Pondered In My Heart

Garden Update: Late May

So much growing since my last garden post way back at the beginning of March! I'm joining Ginny for her Saturday Garden Journal.

As I mentioned last week, the strawberries are doing very well at the moment. Strawberries can be tricky to grow and you are really at the mercy of the weather, about which you can do nothing. Too much rain, particularly with cool temps, and they succumb to molds and rot and your berry patch turns into a disappointing mess. But given plenty of sunshine and moderate water and you have a lovely crop. This has been a good year: we are picking a goodly amount every few days, and we are adept at polishing off several quarts at at time as they are so good when just picked.

I am also hoping to grow alpine strawberries, which I actually read about in my favorite vegetable gardening book. Alpine strawberries bear all summer long and do not form runners so they are easier to tend. I started two varieties from seed a few months ago and they are almost ready to set out in a new bed prepared for them.

The blackberries are  just beginning to fruit, and we should have a very good crop from our three bushes we put in a few years ago. I know you southern growers are already enjoying your big black tasty fruits but we have to be content with our little green berries for now. Patience!

And our blueberries are still green berries too-

We also grow two varieties of raspberries in a long row across the back of our yard, for a total of about eighty feet of raspberries. These berries produce on second year canes, so that there are always a row of bushes-

And these are the ones that get cut back all the way every year. In spring they grow new canes and will eventually bear fruit on them later in the summer. As you can see, we are still working on getting these mulched with compost.

New this year are a couple of black currants We just planted these a month ago and I was surprised to find a few clusters of flowers on them already.

We also put in more fruit trees, adding cherries, peaches, and Asian pears to our collection. We have a cluster of fruit trees over on one side of the house and we fondly refer to it as The Orchard. Our lot is about 3/4 of an acre here in suburbia, and as you can see we try to make the most of it garden wise.

Onward to the vegetable garden! It's almost beet time. We do love our beets. (and taffy)

Bush beans are just sprouting (along with weeds) -

Our first planting of peas is doing well-

and I just picked the first two pods the other day for these two sweeties.

Greens are thriving in the spring weather. Spinach-

lettuce and kale;  I kind of have a rotation going for our dinner salads with the three. So tasty and nutritious, and every night my husband says 'I love not having to buy greens!'

Here you can see how I have the greens all growing under my cucumber frames. Later in the summer when the vines are climbing the frames they will give a little cover shade for the greens who like it cool. I also have little baby leeks mixed in with the greens to maximize the space. If you have keen eyes you might also spot a few 'volunteer' nasturtiums popping up in there. I leave them be as they are pretty, the flowers are edible, and they are also said to repel the dreaded squash bugs. Besides utilizing space well, this type of interplanting can also be helpful for minimizing pests as I learned in that same garden book. I also follow the author's recommendations for deep, wide, raised beds to maximize productivity.

Here's a view of the whole vegetable garden. We have five wide raised rows with paths in between. Raised beds are very popular today with most people thinking of them as some type of frame placed on the ground to hold your soil. But as you can see you can have a raised by simply mounding up the soil and the benefits are the same - maximized space and loose rich soil because you aren't walking on it. Loose soils allows for better root system development which makes for stronger plants and better yields. And that allows the soil to support more plants in less square foot space, further maximizing yields.

I also have a couple of boxes of lettuces on the deck and this is turning out to be very convenient. If we just need a few leaves to put on a sandwich or if we are making a salad after dark for a late supper (ahem) we can get our green fix right out the door.

I've also been working hard on the flower beds, but not too much to show as yet. That loooong bed we put in a few years ago was overtaken in parts with vetch and I've been laboring to really turn over the soil (by hand) and get all the roots out. I'm also pulling out lots of primroses which are lovely now while blooming but tend to take over the garden universe.

There are also roses for consolation.

Thanks for visiting our May gardens!

Happy Heart Day, Eliza!

Once again, she wanted pink frosting on her heart cookies.

But it's her special day, and so pink frosting it is!

St. Faustina, the spotted horse, pink heart cookies and Eliza. You can read about this special anniversary of Eliza's in a previous May 19th post here: Matters of her Heart.

Jesus, I trust in You! Deo Gratias!

{pretty, happy, funny, real} - Mother's Day Edition

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Joining the lovely ladies at Like Mother, Like Daughter for another edition of Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real.

{pretty}

Here are my little girls having a visit with Our Lady after Mass on Sunday. Our church had the May Crowning on Mother's Day, and it is so fitting to honor our Blessed Mother in this way on this day. Pretty girls, pretty dresses, pretty hats, pretty flowers, pretty crown. Beautiful devotion.

