outside

We've been able to get out and about a bit lately, what with all of that Springtime in the air and all. My only sadness is that Jack isn't able to join us for much of it. He joins me on the patio, in our backyard, for a bit of sunshine and Springish smelling, but is really needing to rest after his recent hip injury. I'm hoping that after a little more rest and some of the treatments he is receiving, he'll be able to take a short walk down the street again {soon}. I'm afraid walks in the woods are out for the time being and I have found that I have been {unconsciously?} choosing places that don't allow dogs. I used to feel sad when we went to those places without him but knew he couldn't join us anyway. Now it seems to assuage my spirit a bit. I know he can still smell the woods on me when we return. I'm sure in his good-hearted-doggieness that he understands {mostly}. While I'm sad I can't take him with us now, I am happy that I took him as often as I did in the past.



Eva by the creek and some of the first trillium of the season!



Eva checking the water at the Audubon Society for newts.



Samuel and our one brush with frog-ness on Sauvie Island. I think we missed the frogs this year. We did see several snakes, though, out basking in the sunshine with the rest of us.



Eva and Samuel at Smith and Bybee Lakes. We heard frogs here and ended up seeing dozens? hundreds? of tadpoles on one of the flooded paths. I tried to photograph them but they were having none of it. Who can blame them. The herons were also plentiful that day. We also saw two black tailed deer and a bald eagle!

Done

I while back, I posted about Eva and I getting ready to read all of the Magic Tree House books in order. I wanted to post an update and say that we are {officially} done. Done, as in, she doesn't want to read them anymore. I have no idea whether this desire to read-them-all-in-order will resurface at some point {again} and am left feeling alternately relieved, confused and even a little wistful, asking myself bittersweet questions like, "If I had agreed to read-them-all-in-order before, would we have hit them at just the right time and gotten through them?" Or even- "Was it my willingness to read-them-all-in-order that finally allowed us to not read-them-all-in-order?" Such questions, though, are better left for 4:00 a.m. wakings, when they can really dig in and drive me crazy. Eva seemed absolutely fine when she said she didn't want to read them anymore. She simply said, "Yeah, I don't really want to read them anymore," and went off unceremoniously to do something else. And that was that. I'm trying to follow suit. Maybe posting about it will help. Or returning the others to the library. Out of sight, out of mind, and all that.



And- our dog Jack. Listening to what the kids are up to in the next room.

snow day

It snowed! Yep. They said it would and it did! Quick, get outside before it melts!

solstice cookies

It's looking like it might be possible for us to see at least some of the lunar eclipse tonight. (I love that the last time this happened- a lunar eclipse of a full moon on the winter solstice- was in 1638!) The kids and I just went and checked on the moon and it was still there. We could see it, that's for sure, which bodes well for us being able to see it again at another point in the next few hours. It is fairly overcast but a glimpse is all we need.

Eva and I had an impromptu mini-solstice celebration tonight. We rolled out some gingerbread dough, made lots of gingerbread men and families, hearts, snowmen and the the like, and even hung some on the tree. This is something we did when I was a kid and I love the tradition. It is also an easier tradition (and one that others are willing to undertake with me) than the other one I love, hanging stringing popcorn and cranberries. When I was a kid, we used to string several strands of popcorn and cranberries in anticipation of the tree. They would be hanging across all of the tables in the kitchen and dining room, and even off of some chairs, before we were done. Alas, no one, not even myself, can be urged to string them these days. It seems like we've done them a few times over the years, but nothing like hanging cookies on the tree.

Of course, when we hang the cookies on the tree, we have to make sure we hang them high enough so that Jack won't eat them all. One year he nibbled most of several cookies that a toddler Eva had hung on the lower half of the tree. That year had to have been a boon for him, one I am sure he looks back on with fond memories, or a belly ache, because he ate A LOT of cookies. It is a hoot to watch him try and eat the hanging cookies without falling into the tree, which is a liability of the project for him and one that will happen if he leans too far in and tries to eat the whole cookie. He must leave just enough cookie so that he doesn't have to lean too far, but not too much that he feels he isn't getting enough cookie. And then he juts his lips out, and his teeth out, and gingerly grabs hold of said cookie, gently pulling it toward him, nibbling off as much as he is able. Then it's on to the next one. And the next. This year I've already found one Jack-eaten-cookie on the tree. Eva hung most of them up higher than he can reach and he's having to do some detective work to find a few that he can stretch up to. I almost want to make it a little easier for him, if only to catch a video of the scene.



