This Moment

Playing along with Amanda today... in her words: 

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Love the Gray

It's gray, chilly, and damp here today. This moisture is supposed to be coming from a 'warming trend,' but to me it is just serving to make the chill go straight to my bones. I'm not getting the warming part. Maybe by the weekend.

Fortunately for me, I happen to love this kind of gray, misty, chilly weather. I love the way the drizzle brings out the deep colors that are part of our winter landscape. I love how much more stark the naked trees look when they're silhouetted against the chilly haze. I love the damp, cold, earthy smell of the decaying fall leaves, the dry and dormant grasses, and the exposed tree bark. I love how fluffy all the cold little birds look as they hop around, looking for berries and seeds. I love the solitude, as not many other people get out when the weather's like this.

Well, not many people other than my people, anyway...

I also love how much warmer inside can feel once you've been outside, say, digging holes for no apparent reason. But most of all, I think it's easy for us to love the gray because around these parts, it is so fleeting.

Here's to loving what you have, for it all- in time- will pass.

Tuesday, in Photos

Right Now

 

Right now, I'm...

...feeling irritated with the squirrels in the yard who suddenly think the bird feeder outside the kitchen window is for them, and who have scared off all but the most bold of the birds.
...finding that my daydreaming is spreading from new garden spaces to outdoor entertaining spaces... which lead to the picnic table being moved to a new spot... which lead to said new picnic table spot causing 'install pavers' and 'build pergola' to be added to the to-do list.
...pinning and re-visiting pins on my 'Gardening' board on Pinterest while doing the above-mentioned dreaming (also, take a look at these, speaking of dreamy outdoor spaces).
...noticing a pattern in the weather of late: we seem to get a nice warm few days between the drops down into freezing and beyond. The warm-up we got this weekend was much appreciated, though this morning the wind chills are back in the teens.
...enjoying the upside of cold mornings: hot drinks, lots of snuggles, a fire in the fireplace, another chance to wear layers that include wool and flannel, and baking for the sake of the heat of the oven.
...loving that Downton Abbey started up again!

This week will see much of the same old rigmarole for us, but how sweet and comforting it all can be.

Happy Monday!

Oh, and please to enjoy what's made me chuckle a bit this morning- apparently a kiddo (wonder who...) got 'hold of the camera on my phone and went a little snap-happy (and a lot of them were good!)...

This Moment

Playing along with Amanda today... in her words: 

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

New Garden Dreaming

I had every intention of popping in to this space on the first and creating a sentimental out-with-the-old, in-with-the-new post to commemorate New Years' Day, but the transfer cable to my camera went mysteriously missing (it is the exact same cable that the hubs' phone uses to charge... coincidence?), which cramped my plans.

Anyho, so now it's the second, I found a cable that will do the job so I can share a few photos, and I've let go of the idea of the perfectly-timed 'looking back' post. Letting go... that may be a better commemoration of the new year than anything else, no?

Around these parts, our New Years' Day was a sunny, warm(er than the last few), beautiful day, and we found ourselves drawn outside for the good majority of it.

For me, Christmas over + beautiful weather = garden planning on the brain. While the kids were all over the place with their new outdoor toys (new shovels and rakes, new handmade walking sticks, new mini-tractor...), I was out with my new toy (a new camera!) scoping out garden sites.

Folks, I think I found one.

It will be a challenge to find a spot on our property that will accommodate all I want to do and provide enough sunlight, as almost all our acreage is woods. However, this little spot might just fit the bill. I'm thinking my chicken coop will tuck up there to the right, close to the trees and in the shade, and then the garden can sprawl out into the sunshine, just a little past the giant boulder pile (all one design, as I am firmly sold on the chicken garden at this point). It's tantalizing, for sure... enough so that I plotted and planned the entire day yesterday, and started this morning surfing the interwebs for seeds.

I've dabbled in the non-GMO, organic seeds in the past, but another resolution (if you will) that I have for this new garden space is that I will not buy GMO seeds, I will not buy from Monsanto, and I will intentionally choose organic, as-local-as-possible seeds best suited for my area. I initially consulted this little gem of a resource for a starting point, and ended up finding nativeseeds.org, a great little non-profit out of Arizona that specializes in open-pollinated, non-GMO heirloom and landrace seeds from the greater Southwest. They're all as native as they will get for us at this point, they're all suited to my area, and- super bonus- most of them are drought resistant! It's a new favorite web site of mine... and this morning, I spent $55 on seeds! BUT the plants that come from these seeds can provide seeds for saving that will be fertile and true to the mother plant, so I consider the investment I made in these little guys totally worth it.

Let the anticipatory trips to the mail box begin!

Oh, and by the way, remember how I mentioned that boulder pile, up in the first 3 photos? Check out this amazing rock we found in the pile:

Sooooooo cool.

Happy new garden dreaming, happy spring spaces planning, and happy New Year!

52/52

A portrait of my kids every week for 52 weeks.

Dear Audrey and Henry,

Watching you grow over this past year, through both the photos shared in this space and the time I've spent with you, has been a beautiful privilege. So often the days seem to run together, and so easily they slip by, their uniqueness unnoticed for their ordinary camouflage. I know one day I'll lift my head from these days and realize they've changed all together, and the things we all so take for granted today will be things of the past.

The reason why I joined this project (albeit 2 weeks late) was to try just a little bit harder to record these early, fleeting moments of your childhood- for us all. In doing so, I was able to find a smile on days when there was overwhelming struggle, a laugh on days when there were too many tears, a connection when we were feeling pulled and tugged every-which-way, and a way to reach out and save a few extra moments in these Good Old Days.

My wish is that some day you both will look back and remember special things from these photos and find those smiles, laughs, and connections again, and remember how much you were loved then, now, and forever after.

Love,
Mama