 

And here are some of my handmade Mother's Day gifts from my girls: a beautiful bookmark from Anna, a spiritual bouquet, and a framed Jemima Puddle Duck ATC* from Mary Rose. She made Mrs. Puddle Duck for me because I was fond of a similar card she made recently to trade with a friend. The funny thing is I used a Jemima Puddle Duck rubber stamp to make Jonathan's birth announcement so many years ago, when I first became a mother. Little interesting connections like that always delight me. Also delightful are the exquisite monarch butterflies made by Lydia-

 

Anna hand lettered the Salve Regina on the back of the bookmark -

 

And here's a close up of the cool butterflies and my card from (you guessed it) Lydia. The monarchs are hand painted and cut from paper and they have tiny wire feet so I can hook them onto things for decoration. Lydia is quite amazing with a pair of scissors and a paintbrush.

 

Josiah presented me with a lovely bucket of one of my favorite wildflowers he dug up, and all the guys did some digging for me as you'll see below.

{happy}

Happy is enjoying the first fruits of the garden! The strawberries really started bearing well this week.

 

Nothing is as tasty as just-picked-from-the-backyard-and-still-warm strawberries.

 

We've also been enjoying fresh greens from the garden: lettuce and spinach and kale.

 

We recently tried this kale salad and it was delicious! I added apples, raisins, toasted pecans and dressed it with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. So good!

{funny}

After posing for our traditional everybody-on-the-couch Mother's Day picture someone had the idea for us all to pose with books. Not just any books of course, but nine copies of The Fellowship of the Ring. Note that these nine were carefully chosen so each person has a different style book. And no, that is not all of the Fellowships we have in the house. We're just slightly Tolkien obsessed around here.  

 

Funny is also getting a new flower bed for my Mother's Day gift. Fellow gardeners, I'm sure you understand.

Michael bought me a new birdbath for my Mother's Day gift, so naturally I had to have a nice spot for it. As it was Mother's Day, he just obligingly asked how big I wanted the bed and did I want an ellipse?

 

And knowing and loving my scientist husband as I do, I naturally said yes. And I naturally knew how he would get out string and a stick to mark the foci of the ellipse. The stick is one focus and the tree is the other, and he grandly walked around with his string marking out the perfect shape.

 

And here we have my new elliptical flower bed! Knock Out roses were on sale this week, so I fetched two of them. The new bed seemed like a good place for St. Francis who was getting lost in some overgrown shrubbery and so we moved him here and dubbed it the St Francis Garden. I put in some seedling annuals too, and it should look very nice in a month or two, providing everything doesn't get eaten.

 

{real}

And speaking of things getting eaten, you know you haven't worked in the vegetable garden in a long time when you finally get in there and inadvertently find a nest of baby rabbits!

 

How's that for real?! Lydia teased me a fair bit, calling my fenced in garden a 'rabbit hutch'. Harrumph.

 

But the little babies were safe as I'm no Mr. McGregor. I explained it all to Mrs. Rabbit and told her I knew all about her babies and that her secret was safe with me.
Here she is demonstrating her if-I-sit-very-still-and-don't-bat-an-eyelash-that-lady-will-never-even-notice-me pose. Have you ever seen rabbits do that? They sit stock still while you get closer and closer and closer until sproing!  You finally get too close and they shoot off like a rocket.

 

And that is a bit of a summary of my Mother's Day week thus far. We do like to refer to it as the Octave of Mother's Day. So far we've had cheesecake, strawberry shortcake, triple berry coffee cake, lemon blueberry scones, and an iced cherry almond ring... You do celebrate the Octave of Mother's Day too, don't you!?! Give it a try - it's like practicing for the very chocolate Octave of Father's Day next month.

*Edited to add: ATC stands for Artist Trading Card, which is a 2.5x3.5 piece of artwork created to trade with other artists. We are hosting a swap of Marian artwork for the month of May for artists of all ages - you can read about the details in this post. We'd love to have you join!

 

College Graduate

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 ~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Joining the lovely ladies at one of my favorite blogs, Like Mother, Like Daughter for another installment of {p,h,f,r}.

{pretty}

We have been seeing lots of pretty butterflies about lately - painted ladies, red admirals, fritillaries, buckeyes, question marks. There are precious few bees about which worries and troubles me, but quite a few winged pretties do their best to cheer me up.

 

{happy}

Happiness is having beautiful weather for gardening and enjoying being serenading by a wandering minstrel at the same time. There's nothing like a few jigs or reels or polkas to liven up the work and put quite a bounce in my step.This is Josiah's second accordion, a button box. Yes, he has two now.

{funny}

This is Eliza's bowl of cream of wheat after she put her own brown sugar on it. She likes to spoon it on herself, and she thinks she should have eight spoons as she is eight years old. This special girl sure gives us plenty of funny and keeps us laughing on a regular basis, often right when we need it the most. (and don't worry, I took all that sugar off for her)

{real}

Getting really real here folks! Here I am in my new reading glasses. I had several cheap pairs that I kept in various places, but after the little girls broke a few pairs I decided I wanted one nice pair to keep on my person since I *ahem* am needing them more frequently lately. So I made myself a beaded eyeglass chain for the quintessential mature lady look. Someone here referred to me as Marian the Librarian, while another (obviously male) Someone asked why the chain was so blingy, and wouldn't a piece of string have done the job? No, I don't think so. ;-)

Visit Like Mother, Like Daughter for more visions of everyday contentment!