Incidentally, the kids and I only got to see the very beginnings of the eclipse last night, which actually was really nice and a good visual to help them imagine what was to come. We even stayed awake- mostly- to see if we could see more later. It began to rain, though, and stayed overcast for the next several hours and is still overcast this morning. I was wondering about the people who lived here back when the last eclipse on the solstice full moon happened. I wondered if they had a clear night to view the eclipse. What kind of celebration they had. And if they knew that we would be here so many years later, hoping to catch a glimpse of the eclipse and wondering about them. When I told Samuel how long ago the last eclipse like this had been, he became very excited and wanted us to keep going out to check. He even went out himself once, sometime very close to 11:30, "We have to do this," he said. "I didn't realize we were making history!"

Spiders and squash and such like

I spent the day unpacking and doing a general pick up around the house, focusing a good bit of my energy on the patio. I am reminded of how very alive it is out there when I attempt to sweep the floors, particularly during this time of year. The broom uncovers one baby spider after another, running for cover. I quick! rush to sweep up the dirt and clutter before they find their way to safety within the newly swept piles. (I don't want to throw them away. I help them to safety. Find a new spot. Spin a new web. ) Ants, spiders, dried flowers, piles of Eva's drawings, knitting projects in mid-stitch, squirt guns.

The liveliness- the very aliveness- is tangible when I walk out to the compost pile with the last of the squash. (Man it was a good year for squash. Is it just me or was there enough squash to feed everyone and their dog this year. {Of course, I mean those dogs who will actually eat squash. Of course. Which leaves out my dog. Of course. Which may be why I had so much squash left over? Perhaps.} I had my fill, of course, back in November or December and simply bided my time over the next couple of months until I could carry the last of them out to the compost pile in good conscience. {That's not entirely true. I must have eaten more squash than I remember because I usually do. The large quantities of squash were most probably extra-punctuated by the complete lack of cabbage. That's all. That, and the fact that once the greens start flowing in earnest, I tend to forget about other vegetables like winter squash. And green beans.})

I walk through a part of the backyard near the compost pile that has been slightly flooded from all of the rain. The ground is saturated and there are several large puddles of standing water in one area in particular. Large worms lay on the open ground, half submerged in thick mud. I see others making their way across a few of the round stepping stones. I smile at this, glad the stones can help. I can't resist and stop to help one of the worms who immediately scrunches himself in that way worms do that prevents any but the smallest fingers from taking hold. It's the worm's equivalent of going limp, making it impossible to pick him up. Don't eat me. Don't eat me. This squished up worm hides as best he can among the stone crevices.

I move on. A good bit of mud squishes between my toes as I walk barefoot to the higher ground where the compost pile actually stands and I comment in my head how once again the woman-who-lived-here-before-us was so incredibly thoughtful about each thing, right down to making sure to put the compost pile on slightly higher ground so that it was less likely to flood when even the area with the elijah blue has flooded. Even there, though, the worms have congregated in heaps just under the lid. The ground is too thick with moisture and they must find higher ground. Safety. Inside the bin, slugs crawl along the debris, spiders spin what are possibly the most productive webs I have ever seen. Copious amounts of fruit flies make their home in this compost pile and while I am aware that this signifies an imbalance {technically} in the composition of the pile, I know I am not going to do anything to remedy it. I am fine with the fruit flies inside the bin. Fine with the spiders and the slugs. Fine with the worms gathering in heaps. Fine with the mud between my toes. Fine as I stand and look around at the yard, for once blocking out any directives my mind produces to take care of the lawn or weed the iris bed or listen to any one of a long list of things to do, things that need to be done. Always things that need to be done. I am free of it all for this moment, appreciating the roses and irises in bloom. The piles of buttercups overflowing now that the gardener has cut back the roses. The mud squishing further between my toes. It's lush. It's glorious. It's this amazing aliveness that I am able to notice and appreciate in this moment. And then it's gone. And I am walking back up to the patio, lingering as I smell the thyme. Picking a little lemon balm.

Back up on the patio, I toss out the last of the debris and move the garlic up to the shelf with last year's Chamomile and Calendula left overs. And that's when I notice my pogo stick. Right there. Where it's been for the last, oh I dunno know, four months? Five months? Gosh, it's been such a long time since I made time to pogo. Such a funny verb to use. I play with it in my mind for a split second. Bounce. Pounce. Pogo. And I grab the stick and head out to the open area just outside the patio. A perfect place for pogoing.

