Hello Autumn,
I do believe you have arrived. We can see you in the piles of squash and the garden going to seed, in the little boys in wool hats on the swing set and the leaves just beginning to turn. Your scent always takes us by surprise-  high bush cranberries and the first wafts of wood stove smoke.

I am always glad to see you, though there is always a little melancholy, a little apprehension. Did we do enough out there? How much more can we squeeze in before the cold really takes hold? When do we let go and settle back, and just let it come?

And how long do we have, Autumn, before the cold is truly here to stay? Should I bring in these heaps of green tomatoes, for instance, and hope they will ripen inside? Or will you give us just a little more time? 

We felt you coming this weekend, and packed the boys and the swimsuits into the car after supper for one last warm(ish) swim in the lake. It felt like we were bidding farewell to a beautiful summer, a last splashy hurrah to this glorious season. But it was a welcoming too- a welcoming to the cool winds and quieter days, to apples and pumpkins and wool on the needles and books by the fire and good autumn meals.

Come in autumn, and stay awhile, if you may. We are glad you have come.

projects past

I wrote this post awhile back and am just publishing it now- a few crafts and projects from the summer. There are more still to add, but this is a start anyway! 

I've been meaning to post about various craft projects from this summer, but I seem to have a hard time remembering to photograph the things I'm working on. So I'll gather up the pictures I have on hand and write about what I've got. 

I dyed this wool with lichens I had been collecting for a shawl I want to make for a friend. It turned out a very subtle beigy- brown, but a warm tone that I think will be quite pretty as a shawl. I enjoyed the whole process a lot and I think I am going to want to do more dying of my own wool. My sister got me a book on planting a dye garden, so next year, I think I will include some dye plants in the garden plan and try for some more yarn dyeing. And then, someday I'll actually learn to use that spinning wheel that is collecting dust in the big house and spin my own yarn from wool I've dyed from plants I grew in my own garden. That does sound like fun. 

I knit these red slippers on one of our camping trips this summer. Ari requested red slippers with red pom poms.These were knitted in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Cranberry with two strands held together.  I imagined that these would be worn with the cuffs folded down, but he likes them this way, and says they keep his legs warm. I had planned to sew a leather sole on the bottom, but Ari was not in agreement, as they currently make terrific skates on the wood floors. I'm not sure how they will hold up to such treatment, but until I happen upon some suede at the thrift shop, my little skater is in luck.

I finished these PJ's for the boys a little while back- the fabric had been sitting cut out and half sewed for ages and I finally managed to finish the job. Ari really needs new PJ's, and so I had him choose some jersey from the fabric shop to sew some for him. More red of course! Dori doesn't need PJ's at all, but I knew he would really love a pair of mama made ones, so I made these ones quickly from a plus sized thrift store women's shirt. They are quite funny- the bottoms are too short and rather tight, as I used the 3/4 length sleeves to make them from, and I giggle when I see him wearing them. But he was pleased and that's what matters. I will use the pattern I used for Ari's PJs again, I quite like how they turned out and they fit him really well.  

When I made Ari his red slippers Dorian declared that he needed a pair too (he has 2 pairs of slippers that fit him just fine,) and he needed purple ones. I wasn't too excited with the idea of knitting him something he didn't really need, and I didn't have enough purple in my stash to knit slippers anyway. So I knit him some mittens, which he does need, in the only purple yarn I had. These don't look like pairs much- more like distant cousins, especially with the different rib pattern on the cuff and the slightly different shaping- oh well. I knit these on another camping trip and I was paying more attention to the scenery and the kids fishing attempts than to my knitting. But they are warm and Dori seems happy with them.
Perry and the boys worked on the strawbale playhouse awhile back. It got a second coat of stucco and then a paint job with natural mineral pigments. I don't have a picture of the completed project on hand, but it looks quite sweet and the boys are very proud of it. Every visitor to the property must have a tour of the strawbale house/ icecream shop.




And this yummy yarn is waiting in the wings to become some other fun things. There are some future socks here, and a hat and scarf for me (yay!) and not pictured is the wool for a sweater for Perry. The rainbow wool is especially calling me, isn't it pretty? Oh, there is nothing like a package of new wool to play with to make this mama happy.

 I wanted to thank everyone for all the kind comments and e-mails over the past few weeks. I have been quite terrible about replying and keeping up with correspondence, I will really try to catch up. But in the meantime, know that I appreciate your words so much- thanks friends!

harvest bounty

Holy moly it has been busy around here. There has been lots to invest time and energy into not the least of which is the harvesting and processing of our garden bounty. We have been having wonderful visits with family and friends visiting and there is just so much on the go. There is also a little boy who is going to be 3 in a few days and a mama who has a whole lot of sewing to do to be ready! Though I still aspire to be a good blogger who posts regularly, including my plan to do themed posts on certain days of the week, I am really needing this little blog break as we run about readying ourselves for winter. So for now a quick peek in at our harvest and then I'll get back to it. I expect I'll be back again sometime next week as things start to slow down a little.