Art for Our Lady: Marian ATC Swap 2012

Friends, it's that time once again when we honor Our Lady during her month of May by hosting an Artist Trading Card swap of Marian artwork. This will be our third Marian ATC swap!

(Our Lady of Mount Carmel by Anna)

Artist trading cards are miniature pieces of artwork created for the purpose of trading with others. An ATC is  precisely 2.5" x 3.5" (6.35 x 8.89 cm) in size - you can buy readymade cards at a craft or art supply store or cut your own from larger pieces of paper. Something like card stock or heavy watercolor paper is good. We usually cut ours from watercolor paper - a 9x12" sheet will give you ten cards.

Artist Trading Cards can be made using any art medium such as colored pencils, graphite, watercolor, acrylic, marker, pen and ink - whatever your preference is for artistic pursuits.

The swap is open to artists of all ages and abilities - we are always delighted to have artists from the littlest youngsters all the way through to one of my favorite swappers who is a great grandmother. This is a great project for the whole family to work on together, and busy moms are especially encouraged to sit down and take some time for creativity.

  

(Mary Spinning Thread by Mary Rose, Mother and Child by Lydia, and Mary with Roses by Kateri - love the little angel in flight!)

The small size of an ATC makes it fun and non-intimidating, but the diminutive results can be so very lovely.

(Our Lady of Sorrows, oil by Josiah)

Some possibilities for inspiration: titles of Our Lady (see the Litany of Loreto), mysteries of the rosary, devotions and apparitions, hymns, prayers, antiphons, symbols, traditional images or paintings.You can see some of the cards from our precious Marian ATC Swaps here: Our Marian ATC's.

The swap will work the same as the previous ones. Here are the details:

• Each participant will create five ATC's to mail out and will receive five different cards in return.
• Everyone will send their cards to me. We will sort them out roughly by age group/ability of the creator and then mail the cards back out to their new recipients. When you mail your cards to me, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope that I can use to send your new cards to you.
• International swappers are most welcome! It's always extra fun to receive cards from a faraway place. 
• The swap is open to all ages.
• Each card should be labeled on the back with the creator's name and however much info you'd like to share - age (for the kids), date, title of the piece, media used, and location if you like. Some participants look to connect with others for possible pen pals and the like, so you are welcome to include more personal info if you wish, but it is not required.
• If you are interested in participating please leave a comment or send me an email at kimberlee (at) beadsofmercy (dot) com, and put ATC swap in the subject, and I will send you further information. Anyone can join in and definitely the more the merrier.
• Please mail your cards to me postmarked by Wednesday, May 30th.
• If you have a blog, please feel free to spread the word. Here's an image you can use if you like:

(thank you, Anna Ruth!)

Enjoy creating lovely artwork to honor Our Blessed Mother!

Needle & thRead: The Black Linen

I'm joining Elizabeth and friends again for her weekly online sewing circle.

Back to that black linen I mentioned in my last post...Lydia had a music performance coming up and I actually realized ahead of time that she didn't have anything to wear. She was to play a piece her brother composed for harp, performing at the college in his composition recital. As musicians customarily wear black, and finding a suitable dress to purchase was so unlikely I wouldn't even try, I got it into my head to make her a dress. And as Lydia is not a synthetic fabric kind of girl, I knew at once it had to be linen. Classic black 100% linen.

Finding a pattern was a bit of a challenge. Lydia's sense of style required something simple and modest yet elegant and including these once popular but now obscure arm covering devices called sleeves. We liked the style of this dress I found on Etsy, although its slim sleeves and close fitting bodice wouldn't do for comfortably playing musical instruments. We settled on Vogue 8555 which has a similar cummerbund waist with flared skirt, and it just needed some slight modifications (such as longer sleeves as Lydia requested) to make it work.

I first made a 'muslin' out of some cotton floral fabric I had on hand. I was pressed for time so I made only the bodice (with nobbut one sleeve!); someday soon I'll finish it into a nice little summer frock.

As you can see, I raised the neckline of both the front and the back of the bodice by quite a bit:

And here we have the finished dress:

Would you believe I don't have a single picture of Lydia wearing it that night?! Next recital I'll get a photo, for sure.