I bounce and it feels free. I notice the flowers in the neighbors' yards. The ones I rarely see because they are blocked by the fences surrounding us. We have our privacy, our own space. I bounce above it. I think of bouncing when I was a kid. Of jumping rope. Of flowers. Of smiling uncontrollably. Of counting. After about 50 bounces on the pogo stick my dog comes out to join me. As usual, he play bows and bounces in his own doggie way. I stop my own bouncing for fear of pouncing on one of his paws as he jumps forward and backward, up and down with the pogo stick, barking at me, at the action, at the fun.

He can feel it. He is it. He grounds me in this moment of noticing this life around me, this life in me. All of it. The pogo stick. The flowers. The rain starting to sprinkle down on us as we make our way into the relative dryness of the patio and finally into the house where I am able to see, at least for this moment, the aliveness inside. My kids. The guinea pigs. Spiders in the corners. An extra dog. And me.

frogs and butterflies

I didn't post yesterday. I am posting today. I notice that I feel better when I do some sort of writing and this is definitely some sort of writing. The inspiration today is in the writing and not in the content, although goodness knows there is plenty to be inspired about when I remember to look around a bit.

We went out to Sauvie Island the other day and were lucky enough to find a few frogs down by the water. Eva caught one and held him for a while and then we took turns passing him back and forth until we decided {actually, it was after he peed on Samuel and Samuel said, "what IS that?" and I said, "it's pee," and he said, "you didn't have to tell me that."} he might be tired and Eva put him back in the water. When we went over to the other side of the lookout thingy which I can't seem to place with a name today, we looked for more frogs but found instead what Eva is calling a wild guinea pig. It did look quite a bit like what we think a wild guinea pig might look like and it also looked quite a bit like what we know a baby domesticated guinea pig does look like and also, to be honest, it also looked quite a bit like a vole or a small woodchuck who ran very fast and was not nearly as interested in being found by Eva as Eva was in finding him. He has been dubbed "the wild guinea pig" and probably shall remain so ever after.

We also saw several garter snakes, both down by the water and up in the leaves basking in the sunshine. And our first butterflies this year. I looked them up and one was {probably} definitely an orange tip. The other two were those little blueish-periwinkle butterflies. Are they blue copper butterflies? I'm not entirely sure. I know I have seen them before. We followed the first one around with our eyes and feet for several minutes revelling in the thrill of a butterfly in our midst. The second one came along when we were on our way back to the car just as we were telling Samuel about seeing the other butterfly and he was bemoaning how he would have liked to have seen that butterfly too and we all looked over and sure enough there was another one. Right there. And I pointed him out and said something very excitedly like, "hey look there is another butterfly just like the one we saw before!!" and he looked and Eva looked and I looked and we watched with our eyes and big smiles as the butterfly flew around us and across the path and out into the grass.

Then we walked back to the car and I helped Jack climb in because he is a senior dog now and doesn't resist me giving him a hand. It felt so good to have him with us today while we walked in the woods. He didn't seem to mind being kept on the leash the whole time. It seemed a small price to pay for feeling well enough again to go walking in the woods with us and the butterflies and the frogs. When we all stood still in the sunshine we could still hear the frogs singing out in the water beyond.

trillium

spring sightings today at the arboretum included wood violets, trillium, some type of wild geranium, banana slugs {yes, more than one! and I officially have slug slime on the leg of my jeans for the first time this year...) and a big ole raccoon who caught sight of us too before he lumbered off into the woods in the opposite direction...

we didn't take jack with us today because he is still recovering from our trip to the river a few days ago. poor guy hurt his front leg- and aggravated his arthritis in his hips and back- and it would have been too much for him to walk with us in the woods today. hopefully he will be healed up and ready to go when we go back in a few days. it just isn't the same going to the arboretum without him. i miss his dogginess and wild abandon. there is no one like a dog to remind you of just how good life is.

Two stories from today.