:: Ari's apple tree has been boutniful this year with many bright red fruits. Applesauce is bubbling on the stove full of apples from several local trees.

:: Most of our tomatoes did not ripen on the vine, but we've had good luck wrapping them in newspaper to get them to ripen up. We'll get these ones wrapped up soon.

::the dehydrator (our big investment last year,) is humming away in the porch.

:: more cucs for pickles. Most of these we got from the farmers market as we were eating ours as fast as they were coming out of the greenhouse. We are also digging into the big batch of pickles I made earlier and are going to need more for the winter. This will be an experiment to see how long the lacto-fermented ones will last. So far, adding in horseradish leaves to the jars is making for some very yummy crunchy pickle goodness. 

:: and endless supply of zucs. We are eating a lot, and I will freeze some in chunks and grated, and I am trying drying some for soup.
:: dried tomatoes are heaven. Ari eats them like candy. They are so very good.

:: apples apples everywhere. I think I will freeze a bunch of peeled slices for later cooking and keep going with the applesauce. I also dried a bunch and they are dissapearing fast. There are also unphotographed piles of potatoes, carrots, turnips and onions stored in the root cellar (thanks Nana and Grandpa!). Oh, and peas and calendula in the freezer (thanks Annie!) Nice to have visitors who dig in with the garden tasks. Pun intended, of course. Happy Tuesday friends, I'll see you again soon when the harvest frenzy lets up a little!

strawberry fields forever

We went strawberry picking this week. The strawberries are late, even for here, but they are huge and sweet and abundant. We had a lovely day at our friends U-pick, the boys were keen to help and then had a picnic in the shade with the turkeys while we adults picked on. We brought home nearly 50 lbs and have been busily processing them. We froze lots and made 20 jars of strawberry preserves and then stuck the rest in the food drier. The dried ones turned out so yummy that we are heading back for more this week so we can make a whole bunch of those for the winter.

While I was washing and hulling the berries, Dorian worked in his kitchen, making me snacks and tea and strawberry pie.

There is something so satisfying about putting local foods down for winter. Even as we celebrate the summer sunshine, we are getting ready for the cold months when a dried strawberry or a bowl of strawberry yogurt is going to taste like a little piece of heaven.

We are heading off for another camping adventure for the next few days. I'll pop in when we get back. See you then!

weekend



This weekend we've been inside and out, dodging the rain, playing outside when we can, enjoying our time together. We bought a flat of strawberries at the market and enjoyed them all weekend. We picked greens and herbs from the garden and enjoyed some good local meals. We were supposed to spend the afternoon as a family working some of our CSA farm hours but we got rained out. Perry went on his own and spent an afternoon picking garlic scapes in the pouring rain. We'll join in next time.



Canning strawberry rhubarb jam for winter,





homemade strawberry ice cream with local ingredients (except for the sprinkles of course!)



supper outside

mud pies

forts inside made from all the chairs in the house plus the couch cushions and the craft table...

trying to choose just the right green to finish a project.

I hope your weekend was lovely, friends!

this and that

Well, outside, it has been doing a whole lot of this:

I took this picture last night and it has been snowing fairly steadily since. Perry cancelled the appointment to get the snow tires off. This often happens in April, but every year I feel stir crazy as our spring energy returns but our spring weather comes and goes. We are so ready to be outside digging in the dirt!

We've been keeping busy anyway, ignoring the white stuff and working on projects inside.

The boys have been very serious about their construction projects which begin as soon as they get out of bed. Villages with tight ropes and gnome-run stores and animal habitats.

I've been keeping busy in the kitchen. On top of the fridge are brewing some strange and delightful concoctions- kefir and kimchi and water-kefir cream soda (can't wait to try that cream soda!). I hadn't made yogurt in a long time, and made a big batch today. It turned out so well I think we can end our commercial yogurt dependency. We eat a lot of yogurt, so that is rather exciting. Perry and I have been having lots of conversations about how to get a little more self sufficient around here. I have been noticing that we are purchasing less and less at the grocery store and eating more local foods, which feels great. We are making all sorts of plans for our garden this year (another way to get through this long winter-spring season!) and expanding the foods we grow and preserve.

I also finished this pair of pants for Ari. I have made myself a bit of a commitment to try and make or thrift the clothes they need and not buy anything new for awhile. And it is so much fun!

And I am ever so sleepy and wondering what happened to my plan to get to bed early tonight.

Goodnight friends.