As for reading, I never did get anywhere in Tolkien's letters that I mentioned last time; my library request became available and you know how you have to read your holds first. So Lydia, Anna and I are all reading The Bluebird Effect, with a most grateful hat tip to Tonya at Plain and Joyful Living who recommended it. We were going to take turns but the allure of this treasure of a book took over and we all dived in at once. It is such a delightful read and spring is the perfect time to indulge in these wonderful stories of 'uncommon bonds with common birds'. Julie Zickefoose is a naturalist and rehabilitator whose love, knowledge and intimacy with birds shine through on every page. She is also an artist and her own illustrations, from field sketches to watercolor paintings, make the book lovely to look at as well. It's filled with the kind of stories that are so endearing to birders - the little daily encounters and rare opportunities when one gets to connect with and sometimes influence the lives of our feathered friends. Zickefoose clearly loves birds, yet she doesn't succumb to excessive sentimentalism or worse, anthropomorphism. And her knowledge of the natural world remains willing to admit that in nature absolutes can be rare and surprises frequent. We have the book from the library but I surely think we need our own copy.

(watercolors in above picture are by Lydia)

Thank you again to Elizabeth for hosting!

Needle & thRead: My Little Sewist

I'm joining Elizabeth and friends for her weekly online sewing circle. It's great fun to see the different projects that everyone is working on - thank you Elizabeth for hosting!
As I mentioned last time, Kateri had a birthday last week and she tells me that her best present was her new sewing machine. I can easily agree with her.

I spotted this vintage toy sewing machine at the thrift shop a few months ago and the cuteness had me swooning on the spot. It's a Singer Sew Handy machine, made in Great Britain, and this model is probably from the 60's (like me). Turning the hand crank makes it work and it sews with a chain stitch and thus has no pesky bobbin to contend with. Though the case is plastic the machine itself and the mechanical parts are heavy duty metal. I borrowed Jonathan's hanky in the store to give it a go and make sure it worked and then I nabbed that thing in a jiffy.

Even the instruction book had me giddy with the charming vintage illustrations-

She was so excited to get started, I helped her to sew a few squares together after her cake and ice cream.

I gave her a collection of charm squares to work with and so the next morning she got started on a blanket for her new donkey (whom she promptly named Puzzle, of course). Half the fun is playing with the fabric and deciding what will go where. (Puzzle really likes ladybugs, she tells me.)

And since then we have been having lots of fun learning the basics. We put our fabrics right sides together, just like a sandwich with peanut butter on one side and jelly on the other.

And then we turn the crank and watch the 'magic' as our pieces are sewn together.

Of course the other half of the fun is seeing your work progress!

Can you tell she's quite pleased with her work? She likes to say, "I'm only six years old and I have my very own sewing machine," as if she can't quite believe it herself.

As for our reading, since this post is about the little ones I'll show you what I'm reading to them: The Complete Brambly Hedge. by Jill Barklem. This was another of Kateri's gifts, and as we have never read these stories before I thought it would be fun to read them aloud together rather than letting Kateri rush through them by herself. So now we have a brief 'little girl tea time' before our regular tea, in which I read a bit about the sweet wee country mice and we sip happily from our steaming cups.

Presently I must be off to get to some serious fast sewing, as we made an unexpected trip out of town earlier in the week and I have a deadline. My four yards of lovely black linen should be just finished with its prewash...bye!

(PS am I the only one who is a bit sqeamish about throwing new fabric into the washing machine? It's really the point of no return, when your yardage is swishing around in there, now isn't it!)

Needle & thRead

I'm joining the always lovely and ever inspiring Elizabeth Foss for her new sewing circle link up on Thursdays.

I've been doing a bit of sewing for my two April birthday girls. Kateri's birthday was yesterday, and I surprised her with a new dress waiting for her when I told her to go upstairs and get dressed.

She is very fond of cats, so I knew she would love this combination of her favorite color pink on top and endless kitties of all kinds on the bottom.

I hemmed it on the machine and then covered the stitiching with a round of pretty pink ric rack.

I sewed the ric rack on with the machine by using a decorative wavy stitch and adjusting it to the right length and width to match the ric rack zig zags. Challenging, but very rewarding and fun to make it work. I told Kateri the ric rack is my favorite part, but she is fond of the narrow binding of cat fabric at the neckline. She likes details, that girl. The pattern is an old one I had, and years ago I used it to make a dress with horse fabric on the bottom for a certain little girl.

That previously horse-loving-girl-turned-birder had a birthday this week, and I made Lydia a purse out of some fabric I had with little blue birds.

The handles are a nice length to just fit as a shoulder bag, but not too big so it can also be carried in hand. There are numerous free tutorials online for pleated purses, but I made up my own design: I had three coordinating fat quarters that I wanted to use, and no more, so I had to make the purse to fit what I had on hand. I used the whole birdy FQ for the body of the bag, just cutting off the tiny bit needed to round the corners. I had another FQ for the lining, and the third went for the contrasting top part and handles.

I also wanted to make some coordinating things to go along with the purse. I made this little pouch (similar to these I made a few years ago for my purse) and decorated it with these two little birdies, the only two whole birds from the snippets of fabric left. I was particularly pleased with how cute it came out, and to squeak something useful out of those tiny birdy bits.