The first one. This morning Samuel and I were the first ones awake. Samuel got both guinea pigs out of their cage and sat with them for a few minutes. When they tired of that, the pigs ran off to check out the house, a little piggie floor time, if you will. The funnest part was sitting with Samuel and watching the guinea pigs root around together. Terrence followed close behind Albert, as usual. Each pig had his nose out and his body low. There was an almost constant chatter between them. We talked about how Terrence's legs are much longer than Albert's and that he looks as though he has knee high socks on when he runs very very fast across the floor. The pigs moved along the wall until they reached the curtains and crawled underneath. And then- we saw first one nose and then another nudge out from under the curtains, the only evidence that guinea pigs were there at all. There were a few catalogs and pieces of paper scattered near the curtains and both guinea pigs, first Albert, then Terrence, began gently chewing on the catalogs. Samuel and I burst out laughing. What a sight. Two guinea pig noses and mouths sticking out from under the curtains, nibbling away on Christmas catalogs. Nibble nibble stop. Nibble nibble stop. Soon Maxwell and Jack sauntered over as well to have a look at the guinea pigs and what they were up to and that cracked Samuel and I up even more. There is nothing quite like Jack and Maxwell looking suspiciously at the guinea pigs, wondering what they are all about and if there is something edible there for themselves. Jack never tires of sniffing catalogs, carrots, kale, dandelion greens in a last ditch effort to find something, anything, to eat. I swear sometimes he even shakes his head at the guinea pigs and looks at me quizzically as if to say- "That's what they're eating? That's what all the commotion is about?" Thankfully he doesn't seem to consider the guinea pigs in the least bit edible, just smaller members of the pack.

And the second. I was walking up to the front door carrying sandwiches and yarn when I stopped to watch bushtits fly about on the suet. There are large flocks of them around the suet feeders everyday now. I have one suet feeder hanging in front of the living room window and one in the back yard by the other bird feeders. On a good day, the bushtits will fly back and forth from one feeder to the other, sometimes landing in the trees nearby, sometimes not. Today while I stood there watching the bushtits, a hummingbird flew up to the nearby hummingbird feeder I had refilled just yesterday. Most of the syrup was frozen inside but there was some at the very bottom that had thawed in the sunshine and the hummer sat perched on the feeder and ate for a very long time. When he was done he flew over to the laurel a few yards away and perched on a limb there. I stood very still in the cold sunshine and felt blessed at having caught all the birds at the feeders at once. I love the activity of the birds during winter- the flocking, the time spent at the feeders, the chattering to one another. All of it reminds me that while we typically think of winter as a time of rest and hibernation, there is activity here as well. Each season brings movement of its own kind, each adds to the movement of the others. And we are each a part of it all.

dog thoughts

I was watching my dog sitting outside on the steps this morning. I love how he goes outside and sits on the steps in the morning and just watches life around him for a while. He watches the yard and looks around at the birds. Listens when he hears another dog bark. Relaxes again. I sometimes get the feeling he is taking a deep breath, looking around him and thinking, "This is good. This is just as it should be." Then he takes another deep breath and spends some more time just enjoying life, being in his space, basking in it. When he is done, he comes inside and is just as happy to see me as he was a half hour ago when we both first woke up. There's none of this "Hurry up and let me in I have stuff to do" with him whisking past me to get down to chewing his bone more quickly so that- what? So that he can get the bone chewed and be done with it, onto another bone? He is so much about the flow and process of the moment. Even when he is thinking ahead, it usually has to do with enjoying the moment again, anticipating something wonderful about to happen, like me taking the turkey out of the oven.

What I don't imagine him doing when he goes outside each morning is going out, taking a look around, acknowledging the beauty for a second and then moving onto thoughts like this, "I really need to get out here and rake those leaves. I really need to go check on the garden and see if the cats have got in there again. I really need to stop sitting around enjoying myself like this and go inside and start doing something..." But really, it's not the thoughts, it's the thinking we have to act on the thoughts- and now.

Fall really gets me thinking about the things that we busy ourselves with. It's the leaves, I think, that do it for me. All of that moving about of the leaves that goes on. My neighbor can be so vigilant about the leaves that at any given moment I can look at her yard and not see a single- not a single!- leaf out there. Then one will fall. Then another. Then she is out there in the rain with her raincoat on, raking up the leaves. Last year she came into our yard in the rain to rake up some of our leaves. She reminds me each time she sees me of the leaf pickup that happens every other week here in the fall. I know I would be frustrated with me if I were my neighbor. I am not what you would call vigilant about the leaves.

I don't mind doing some leaf raking. I enjoy the exercise and I like to get outside. It is the attention to minutiae leaf raking that gets to me, the toothbrush cleaning under the sink kind of cleaning, that we have all somehow signed this social contract that says, "And each leaf that falls from a tree limb shall be whisked away most immediately and permanently and forever shall the grass remain leaf-free. And we shall scorn you and blow leaves back onto thine own yard if thou doest not rake thine own leaves properly and respectfully."

