Saturday, October 12, 2013

Happy Harvest!

We'll have our bigger family Thanksgiving, tomorrow, but today we were harvesting so many lovely things from the garden that we had a little impromptu thanksgiving dinner with just the four of us!

Some squashes! Those in front and back are mystery hybrids. :-)
 
Putting the quinoa up to dry and cure. (Photo by Rhiannon)  We hang the quinoa (and herbs and other things that need drying) in pillow cases from hangers on our laundry rods in the living room. It works well, and makes the house smell lovely! Today I harvest the lemon verbena, which is nicely smelling up the house right now!!

Caution. Weird family in the house.




Picked from the garden, today: Corn, fingerling and small russet potatoes with parsley, baby carrots, kale, garlic, mystery volunteer hybrid squash with chutney (green and red tomatoes, apple, onions, and green fennel seeds).                                                                           Not from the garden: butter, olive oil, salt, apple cider vinegar and a little sugar.      YUM!!       

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Recent Wild Art Adventures

We've been mixing up various games with wilderness adventuring and art adventuring (indoor and outdoor), as usual. The kids seem to have developed nice relationships, and our Wild Art Tuesdays are delightful!

To the right, the kids were trying on a big felt mask. This group has decided they'd like to make felt masks... As soon as I've rounded up all the supplies we will begin!

Tali (my son) was feeling miserable and tired, and did not to come to Wild Art last week. So the rest of the group created protest signs and marched straight up to, around, and eventually into the house to get him out to join us. He was pleased!

...taking advantage of a sudden heavy rainshower to run out and get soaking wet...

Book corner!


These days the mushrooms are going crazy! Today the older group spent the entire four hours exploring the forest, finding amazing mushrooms, and creating various concoctions, a game of mushroom harvesters, wholesalers and retailers (the things they come up with often surprise me!), and enjoying the enchanted feel of the autumn-slanted sun through the trees.

Making an inedible stew in a bucket! This came with some beautiful inedible side-dishes served on leaves.

...working on the stew inside the forest fort...

Various customers shopping at Tali's mushroom emporium.

This is where the game got very serious. In the background you can see the kids shopping at wholesalers', harvesting, and selling to each other, as well. Currency was "dollars" made of cedar leaves, fern leaves, and moss clumps, some of which were far more valuable than others (as in: "This costs either one clump of moss and a cedar leaf, or 20 fern leaves, or... way too many cedar leaves by themselves").

slugs and pet supplies in the pet shop

Ah! To do business in the great outdoors!

Beautiful mushrooms in the "50-cents-to-a-dollar" pile.

Some rather more expensive mushrooms.

The "so-expensive-you-can't-afford-them" pile.

Wow. Cool mushroom.

Harvesting a sample from each species clump.

Seriously... the beauty out there in the woods is a bit ridiculous. Sometimes I wonder how we were blessed with this life and the wonderful world we have.

Oh my goodness! Giant boletes!!

Earthstar! Cool! I was shown this on the "mushroom tour", which I paid 10 cedar leaves to participate in!

Paxillus atrotomentosus. Remind me of fat chanterelles, but different, with furry brown stems.

Ooooh. Blobs. AKA Hoof fungus.

We didn't have time to look many of these up... no idea what this one is.

Tiny red, orange and yellow hygrocybe were everywhere!
Stump-and-stick art.



The enchanted glade. We spent a long time here, soaking up the beauty!

Monday, October 7, 2013

Rhiannon!

Beautiful table-decorations from Tali.
Rhiannon loves to play. So play we did, for her birthday this weekend! After a great adventure of swimming and rock-climbing with Uncle Adrian and Ginger, we had pizza and cake at home, and stayed up late playing Scotland Yard, afterwards (and of course she was Mr. X!) Then pancakes for her birthday breakfast, the next morning, and a big visit with her cousins! What a wonderful birthday!

My beautiful daughter, though 9 years old, manages to keep a beautiful sense of innocence, delight and playfulness about her that I cherish every day!


A new dress from Nana Heidi!

Scotland Yard

Her request: chocolate cake layers with orange marmalade in between! Yum!

Years gone by overnight.

Friday, September 13, 2013

Not Back to School Picnic

Every year we celebrate the fact that we are not going back to school...
This year we played in the sunset and the beautiful phosphorescence with our friends!

Beautiful artwork.

Beautiful conversations with so many beautiful people...




Beautiful times enjoying the evening, the swimming, the view, and the sunset.



Beautiful friendships.

Beautiful phosphorescence.

Beautiful night.
We are grateful for the world we live in, the lifestyle choices we've made, and for the people who share this beautiful life with us!