moments and gratitude

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So very grateful for...

The gardens. The rain. The storms.

And now you see how wild this corner of our garden became this year. (Or was it last year that that happened...?)

Just hours after taking these (yes, more) photographs of our beloved Swiss chard, a huge hailstorm pounded down on our gardens. The chard actually held up quite well. But oh the poor collards!!!

And then there was the second hailstorm. That pretty much wiped out the rest of the chard.

Gallons of ragged greens were harvested. A giant pot of harvest stew was prepared and enjoyed all week.

Grateful for it all.

Grateful that only the gardens suffered damage.

Grateful the squash are in the greenhouse.

Grateful that the girls made it indoors safe and quickly enough when that last storm came up so very suddenly.

It was not a usual storm.

We saw water flowing on our land where it has most likely not flown for decades.

Oh yes. Grateful to know where the water flows.

Many good life lessons brought to us this past summer.

Grateful for it all.

Grateful that our cat is not 18 years old. That's what I came up with yesterday when I counted the years. Fortunately I counted wrong. I was relieved to figure out that he is only 15.

Grateful for the hawthorne that gave such beautiful berries this year, bigger than I have ever seen. The brilliant red, the glowing gold of the wild sunflowers gathered around, the soft blue of the chicory. I  see out the window the colors now faded, but I will remember.

Grateful for this day.
I wake each morning excited for what is to come.
I go to bed each night with a tingly thrill, knowing that my life is full of love and so very good.

Oh, and one more for now...
Grateful that you all will forgive me when I post way too many baby photos later this week. (Even though I did that last week too...)


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and so many other things...

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When I wrote the other day (weeks ago now!) there were so many other things I was going to say. But then Chessa and I were making that list, and I just went with that instead.


I was going to tell you about the beautiful blue flax flowers...

When Chloe was born, and for her first two years of life, just outside our little mountain cabin grew the beautiful blue flax flowers. And all the sumer mornings, when we first walked out the front door to greet the day, the flowers, the trees... we (I) would say, "Good morning beautiful little blue flax flowers."

We do not live with the little blue flax flowers anymore. But if ever they come across our path we always give them the same greeting.

And someday we shall live with them again.


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Always, there are so many other things...


I actually started writing this post on paper. I am just more awful than ever about computer time.

(Perhaps not such a bad thing, other people seem to have trouble resisting the computer. I, on the other  hand, can hardly force myself to get anything done on it...)

(Then again, I was just distracted by a lovely Pinterest sewing board.)

Really though I am more of a books and notebooks, pencil and paper kind of person.

But sometimes I miss this little blog space, and often I very much miss my blog friends.

And along comes September, and here am I posting pictures from July.
Which doesn't make so much sense with photos of babies and gardens, cause both grow so so fast.
But at least it's not like knitting, when the baby outgrows the bonnet (socks, pants, etc..) before it is even cast off.


Baby. Gardens.
Knitting. Sewing.
Homeschool planning.
Waldorf happiness. Reading lots of Steiner.


The other evening at the land, while preparing for our camp dinner, Jason said, "If only we had some potatoes." And then we remembered that we did have potatoes, growing in the ground, and we could harvest some if we wanted to. Which we did.


I am going to try to keep up a little better here...


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everyday riches

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Yesterday Chessa and I decided to play a game, making a list of all the things we are rich in.

We are rich in family.

We are rich in love.

We are rich in health.

We are rich in land.

We are rich in trees.

We are rich in candles.

We are rich in flowers.

We are rich in clothes.

We are rich in dolls.

We are rich in cats.

We are rich in horses.

We are rich in dishes.

We are rich in wooden horses.

We are rich in books.

We are rich in notebooks.

We are rich in beeswax.

We are rich in pencils.

We are rich in crayons.

We are rich in fabric.

We are rich in wool.

We are rich in baby.

We are rich in girls.

We are rich in sisters.

We are rich in handmades.

We are rich in skills.

We are rich in gardens.

We are rich in seeds.

We are rich in compost.

We are rich in friends.

We are rich in memories.

We are rich in dreams.

We are rich in hope.

And then Chessa says, "Seems like we're rich in pretty much everything except money."

Sounds pretty good to us!

What are you rich in?


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moments on our mountain with baby and knitting and pine needles

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moments and makings and musings

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Salsify trampled by the rain.
Hooray! It rained!
And maybe more today. Maybe more tomorrow.
Monsoon season.

Early mornings in the garden.
A new bed made along the side of the greenhouse. Collards transplanted. Swiss chard nestled in amongst volunteer kale and overwintered carrots going to seed. There is still a tray of kale that I think will get transplanted into bare patches in the strawberry bed.

Dolls in various stages. Tucked into a soft wool bed by the girls so they stay cozy. And so there aren't a bunch of doll heads laying around...

Chloe has been doing some spinning on the drop spindle, and Chessa a bit too. And then knitting more cats. This is just how it is with cats I guess, whether real or knitted, it is easy to suddenly end up with too many.
(The girls of course do not consider there to be too many cats...)

I'm embroidering slowly. I'm knitting slowly. I'm getting much done in the garden in the moments I have to step outside.

I'm joining Lisa in a Waldorf planning course over the next 5 weeks or so. Feeling a bit uncomfortable, and laughing a lot, that I am considered a guest speaker. (Joking that I am not going to say a word!) (Sorry Lisa, I will though, I promise.)
I am very grateful for the course and inspiration. Usually at this time of year I am buried in notebooks, calendar pages, lesson notes, story ideas. But I haven't done much of any of that yet this year. How unlike me. I am excited to get started though!

One last thought...
Is there any 9 year old child who would not greatly benefit from time spent pounding nails with a hammer? I think most likely not.


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