I felt happy for my neighbor when I saw she had finally gotten herself a leaf blower this year. It seemed like just the thing for her and I could see her shy smile, her gentle pleasure at having this bit of glory strapped to her back. At last! And then I saw her blow the leaves from her yard over onto mine where they so clearly belong. Yep. That's what I thought too. And then I had to chuckle as the wind started blowing some of those same leaves back over onto her yard again. I was spellbound. Would she blow them back over again? Would that keep her busy for the next couple of weeks until the last remnants of leaves were finally banished from our vision until next spring when we will all rejoice at seeing the light green buds appear, happy to have our trees covered in leaves again. We will allow ourselves for just that moment to love the leaves as they are and then just like that we will remember that in the fall we are going to have to rake them all up again. And again. And again. Or not. Either way, it turns out, really is just fine. At least that is what my dog says.

friday

After this photo Eva put on her baby sling and carried Albert around in that for a while. He was still nonplussed.



And obviously Jack is concerned about this photo. He does not like the guinea pig leaning on him. I don't think Albert was too keen on the set up either. And Eva? She designed it, of course.

We got the Guinea Pigs magazine at Petco today while picking up some food for Jack. It is a hit!

green bean respite

I made more soup with green beans today. I am warming up to them, particularly after last Saturday when I was allowed to exchange my green beans for an eggplant. Shhhh. I was told explicitly not to tell the owner- they can't have CSA subscribers just changing up the baskets every week, willy nilly. There is a rhyme and a reason to what is in each basket. I totally get that. And I was so appreciative! I jokingly asked if I could barter the green beans for an eggplant and then without thinking any more about it, I went to buy an eggplant and the man working there sort of whispered to me- {Do you really not want your green beans?} And I said- very excitedly, seeing where this might be going- {No, I really don't want them.} And he weighed the two, compared the weights, asked if I was OK with the eggplant costing less than the green beans (Was I OK with that?!!) Yes! Sure! No problem! He took the bag of beans and I skipped off with my eggplant- vowing to not mention it and to certainly not make a habit of it and wishing him a lovely eggplant-filled day!

Today's soup-
green beans
potatoes
red beans
peas (put in at the last minute when everything was already cooked- nothing like over cooked peas!)
garlic
basil
chicken broth (any kind of broth will do)

Make as you do soup! Delicious! Samuel had two bowls of broth with crackers for dinner.

We have had some amazingly dreamy weather complete with rain and warm air, a real summer rain. I feel very satisfied weather-wise and spent a good bit of the day outside in the garden cleaning out spring plants, helping the beans (not green beans) find a place to climb and planting lots of seeds for the fall and winter (lettuce, mesclun, radish, carrots, kale!, spinach ). Eva came out for a while and used the old dump-the-bag-of-seeds-in-one-place method with the spinach and carrots. It should be fun watching them come up. I marked them this time. Last time I am convinced the seedlings got pulled by accident, which is can what happens when I am too tidy. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, I notice. I also planted a pepper plant I found at the store while buying pickling supplies- so healthy and big I thought he deserved a chance in my garden- and some more flowers for the hummingbirds who are loving the hyssop, by the way.

OK and tonight I am planning on pickling some green beans. We shall see how it goes!



The roses and Jack enjoying the rain.

morning poem

Dog face at my nose
Sunshine meditation smile
Know that peace is now

(Thanks to Lisa for her own haiku and for Zen Ties and to Tracey who recommended Zen Shorts and of course to Jack, for the dog face.)



daisies in bloom- Eva with Calendula and her bean plant

tidbits

Our dog Jack really likes it if I open up the sliding glass door just enough for him to stand in the doorway and look out, smelling the fresh air, taking in the view without the glass in the way, knowing that if he sees something, he can react immediately- rather than waiting for me to open the door after he has seen something. If I wander away and then he wanders away, the door remains open and I hear Samuel yell, will someone please close the outside door? It's cold! That's the thing, dogs don't usually remember to close the outside door.

Eva asked me today which I wanted more, a real live penguin or an aromatherapy bear. This is not something I have thought about before and I told her I wasn't sure- I would have to give it some thought. She said she would rather have a real live penguin because, after all, she already had an aromatherapy bear. How true!

