Little & Big

a 25 minute walk in Montreal

(Thursday night, with Hipstomatic on the iPhone.)

the month of Michaelmas

Michaelmas is a fall festival that celebrates the story of St. Michael and the dragon -- there is a conquering of the troublesome force (or the thing in your life that doesn't serve you) and transforming it into something useful, that serves the community it once plagued.  It's about developing strength and courage to discover the truth.

At the Waldorf school we wear red and play games and eat food and watch plays.  But most fun of all, children get to make swords and conquer dragons.  (Or at least play at conquering dragons.)  This is what little brother came home from school with earlier this week.  See the dragon he made?  And the sword from sticks found in the woods?  One happy proud child that was.

 

a weekend of transforming stuff

It was just one of those weekends in which I said "FORGET everything else I have to do, I'm going to do something creative." 

You see, I had one day to myself.  One full day with no one else around.  I decided to get up on Saturday, make a list of all the things I'd like to do, and then pick one.  So I did.  But I picked seven.

Here's what I did.  I turned

this

via this

into this.                            (green tomato relish*)

And with a little help, I transformed

this

into this.                     

(It used to be pink.  The whole room, that is.)

And then there's this.  I'm most proud of this.  Look:

Inspired by:

the September 2011 edition (LOVE it)

It used to look like this:

(minus the laundry.  well, sometimes.)

And then there was this (creative project #7):

Which I thought, while I've got the primer out I should just tackle.

Not sure what's going to become of this.  But it's going to be something great!  (And possibly not complete for another 6 months to a year.)

And of course, as always, there was lots of this (LOTS):

For which there is no finished product or end point.  Just a continous and crazy cycle of more.  But I had to include the laundry lest you think my weekend just too perfectly creative.

I should list for you here all the important things I didn't get done (bill paying, house cleaning, and so forth), but none of that measures up to how happy I was come Sunday night when I dropped into bed. 

(Thanks to the Daddy for the end-stage support with the painting.  And thanks to K.L. for the delicious recipe*, found here.)

after dinner: big brother plays the cello, little brother dances a jig

my son on the flying trapeze

"Come watch me!" calls Little Brother.  "You promised."

So I drag out a chair to the grass by the big tree in the front yard.  "Alright, I'm ready."

(You know when you're having one of those parenting moments when there are 4000 things on a list in the back of your head, but you commit to time with your children.  A bit impatiently.)

But then, look.  What a show.  (So glad I said yes.)

 

a moment from my day

I was taking the laundry down from the line.  Little brother pokes his head out the back screen door.

"Bonjour mon coeur, " he says.

"What's that?" I say, not understanding.

"Bonjour mon coeur," he says again.  "It's French.  It means 'hello my heart.'"

(Precious.)

September weekend in the woods

Saturday

Hiking up to the cabin.

                                                        the view

Saturday afternoon hike.

                                            thimbleberries

Suddenly elves and gnomes and other forest creatures began to appear as we walked through the woods.

And fairy houses were discovered.

Sunday morning (chilly)

Children went off on their own adventure and I found them by the creek (where they were only supposed to go with an adult but they were so entranced in making birchbark boats that I couldn't interrupt to fuss at them).

And later, tending the trees like good wood elves...

Beautiful weekend.  Magical place.  Perfect sweet celebration of the beginning of fall.  (I mean really -- children in the woods making birch bark boats and climbing trees and hiding like elves and hunting for berries and discovering fairy houses -- could it get any sweeter?)  Thanks to friends for inviting us up!

first frost (pick the tomatoes!)

There was a frost warning.  We had to pick the tomatoes.   I sent the boys out, thinking there would be a half dozen or so hiding in our tomato plants.  "Bring them in", I said.  "We'll put them in the window."

Turns out there were a lot more than a half dozen hiding in there. 

(Wow.)

Either they ripen or I'm going to have to find every recipe out there for green tomatoes.  (Suggestions welcome.)

we pulled it off (our own little garden)

I had had huge intentions this spring for a giant garden.  Where we grew tomatoes and kale and beans and squash and garlic and potatoes; from which we canned and froze and stocked our pantry and root cellar for the winter.  But as we got closer and closer and life got busier and busier (instead of simpler as we had envisioned), it just didn't happen.  The boys and I had started some vegetable plants by seed, but only the hardiest survived (as they were largely unattended).   We did manage to build raised beds -- three of them.  But the soil we bought was mediocre; we realized it in mid-June when our small starts turned yelllow and failed to thrive.  And so we amended the soil as fast as we could. The little plants we successfully started on our own -- tomatoes and cabbages -- were waiting on a fourth bed to be built and were quickly outgrowing their little containers.  So the Daddy punked them into our soon-to-be perennial garden.  And then we mostly ignored them.

But look.  We've had success.  Even with our slow start and our half-witted gardening techniques. 

                                                            picked by a friend

So far our garden has produced 4 cucumbers, 1 zucchini, 2 yellow squash, 4 cherry tomatoes, a bunch of snap peas, a good handful of beans and a TON of kale. 

We have many many more tomatoes on the way (if the warmth can hold out just a little longer), more zucchini, more squash and cucumbers, plus some purple cabbages! 

And best of all: pumpkins.  Two of them.  Look at these handsome devils.  The children LOVE these little guys. 

It really is satisfying to eat from your own garden, grown with the help of your own hands (or by the grace of God in this case).  Everything we cook from our garden is prepared with that much more tenderness, and eaten with that much more awareness.  And it makes everything taste that much better.

sunday afternoon

We had a busy weekend.  Lots of social time, lots of outings, and late nights for parents and kids.  Today we were in the car on the way back from the ever-popular, incredibly-packed Shelburne Orchards Small Farms Food Fest, and I noticed that my two boys were glassy-eyed in the back seat.  I'm sure, had I looked in the mirror, I would have been equally glassy-eyed.  "How about," I said," when we get home, we find a shady spot in the yard, pull out a blanket and some good books, and just read together?" 

And that's exactly what we did.