Things I am loving right now:


:: this incredible weather we are having. The garden is so happy and so are we. 


:: my little farm boys who love to help and really can be of help now. They are so thrilled when the work that they do is helpful to the family (so long as it is fun too of course!)


:: morning chores. I love going out on these warm, lush mornings and making the rounds around the farm- the pigs, and chickens, the greenhouses to open, the plants to check on, the watering to be done. I love it so.


:: the hammock we finally got to setting up under the willow tree. The kids have been having such fun in there- and with some friends over discovered that 4 kids can swing at the same time! They have been taking turns having their quiet time in the hammock (with the other in a little tent close enough to both hear their stories on the ipod,) and I spent a couple hours yesterday doing some home school planning in there. Bliss!


:: all these new plants we are growing this year- the comfrey which has gone crazy and which the pigs adore, the field peas which are growing well and seem to make the other plants happy, the flowering broccoli that the kids love to munch on and the bees love, the lemon verbana which smells amazing, and all the happy beans that we finally got a cover up to grow them under. The garden makes me happy.


:: the big cooler full of fish from a friend with a boat and the evening with my mom chatting and processing it all. The total satisfaction as the freezer and pantry starts to fill for the winter.


:: having a quiet day to nurse the last of this summer cold that we've all had, while the boys went fishing with Perry and family. And hearing all their excited stories when they returned back home- they didn't catch anything, but they had a lot of fun! (photo credits to Perry for the shots of the little fisherfolk.)


:: eating from the garden. In this heat we all eat lots of salad and greens and I love going out with the basket before every meal to gather what we need.


:: This new cookbook that I have been cracking often to help me figure out all sorts of kitchen questions- like how to cook radish tops and pea vines, forage various wild plants, cut up a chicken, and preserve all sorts of things. I don't look at the dessert section (definitely not GAPS!) but the rest is pure gold.

I hope you are all soaking up the summer, friends.

Woah- I feel like I've been gone from here for months and months, there has been so much going on. I took a last minute trip to the coast (on my own! with no kids!) to attend our friend's memorial and to meet my sister's beautiful new baby girl. 

 I came back and I swear the weeds had doubled in size in those 4 days I was gone. They just love all this rain we've had. But then, the sun came out and we've had some beautiful warm summery weather, which is good because we were getting scared there for a bit that it was going to be another summer like last year and that all us northern folks would have to make a mass exodus for somewhere tropical. But now it is sunny and we remember why we like living where we do. 

So I've been spending these last few days excavating the garden plants from the chickweed, excavating the house from the piles of laundry and toys and enjoying the sunshine.

Oh- and attending a festival,

 playing with friends,

 cheering on the kiddos at the annual Canada Day fun run,

 And generally just loving up these adorable, cuddly little love bugs.

I hope you are all well, friends.

Hi there. Sorry to disappear there for a bit. I realized that I was really needing some time away from the computer- feeling a need of some quiet reflection time after a friend passed away unexpectedly. He was such an inspiring, beautiful human, his passing is such a mix of sadness and gratitude at having known such an amazing person. I wrote this post just before we got the news, and didn't post it then, but I thought I would post it now, and hope to be back here again soon. We have been busy on the farm, I hope to record some of the gardening adventures here when I can. 

Yesterday was a sunny warm day after many days of rain. It was cool in the morning, but warmed up and we made the most of it before the storm rolled in in the afternoon. 

:: tree climbing,

:: chick snuggling,

:: nettle picking

:: cowparsnip sword practice,

::stories under the trees- this one Dorian told was about when he was a water nymph and took care of the ocean animals and had a special mask to wear so he could breathe underwater. Love this boy's stories.

:: sat still long enough to enjoy the sunshine and knit in the grass for the first time this year. It felt divine.

:: drinking fresh nettle-mint iced tea. Yum.

:: test driving the scuba gear,

Today the rain is back and we are having a quiet day, inside mostly. There is more rain in the forecast, so we'll have to start dreaming up some activities to do inside too. 

I hope you are getting some sunshine where you are, friends!

This is what it looks like around here these days:

:: busy boys working on one project or another,

::dandelions 

:: green things to plant out (these are some gooseberries that really need to get into the ground.)

::projects projects and more projects. This is two very excited little boys helping to load wood their papa has just cut with the chain saw into the farm truck. 

:: buckets of homemade organic fertilizer bubbling away- compost, comfrey and nettles.

:: a 3 year old who sometimes just needs to snuggle on mama's back for awhile (And a mama who is still sometimes too cold inside her house to take her hat off!)

:: some much needed rain,

:: rainy day projects- the boys have been loving these simple homemade books for dictating and illustrating stories.

:: biking when the sun is shining,

:: or tricycling as the case may be.

:: fish hat completed,

:: attending an amazing weekend arts festival against the pipeline- so powerful. Also farmers markets, parties, visits with friends- it just feels so busy!

I am amazed every year by how frenetic it gets around this time- I am sure this is true everywhere, but I do think it is heightened in the north where our warm months are shorter and our cold months so long. There is all the farm work and garden projects and  everyone coming out of hibernation and needing to do as much as possible out in the community while the light is long and the days are warm(ish) and we all have the energy for such things. We need that 6 months of winter to recuperate from the frenetic warmer months!

But I do love it- every bit of the busyness is made up of things that I love, and I feel blessed by the green and growing things and the freedom that the warmer months allows us, to spend so much of our time outside enjoying the beauty around us. It is a good life. 

Happy Monday friends.

I'm knitting along today, with this rainbow fish hat I am trying to finish up for an auction at an anti-pipeline arts event this weekend. It is nearly there, just the tail and fins to finish and some eyes to sew on. I had hopes to make a couple, but this is it for me. I look forward to seeing what other knitters have made, as well as all the arts, poetry and music people are contributing. 


I am reading "The Forest Lover" by Susan Vreeland right now. It is a fictionalized account of Emily Carr's life and I am enjoying it, but moving through it slowly as I am just too tired to pick it up most evenings lately. 

The kids have been in this amazing groove of playing the past while, and they played  for 3 hours straight today- off in their own world- while I worked outside pulling up sod for a new bed and picking nettles. Heaven. 


We found some great nettle patches this year, and I've been freezing and drying them and making soup. I am excited to be getting a bunch prepared for winter this year. I have been wanting to do that for ages, but never found enough or got them picked in time, so every jar put away feels like a little victory. And food preservation has a certain novelty in May that is not there so much by September when we've been drowning in food. Right now everything is new and fresh and exciting.

Goodnight friends.