I also made a snapped pouch with the other leftover fabric, and I tucked in a handmade mini sketch pad and a matchbook notebook to round out the gift. I like the look of the blue stamped birds on the brown kraft cardstock.

As for my reading, I am just starting The Letters of JRR Tolkien. Several folks here have read it since I gave it to Jonathan for Christmas, and people frequently discuss it and show me tidbits, and now I've finally gotten my paws on it. Tolkien was very fond of writing letters, and many of them in this book pertain to the works he was writing at the time. As part of this family of Tolkien fanatics I am very much looking forward to reading the letters.

Thank you to Elizabeth to hosting this delightful linky!

Wordless Wednesday: Birder Girl

(psst! Lydia has pictures from inside the box over at her blog)

Eastertide Daybook

Outside my window- It's a lovely, sunny dewy morning that is predicted to turn into a hot hot summerlike day. The weather has been so strange this spring it's hard to keep one's (gardener's) head straight. But this week is to be a hot one.

I am hearing- Lydia complaining that her brother took her calculator so she's stuck with 'a dumb calculator that can't do inverse tangents' and Mary Rose giggling her Mary Rose giggle at this despairing news. Little bits of heavy breathing as little sleeping beauties slumber on the couches.

I am wearing- One of my favorite summer skirts that pops with bright flowers, a white top and a pink cardigan. It's so lovely and refreshing to be in spring colors! We put off wearing summer clothes until after Easter,  (Regina Doman describes it here as a 'clothing fast')  and after so much black and purple and dark wool during Lent it's positively delightful to be in spring cottons. I love how just looking at each other is a constant reminder of our Easter joy.

I am thankful for- A beautiful day yesterday for Divine Mercy Sunday. We visited the local Carmelite Monastery for the afternoon. It's a long but pleasant drive out in the country and up a mountain and when you arrive it is clearly to a more peaceful and holy place. And to hear the nuns singing their prayers is always heavenly. Not entirely unlike the angels, they sing at set points throughout the day marking time with praises of sweet voices rising in joy to Our Lord. Hour after hour, day after day, behind the wall they live and move and have their being united in prayer to Him. Nothing in the outside world can shift their focus, their progress towards Him. Always so much to contemplate after a visit to Carmel.

I am reading and thinking about- How to Converse with God, which I bought along with Uniformity with God's Will, two little booklets by St. Alphonsus Liguori (thankful hat tip to Christine). I read How to Pray Always during Lent, and this is a nice and easy to read companion to that. I appreciate brief and easy to read yet profound words of wisdom from the saints.

Having given up frivolous reading, I admit I had great difficulty getting much spiritual reading done during Lent as I need quiet to do deep reading and quiet is pretty sparse around here. We go to early Mass, so reading in the morning doesn't happen, and by night fall I'm generally tired and fall asleep after a page or two. In spite of these shortcomings of mine we had a very good Lent by mining the treasure trove that is Audio Sancto. This site has a collection of excellent sermons by various priests (who remain anonymous as they all have other duties) on a myriad of topics such as Prayer and Interior Life, Grace and Holiness, Marriage and Family, Purity, and The Saints just to name a few. We found we could turn on a sermon whilst doing our chores or tidying up and everyone could listen and benefit so much from the time spent folding laundry or washing dishes or whatever. The solid and inspirational teaching quite literally had my kids clamoring for more. (!) Some of our favorites: We Are Not Saints, Because We Do Not Want to Be, Supernatural Charity, and this three part series The Importance of Praying Well, Examining Sin - Its consequences and remedy, and The Importance of Preparing for Death. You can find sermons as short as ten or fifteen minutes that you can squeeze in anywhere as well as much longer fare. Really good stuff.

From the kitchen- Yesterday we made this fabulous lemon cheese braid. With home made lemon curd, it was wonderful. Course it's all gone by now. Some folks in these parts are wont to fiercely eschew the likes of brown bread and oatmeal (too Lenten!) and yet freely admit the perilous effects of the white flour and sugar ('chocolate coma' anyone?). So it's a fine line to walk (I mean cook) here in this second week of Easter, balancing the need to feast with the need to resume healthy eating habits...

We are creating- Birthday gifts. I made a few things last week for Lydia's birthday and now have another birthday coming up this week.

A few plans for the rest of the week- Someone is counting the days until that birthday I mentioned.

Living the Liturgical Year - Still basking in that glorious Easter joy! As yesterday's Collect declared:

Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that we who have celebrated the Paschal Feast, may, by Thy bounty, retain its fruits in our daily habits and behaviour.

That's the current focus and goal: having kept a good Lent and celebrated the Paschal Feast we now pray for the grace to retain its fruits in our daily habits and behaviour. Amen.

