an end to the heat wave" last night.  Dare we hope?

And P.S! Last year Dani at Sunshine Yarns dyed a special yarn based on one of my wildflower photos.  She's offering it again today!  I'm hoping to get another wool/silk roving.

Cool Water

August is a tough month 'round here and I vacilate between pretending it's business as usual or completley surrendering.  For the rest of the month I'm just going to post picutres of things that make me happy.  

Happy #1: Resting my feet in a frigid mountain waterfall.  

Summer Color

Fresh cotton t-shirts dyed in happy summer colors~

Spread in the sunshine to dry~

Where a mockingbird promptly defecated on them.

I'll be spending the week poolside praying that the-child-who-refuses-to-swim will make a breakthrough this year.  These are good days.

Summer Fun Days

Day 1: Slip and Slide (and sunburn).  It is inadvisable to set the children up on the slip and slide and then take a nap, trusting that one's husband will tend to their sunscreen needs.

Day 2: Family barbecue at my parent's home.  

Day 3: (um, OK.  I just caught up on paperwork that day)

Day 4: Ice cream and sprinkler in the backyard.  This was rather forced on my part.  I just kind of wanted the children out of the house so I could clean but at the last minute, I threw a little snack together and sat out there with them (knitting).  The hours I spend just sitting in the backyard with my babies are among the happiest I know. 

Today: Decorating flip flops and The Sound of Music!

The Very Best Thing

(about blogging)

I'm not feeling my best.  I feel like I'm working very hard and not getting anywhere.  You understand, friends, like when the washing machine is running all day and there is still a giant pile of dirty clothes in the evening. That feeling.  I would fret about this but I can look back in my archives and see that I felt the exact same way last April.  And that is the very best thing about blogging.  I take that back.  The very best thing about blogging is having friends who know what I'm talking about.

It will pass.  But I'm getting up even earlier this week for some quiet work (and think) time.

My boys.

Present

This time of year, little pots begin to appear in the south facing windows.  

We are wondering, "What color will you be?"

And I know that the world will look like this for only a few more weeks before it turns....

.. to this.  

So I try to encourage my children to love where they are and when we are so our hearts will be filled with gratitude for right now.  I make them write it down and cherish it.

Because we will be fed up with the heat in no time. :)

Snow Day

The sky is pink and glowing, though there's only a sliver of a moon and it's hidden in the clouds.  I thought it was later than it really is, just after 4:00 AM.  The brightness of the unseen snow woke me and I'm so glad I got up.  It's quiet and still and perfect.

We hunted for animal tracks yesterday. We huddled around the tiny space heater my grandfather gave me and read storybooks (thanks for all the suggestions!).  My husband and I ran and slid down the street on the giant slabs of ice, laughing like we were teenagers.   

And I wished for holding-hands-mittens. 

Signs of Winter

I looked around my kitchen earlier this week and saw the familiar little vignettes which appear every winter. The pots of hyacinths sitting in the reflective warmth of my kitchen sink, the pears ripening in paper bags on the counter. We have pear taste tests in the winter - my current favorite is the Concorde which tastes like wildflowers .

My paperwhites were s-l-o-w growing this year.  I honestly don't even know why we plant them every year.  We unanimously think they stink and have to put them in the backyard as soon as they bloom.  But we do plant them simply because we always have.  

The hyacinths, on the other hand... the quintessential smell of early spring, a rare spot of lush color through the dull days of February.

A stack of newly knit winter hats.  Four.  There were five hats actually completed but one was frogged as I did not fully accept the importance of negative ease and it was giant.  Fortunately, it was knit in Beaverslide and I could knit and frog it time and time again and it would still look new.  I love that yarn. 

We're spending just a little time each evening playing Uno in front of the fire and watching a rerun of The Cosby Show.  My children have only seen it a time or two and are enjoying it as much as I did as a child.  

OK, I need to go read a chapter or two in Francie before bed.  Happy Thursday!

Season's End

We're getting into our pajamas.  I have two last Christmas books to read to my babies.  We're all sleeping in one room.  It's been that way for a while, mostly out of necessity.  The late evenings through December made it so much easier to read and pray together rather than separate bedtimes for everyone.  Tomorrow, though, we'll return to our rooms and schedules and books.

We had one last feast today; Ricotta Gnocchi, Pasta e Fagioli, salad, and rosemary bread.  I made pizzelles for dessert, as is our custom on Epiphany.  This all took about 5 hours to prepare.  I was bitter about that through most of the day but the bitterness melted away when I say how happy it made my little family.  These few recipes have been made at so many celebratory occasions that they instantly bring joy.  The gnocchi was sort of new (though my dad made it many times when I was a child), an attempt to copy my superb Christmas Eve dinner.  My husband pronounced it "Fantastic".  It's a Cook's Illustrated recipe and linkage is more difficult but there are a few recipes floating around out there.

I didn't get to everything.  We plant our bulbs on Epiphany and that was just barely squeezed in at sunset, as everything in the garden turned a cool, dim blue.  The handmade gifts I hoped to make for my children were presented as fabric and patterns.  They didn't care.  They are thrilled with the promised winter dress and little man pajamas.  I'm confident they'll correct the date in their memories.

I used to cry on Christmas evening because it was all over.  Isn't it the greatest gift as an adult to appreciate the peace that comes with settling in for the winter and the beautiful harmony of the liturgical year?  The stretches of quiet as the in-between-time lengthens.  The 26th has become my most favorite day of the year.  We are expecting bitter cold weather next week and I'm knitting out of necessity and stockpiling firewood.  

And for the last time this year, friends, I wish you a Merry Christmas.