Fascination

The Heart and The Bottle

This book made me cry today. Fine, it's not immensely tragic but your heart will feel a hint of a squeeze and that's all it takes for me these days. If you click on my link, you'll get to watch the short video and see Oliver Jeffers (cool name), from Belfast, in action. I want his art studio in Brooklyn, and I want his light box and I want his cardigan and maybe even his Tuque.

Art and Books = Heaven

We enjoy this book- A Year in Art

Joke of the Day

Question:

Have you seen Stevie Wonder's new piano?

Answer:

Neither has he.

~ Mark Dehghani

Homemade Bread for a Year

I made a goal last September to not buy bread from the store for a whole year. I posted a while back about Jody and I doing a little bread lesson/experimentation. I've been perfecting my bread making skills ever since. Now that its almost September, I can proudly say that it's now been a YEAR since I've bought a loaf of bread from the store. I have to confess that once the Farmers Market started in July I did buy a few loaves from our favorite "bread lady" Tess, more as a treat though. Charlie was in charge of grinding the wheat and we were spoiled all year with fresh whole wheat and honey bread. The good news is that the pressure is off but I am doubting that we will be going back to the store bought kind anytime soon. Once you go fresh, there's no turning back.

Camping with the Woods, in the woods

We planned a little trip to B.C. and the Woods joined us. We were so happy to have them come. Timmy and I both noted on the way home how much they feel like family to us.

She loves when I wipe her hands and cheeks...

My kids love Jody. We have to fight over who gets to talk to her first.

This guy belongs in the wilderness.

Jacob and Bailey falling in love on the savannah.

We had this killer spot on the beach all to ourselves.

The sand was so clean and soft and white and nice.

Timmy was suspiciously camper guy this time. I was trying to figure out what got into him.

Talon made bed head look good.

Love birds. These two had a moment while we were up late talking and it was so cute.

Sweat huts are for eating broccoli.

Sand toys all day.

Sandy cracks.

Timmy and Tobin stayed in there for way too long. I couldn't take it.

Lots of boating.

Tin foil dinners, salmon, smores, watermelon. Love camping food.

Jade the doggy came with us too- she's awesome.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream...

We made these little wooden boats out of branches and twine with a cotton sail. I could not believe how well they stayed afloat! I was worried they'd tip once they set sail but both boats rowed gently down the Lee Creek stream... It was fun to watch Charlies's sail away, but there was no way Jacob was letting go of his string. He decided he'd invested too much of his afternoon to just let it go :) Next time we are planning to add a message in a bottle to our sailing adventures.

Our Bucolic Summer

I swear you can eat these zucchini flowers.

Our first harvest. Rainbow swiss chard and potatoes.

Our first garden. I think we are hooked on this gardening business. It was especially neat to start our plants from seeds inside the house.

Dad taught me about always having one of these kinds of plates at meals.

Cherry season is the best time of year. Almost as good as Christmas.

My anniversary bouquet. Loved the orange and peach.

Jane and I in our matching dresses.

This little project was so fun. The kids gathered branches and leaves and twigs and flowers and shiny things and put together fairy/elf lands. They each chose the perfect place. Charlie chose this neat spot between our wishbone trees and Jane chose a place way high up in the treehouse tree because it had mushrooms growing there.

This was at the foot of Charlie's tree.

Here is Charlie's elf land.

Notice the natural mushrooms on the tree. Fairies are apparently into mushrooms.

I loved how different Jane's is from Charlie's.

This picture is to show how high Jane made hers. Can you see her way up there in the tree? Timmy did not like that part :0)

The kids were really fixated on the fairies and elves coming to their new homes. It took a few days for them to come because I wanted to find just the right thing to be from the fairies. I found this little bead angel for Jane and this pewter castle and puppy for Charlie. I added a little note to go along with each surprise and left them in each of the lands. If only I could describe the wonderment and astonishment that followed the next morning. It was so dear. The fairies and elves haven't visited since but one of these days they'll be back. Wink. Wink.