A picture thought-

Knowing well where their bread comes from, Ralph and Alice follow Father. (But Eliza didn't like it a bit when one of the big Muscovies snatched her lemon bread from her dangling hand. Live and learn.)

Happy Easter, Friends! Resurrexit Sicut Dixit!

Wordless Wednesday: Because it's 3/21 Day

(And because she's the cutest, sweetest, prettiest gardener in the whole wide world.)

Garden Beginnings

Like the door in Narnia, our garden entryway looks a bit out of place standing alone and leading nowhere in the bleak grey landscape of not-quite-spring.

Ginny is hosting a link up of garden journal posts to visually chronicle the progression of the growing season. She's already inspired me to plant some garlic and put the beds to use over next winter. At present, the vegetable garden is empty and nothing remains but the dregs of last year's vines.

And this tangled mess is a view of the herb garden. You can see that I am one to skip what is commonly called 'fall cleanup', preferring to leave the dying vegetation of the previous season in place as a sort of natural mulch and to provide cover for foraging wildlife. I also just like the wild natural look.

 If you look closely there is life to be seen,

 (lemon balm)

and it's those bits of very much alive greenery that bring hope and joy to the gardener's soul.

(parsley)

But most of the action is going on here inside the house.

 For several weeks now this has been an almost daily sight-

as my little garden helpers assists with the sowing

carefully planting the tiny brown packages of new life.

My vegetable seeds this year are from St. Clare Heirloom Seeds, a family owned company that specializes in non-hybrid, non-GMO, open pollinated seeds. I have been very pleased with the seeds, and they are packaged in handy little bags inside the paper envelopes for safe storing of the seeds (no more accidentally dumping the entire envelope of seeds out all over the ground because you dropped the packet out of your garden basket, if you know what I mean). Using open pollinated seeds also means you can save seeds at the end of the growing season for use next year, as well as letting plants reseed themselves in the garden, knowing that the new plants will be true to type (unlike hybrids).

Kateri is writing down everything she plants in Alice's sweet little Garden Notes book while I keep a more detailed list in my now fifteen year old garden notebook. In February we started peppers, tomatoes, rhubarb, spinach, kale, leeks, and several annual herbs. We also have a couple dozen types of flowers we've planted as well.

 Kateri is so excited to check and see what's 'up' every morning. Mother, we have tomatoes now!

For me, the joy never of having new plants sprouting never gets old. I love to watch things grow, little by little, day by day, greener and greener. It's always amazing to think of the big plants and so much food that will delight and nourish us, all coming from those tiny brown seeds.

 

(sweet peppers - California Wonder and Hungarian  bananas)

So this is what my 'garden' looks like for now as we plant and tend and wait for spring.

Edited to add: A commenter asked if it's too late to start seeds. It's still early in the season (at least where I live) and a couple of weeks delay isn't a problem - your harvests will just be a little later. You can go to the almanac site, type in your zip code, and it will give you the best planting dates for various seeds based on your location. Alternatively, this site has a planting guide worksheet that you can print out. I have another post on starting seeds here. The book I use for reference on vegetable gardening is The Vegetable Gardener's Bible.

Lenten Calendar

 Hot off the press or should I say fresh from the artist's pen, here is a visual pathway for marking our journey during Lent. Lydia kindly made a new calendar for us this year. As in other years, we mount it simply on a piece of purple construction paper. The young ones color one space each day as we make our way through Lent,  

moving ever closer to Holy Week and finally the glory of Easter. Lydia did a lovely job, surrounding the page with a border of thorns, with lilies at Easter Sunday when we will celebrate the triumph of the Resurrection. I wasn't going to use one of these this year, but Eliza is already asking to cover the statues (as we do in Passiontide) and make kalacs and birds' nests (as we do for Easter), so I thought a little visual of the forty days would be helpful. ;-)

Download 2012 Lent

Be sure to select 'fit to printable area' when you go to print it. (it prints well in black and white - the purple you see is the paper it is mounted on)

A blessed Ash Wednesday to you all.

Yarn Along: The Crocheting Mad Hatter Edition

 

Linking up with Ginny for her weekly Yarn Along of current books and projects. (Pretend there's a crochet hook stuck in that sweet little graphic she made.) I've been busy making more hats since last week's post. First up is my new spiral hat in cream wool, inspired by the ones Justamouse made. Don't you love the green one she did? The free pattern is here: Divine Hat Pattern. It's very clever and it was so fun to work up and watch the spirals form. It's also nice and roomy which is good for me as I don't like anything too snug on my head.