After watching Peep this morning, Eva told me that during the show, Quack had made a snow duck. He was so excited to show everyone the snow duck. Sadly, no one was able to see the snow duck before it melted and became a water duck, as it were. At the end of the show, Quack had reconciled this and was singing a song about how wonderful it was to have so much water for a duck. Ducks love puddles! After telling me the story, Eva was so pleased and said, "Quack was actually showing how you can be happy even if you don't get to do what you wanted to do." How very unconditional!

Today the kids are having "Animal Day!" This means they have a game set up outside with several dozen stuffed animals, Santa is playing the keyboard (jingle bells, twinkle twinkle, that sort of thing), and Samuel is trying to prop up Water Baby near the pool so that she can be hit into the pool. I confess that when I walk by a kiddie pool filled with wet floating stuffed animals it is hard for me not to assess the situation in terms of laundry, as in- how much laundry will there be today...For now, though, they are having fun and I am going to finish the first sleeve for Eva's cardigan! Eva is eating her second batch of asparagus. Life is good.

I just checked out Animal Day and it looks good- there is a little something for everyone. Jousting, music, sandwiches, a cafe, seating by the pool, dunk 'em games...



You can see from this photo that someone is going to be pushed into the water. Just a matter of time.

What a dog won't do

I just found our dog Jack sitting in the hallway with two half-chewed-on marshmallow peeps (these were of the rabbit variety, so what my kids calls screeches- because that is the sound bunnies make. Peep is the sound chicks make.). The bunny peeps were gooey with dog drool and wrapped in a couple of pieces of Easter grass, blue dye dripping onto the carpet and my hand. I am betting the Easter grass is part of the reason they were still sitting there in the hallway and not in Jack's stomach. When I showed him the screech Jack turned his head. He didn't want to talk about it. Bad memory.

And yet...not ten minutes later he was sniffing around in Samuel's Easter basket {again}, checking out the peep chains and wondering (I can only imagine) how to remove them from the basket without the Easter grass this time.

today (again)

I took Samuel to his riding lesson today and when we came back he was looking for his gummy fruit slices (Those fruit shaped gumdrop things you get in the orange bags that are like $1 and mainly made of sugar and food dye? Yes, those.) and found them on the floor. And what's more, they were licked clean. All of the sugar was completely licked off and they were left as gummy shaped fruit goo on the carpet. When I examined them further, because I couldn't resist, I found strange tooth marks in them as well. Samuel looked around accusingly at us as though either Eva or I had indeed licked them clean and then left them smothered on the carpet. Or was it daddy? Who did this thing? A few minutes later Jack came in and shuffled over to the fruit goos and started licking them (again) and I heard Samuel say, "So Jack. It comes to this, does it?" and Jack stalked off, realizing he had been found out and was in the proverbial doghouse. Gumdrop fruit chews are not for dogs. Can you imagine him trying to figure out exactly what to do with them, getting them stuck in his teeth, prying them out and then resolving to just do the best he could with a confusing situation and lick them clean, carefully turning one then another over so that he could clean the other side as well?



The kids were playing a game today and this lovely set up was a part of the birthday party for Eva's little guy Lou, a little lego lady who rides a horse and who Eva carries around quite a bit. You can see nearly everyone was in attendance- Sliver and Titan and their entourage and Gilbert and his sister and R2D2 and even Dweezil (one of my own favorite little guys...) They made a playdoh cake and everyone got a little slice of green to celebrate. Eva made a balloon for Lou to hold and decorated the house and table with fish pictures because as I understand it, Lou has something to do with the pirates as well and is very intimate with water and its inner workings.



A few closeups of the birthday scene- Gilbert and his sister and Dweezil with R2. Check out the little cake R2 has in addition to the basic green. Our friend's daughter made this and Eva bought it from the homeschool bazaar back in December. Not a picnic nor party since has been without this cake.



Table top decorations and more little guys, one of whom has a little tangerine made by the same young sculptor as the cake above. And finally, a photo of Lou, the birthday girl, with her balloon, seated at the head of the table because, as Samuel said, that is where the guest of honor should sit.



Eva made a card and bookmark to send to her good friend Esme.

Eva as Jango Fett! She is quite convincing, isn't she?