At the same pattern site I saw this Lattice Hat (also a free pattern) which looked kind of cool. Mary Rose said she would like one, as hats are currently in fashion at my house, so this is what I'm working on right now. I actually was almost finished with it but wasn't pleased with how the lattices turned out, so I went back and looked at the pictures and realized I was doing them wrong. The directions are very clear and there are helpful pictures, but I hadn't previously looked at them. (ahem) So I ripped it back and started them over, and this time I've got it right.
I've just started reading Never Too Late by John Holt which I 'just happened' to come across. It immediately caught my eye as I often the lament the fact that I have no musical talent, having never studied music as a child. The book is a memoir of the author's early musical influences (or lack thereof) and leaning to play the cello in middle age. So far it has been interesting to read of how this man had so little music in his early life, yet remembered so well the tiny bits he was exposed to. It has me contemplating my own childhood musical memories, and wondering indeed what the possibilities are for learning music later in life.

And back to the hats, I said I'd show you Jonathan's new hat this week which is now finished. Since the striped hat didn't fit him I offered to make him something else, and he requested a slouchy beanie rather than a close fitting hat. After searching a bit for patterns and looking around on etsy for inspirations I decided to just make it up as I went along. Half double crochet crown, mixed with some double crochet for the body and a single crochet brim. It got super slouchy as Jonathan kept requesting the brim wider to cover his ears snugly and so it got longer than I anticipated. But I love the look.

And when his brother saw it he said, Dude, that looks cool. It's kind of medieval. I want one! How could any crafty lady refuse that bait? And so I made slouchy hat number two in the same light brown wool as Mary Rose's. Josiah wanted a brimmier looking brim so I used alternating front post/back post double crochet.  This one is all half double crochet and it's very warm.

Both guys are happy, and so is their crocheting mama.

Do visit Small Things for more Yarn Along goodness, and thank you to Ginny as always for hosting.

Wordless Wednesday: Lizzie and Lazzie

 

 

(musn't neglect her ears)

 

Weekending with Music

 On Friday evening we had the final proof that the siege of sickness was over and we arrived at that long awaited moment of having jolly music back in the house. 

 (It was such a momentous occasion I called my mother to hear the accordion through the phone.)

Eliza was overjoyed to once again have live music to dance to.

As I previously mentioned, we are unabashedly still making up for lost time and indulging in the Christmas spirit.  Friday was the Octave of the Epiphany, so it actually was quite fitting to have a carol sing around the piano.

While not everyone in the family enjoys singing, some clearly do.

Eliza was thrilled to be singing her beloved Christmas carols with everyone.

On Friday we also received a long awaited package from far away.

 I should say Michael and I were awaiting the parcel; its recipient had no idea another Christmas gift was on the way.

Coming straight from Galway, Ireland from the man who made it. For Mary Rose, because she asked for one.

A bodhrán!

It is not typical for the children to receive such an extravagant gifts for Christmas, but Mary Rose dearly wanted a bodhrán and it was the only thing she asked for (other than a brown sweater). We do love having a family that makes music together, and so we were delighted to fulfill her request.

And of course we knew she would share it.

Everyone always takes great interest when there is a new instrument in the house, and so it goes. Everchanging pairs and clusters of musicians can be heard throughout the house as they switch off on the instruments and make merry. Here's a bit of their impromtu jammin' on Sunday evening.

Mary Rose has a clip with Morrison's Jig  and more on her post; Josiah has the Road to Lisdoonvarna (and general nutsness) on his.

And no, we're not a bit Irish!

Yarn Along- the crocheted Christmas gifts

Joining Ginny for her weekly Yarn Along, that lovely linky party of luscious yarns to knit and yarns to read. Here I am posting all the gifts that were crocheted this Christmas, not just mine but all the household crafters. As you will see, we like to stick to small projects when we crochet.

Here we have two little stocking stuffers - Anna made her Dad a cotton wash cloth and Mary Rose made him a wool cup cozy - Pattern here, although we made ours bigger to fit the large mug. Exhorted by the children, I am reading through Tolkien's World: Paintings of Middle Earth that they love to peruse. It has some of Michael Hague's work which we are fond of as his was the first copy of The Hobbit my children ever read. Naturally there is plenty of John Howe and Alan Lee, whose artwork so influenced the movies. But there are other artists as well and it's interesting to see the different styles and interpretations, and to hear the kids' remarks like that balrog looks like a jack-o-lantern...(which it does)

Back to the crochet - Jonathan worked up this handy cotton bag to hold the checkers to the set he made for the little girls. I like how the greens complement the vines he burned on the board.

I made Anna this slouchy hat in a soft grey wool, and apparently she is fond of it as she wears it every day. I think this was my first time using puff stitch, and it makes the hat very thick and warm. Pattern here. 

Here we have Eliza modeling what we call my new Wee Willie Winkie Hat or nightcap that Lydia made for me out of a cream wool. It is of Lydia's own design, similar to one she designed for Mary Rose last year in red (inspired by the book Happy Little Family).

As you can see, Kateri is fond of my new hat as well. (to see me wearing it you'll have to visit The Saracen's Head later on, if I let Lydia post the picture)

Kateri has usurped another hat as well. I made a Moriarty Beanie of striped black and grey wool for Jonathan for Christmas. Pattern here, but note it is written in UK terms, US equivalents are in the notes. I made this during one long night I was up with a feverish sickie, and thus distracted I didn't think once to check the gauge or sizing. I just kept going round and round in those neat spirals praying Hail Mary after Hail Mary. It wasn't until Christmas when I went to wrap it and realized how small it looked. Kateri has since 'claimed' it for her own, and who could argue? It looks perfect atop her curls, so I added the flowers and it's a done deal.

It's a great pattern, but "check your gauge"! And stay tuned next week for Jonathan's new hat, which is neither striped nor a beanie.

Anna Ruth made 'his and hers' black wool scarves for Michael and me. His is plain, while mine has a scalloped edge. It's very warm, goes with everything, and I love it. I'm wearing it right now.

Here's a little quickie headband I made up for Eliza:

And here is the beard I made for Josiah. We kind of tease him, as every time he gets a nice one of his own going he has to remove it since he is required to be clean shaven to serve at Holy Mass. So I made him a nice wool one as a stocking stuffer. I just made the pattern up as I went along, using popcorn stitches to give it some texture.

I think he looks quite dashing, but then again I am biased towards hirsute men in general and my husband and sons in particular. Do visit Ginny for lots more yarns of all sorts!

Edited to add, apparently I am not linking up with Ginny as I didn't make the Linky Widget deadline. Explorer crashed on me and ate my post last night, and alas I am now too late for the party. Maybe next week! :-)

It's a New Year Daybook

Outside my window- It's a clear, cold dark night.

I am hearing- Outbursts of laughter as the big kids roast marshmallows over a fire outside with their Pa. They sound cold and jolly. Perfectly toasted marshmallow keep arriving in front of me. And then they disappear.

I am wearing- My standard winter attire of a plaid wool skirt, turtleneck topped with a wool sweater, tights and boots. I am so pleased with these boots I got for my birthday last fall: decent looking leather boots with a comfortable footbed that I can wear all day, every day without hurting my troublesome feet. Hooray for happy feet!

(The rest of the post taken down and written by the scribe, supplemented with liberal doses of comments from the bystanders.) (My family is trying to help me remember how to blog.)(Caution - this post may sound like one of my kids' blog posts.)

I am thinking about- Oh, My bed. I love my pillow. etc. (drat these scribes)

I am reading- Village Centenary (a Miss Read book, from the handy college library, as I read all the ones from the public library)

From the kitchen- Potato cheese soup and oriental cabbage salad for dinner. Still lots of cookies for dessert.

In the learning house- (Everyone is learning crazy stuff, like how to catch marshmallows on fire and blow them out.  Fire safety is a required subject in our state. You should see Jon's - they go up in blue flame. Fire starting also being studied regularly.)

Living the Liturgical Year-  Look. It's still Christmas.  We were so somber for real Christmas (on account of the sick person) that we have to have more Christmas.

Around the house- Well, slowly restoring order, and catching up with the laundry and chores.  Christmas decor remains unashamedly (see above) and the living room is still in the stage where the presents are all lying about in tidy piles according to whose they are. Pretty white twinkly lights will also remain throughout the house as they are so cheery during these dark winter days that can be so dreary.

We are creating- Blog posts, once again.  You could say I am crocheting hats.  Actually, you could say that I am finishing Christmas presents I didn't get done because of taking care of the sick and the sewing machine broke.

I am thankful for- The restoration to health of my family members! (No, she's thankful you didn't catch your beard on fire.) (that too) We have had illness circulating through the family since October in various degrees of severity, with the last few weeks being the grand finale. I am thankful for antibiotics and antipyretics and health care professionals and my nurse's training. I am thankful to have finally returned to Holy Mass in the morning and my own bed at night. I am thankful that for the moment we are all well and the siege seems to be over.

A few plans for the rest of the week- (Aaaay, let's go make a fire.)  No, getting school ramped back up to full term time speed. Hope to do some catch up blogging, Christmas and presents and cookies and so forth. I actually had notes written down for posts about handmade gift giving and boughten gift ideas. (ha)

One of my favorite things- Sitting on the couch with a stack of books and a cup of tea while Eliza reads to me. She received a number of the Flicka, Ricka, Dicka books for Christmas and they have become instant favorites. The sweet stories with lovely gentle pictures are just the right length for her to read aloud and she likes to sit in a chair with a pile of them to read to her dollies.

A picture thought- (Gotta have a fire picture.)

Happy New Year, friends! I'm back! Clearly I remain muddle headed and sleep deprived, but things can only improve, right?!

Merry Christmas!

Fear not; for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people: for this day is born to you a Savior, Who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. And this shall be a sign unto you: you shall find the Infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger.

May you find Him in that manger, this day and every day.

Christmas Blessings of this holy season to you and yours!