Jack treed a raccoon tonight and I had to go outside to bring him in, so intent on barking was he that he completely ignored my calls. Sure enough, there was our neighborly raccoon all flattened out on a tree branch near the fence, having nothing but unhappy thoughts about Jack and eyeing me equally suspiciously. I finally lured Jack in with a fish stick but it was a hard bargain.

wednesday

she's a real martian beauty

Eva has been very inspired by this vintage sesame street flick.

She has taken to drawing the martian beauty in various drawings and today gave me a sample of what types of tattoos I could have. Martian beauty was one of the options...



baby sweater knitting in background...

We went to the market today and the kale guy said he may not come next week because, after all, it is winter. I mean, sort of, I guess. We did get a frost today. The market attendance was low today and I can see that many others feel as he does. Everyone is wearing a hat. There are some coats. I feel sad when the market closes but luckily I have my produce basket to keep me in fresh produce for the next couple of months until the market (and my garden) get back into the swing of growing. I bought extra kale.

Jack was so excited by the frost that he went outside and ran around really fast, jumping up and down excitedly. He loves the cool weather and if we ever get snow, hang on as he bounds this way and that into the snow drifts.

Samuel had the idea to pour water all over the patio and then when it freezes at night, we will have an ice skating rink in our yard. They may do this. I can't say for certain but if they are inspired, this could indeed happen, at least on part of the patio.

Overheard-
Samuel, "Eva don't spit, it's not polite!" [I swear I have never ever said this.]

hat!

One pink and purple hat with ears! and a white pom pom on top finished! Eva is wearing it as I type. It is a hit!! Maybe someday I will be able to post a photo...



Eva in her new bear hat and the baby doll I finished a couple of days ago. Her name is Charlotte. Eva added the pink bow barrette and a necklace for her. [Hat 5 sts/inch, cast on 96, #6 needles, ears, pom poms.]

Eva reminded me of my other camera and I found it. The resolution is not nearly as good but hey it is a camera! I found several dozen lost photos on the camera from the end of 2006, beginning of 2007, mostly Christmas of that year but also some photos like these when we watched our friend's dog Gizmo-



It is after all, all about the Frisbee. Jack and Gizmo.



Gizmo with Frisbee; Eva and Samuel (3 1/2, 6 1/2).



Eva age 3 1/2 (12/2006). She has been making this face a lot lately as well; Eva and Samuel ice chopping in the winter (3 1/2 and 6 1/2)



Cats! Agnes, Magoo, Maxwell (left to right) and Eva (3 1/2).

I was outside this morning doing yoga and meditating before the kids woke up- with the dogs because Jack likes to join me for a little downward dog and Sparrow is visiting for the weekend. The garden is simply amazing right now. We have had our first cucumbers and cherry tomatoes and the peas are still going strong. There are a ton of flowers out there as well. Eva's poppies really took hold (she used the old dump-the-seed-packet-on-the-ground method) and the carrots from last year are blooming white and purple carrot flowers (aka Queen Ann's Lace). The cardoons have their first blooms and the sweet peas, one of my new favorite flowers, are flourishing. I love it and can't get enough of it!



The tall yellow flowers in the background are fennel and the white flowers are sweet peas. Samuel's pansies are in the front, along with some wild daisies. The chamomile is stretching itself out longer this year but is nearly gone and is being replaced by another favorite of mine, the ubiquitous pansy. This is from a couple of days ago, so you can't see the cardoons blooming yet, but you can see that they are well over 8 feet high and a bee's paradise! On the other side of the garden, the purple cone flowers (echinacea) and hyssop are thriving along with the oregano, which is blooming, and the sage. Mint that I have planted in containers on the patio is blooming and I expect the huge patch of mint by the roses to start blooming soon as well. Out front the blueberries are darkening and the chickadees have started munching on them.

The other day when the kids and I returned home from somewhere, I went to let Jack outside and saw a thread waisted wasp (the one at the bottom is very much like the one on our patio) building a little nest in the runner of our sliding glass door. She was going to get mud and slowly building a tiny shelter for her eggs. I did quite a bit of reading about thread waisted wasps- I had never seen one before, only in my bug book, and they are quite something. They purportedly don't sting because they aren't attached to a hive, but they don't have to because they are kind of freaky looking enough to keep most "people" away. I decided to close the patio when she flew out for more mud and wash down the nest she was making. She kept trying to get into the patio for several hours after that. It must have been a good spot. I have been happy to see a couple more thread waisted wasps out in the garden eating insects and nectaring and gathering mud from the containers, so apparently she found another good spot!