A brief but beautiful winter wonderland outside our back door...

Family time

It started with Nicole's birthday

Which she really seemed to enjoy....

Jon and Kaci were here, which is always fun!

You just can't help smiling along with this boy.



 Things got a little crazy on Christmas Eve....

 Christmas afternoon we went to Gail and Scott's--so fun!

And of course having a very sweet and  excited four year old around adds a whole new and wonderful dimension to Christmas celebrations!

Fall Fun and Celebrations

Nicole and Ava and I visited Bellewood Acres and explored the pumpkin patch, then shared an apple drizzled with carmet and whipped cream.

On another beautiful Fall day, we went to Hovander Farm and Tenant Lake.

Pumpkin carving this year was definitely a girly themed affair--Ava's was a princess and Nicole's was a shoe and a dress.

Next came the birthday celebrations.  First, a joint party with Ava's friend Charlotte, at Charlotte's house.  The theme was cupcake decorating!

Then, in the midst of snow and sub freezing temperatures, Jon and Kaci came up for the day, and we celebrated all three November birthdays.

Still to come--Thanksgiving at our house, which is also Ava's actual birthday this year.

Just what I was thinking

This morning I looked out the window at the trees in the midst of their breathtaking autumn transformation, and I wished I could freeze time for a little bit, and enjoy this view a little longer.  It's so lovely, but a little bittersweet because you know one or two windstorms will sweep the fall beauty away and leave behind wintery starkness.  And then, later the same day, I came across this poem by Robert Frost.

October
by Robert Frost

O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
To-morrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
To-morrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow,
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know;
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away;
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes' sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—
For the grapes' sake along the wall.

Harvest Day

Blueberries, apples and basil came inside today.  Four batches of pesto are now residing in the freezer, ready to bring the sweet scent of summer to a chilly winter day.  The apples are biding their time in the fridge, waiting to become applesauce, apple crisp, and dried apple rings. (My latest purchase is a food dehydrator.)  The blueberries that didn't grace someone's cereal bowl were sent off to the freezer.

The next free morning will be the day to bring in the lavender to dry.......

Love this city!

Ron and I visited Boston for the first time over the 4th of July.  What a great city!  We walked almost everywhere and if we couldn't we took the T, the very easy to use public transit system.  We walked the Freedom Trail, climbed the tower at Bunker Hill, stayed in a really cool boutique hotel,

visited the Kennedy Library,

toured Paul Revere's house, visited the Harvard campus,

and saw the site of the very first public school in America.

We had dinner at the bar that was the inspiration for the show Cheers, one of our favorites when we were first married.  


 We saw the site that marks where the Boston Massacre occurred...

  and went to a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park, a super cool old ball park. 

We visited the Boston Commons

and the Public Gardens, the setting for the book 'Make Way for Ducklings."

I bought a copy at the Harvard Bookstore.  I REALLY wanted to go inside the Harvard Libray but you needed a student card...sigh.

 We were there on a Sunday so we chose one of the beautiful old churches we had visited along the Freedom Trail to worship at on Sunday morning.  We went to King's Chapel, which was built in 1686 and  had been Paul Revere's home church.  We went forward to take  communion by intinction.  The bowl that the wafers were served in and the chalice that the wine (real) was offered in were made by Paul Revere himself!  And on the 4th we walked down to the river and listened to the Boston Pops play before the fireworks.  We then went back to our hotel room, where we had an excellent view of the fireworks from our window.  Early the next morning we reluctantly flew home.

One more thing Ava and I like...

Used book stores!  Nicole, Ava and I walked on the ferry to Friday Harbor yesterday.  In the conversations leading up to this trip there was some ferry/fairy confusion going on, but she didn't seem disappointed that Tinkerbell never appeared on the boat.  We walked around the little town, had lunch, ice cream, checked out a few the of the more kid-friendly shops and even found a park to play in for awhile.  Ava was a trooper--no stroller on this trip--but I'm guessing all three of us slept pretty well that night.

Fun with Ava

It's so lovely that we both like to do the same things--read books, bake cookies, work in the garden, feed the ducks at the pond, listen to music in the park... and the list keeps growing.

Glee's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" with Oil Spill Images

The first harvest

We planted a new strawberry bed this year, and today I brought in the first fruits.


If all goes well, we will soon also be harvesting raspberries, tomatoes, blueberries, cherries, plums, pears, apples, currants, huckleberries, basil, cilantro and various other herbs, and a finally a few pumpkins.


Another happy thing: the path is on its way back to life:

 You just gotta love summer!

Thanks, Henri

There are a few authors that express things that I have thought or maybe haven't even consciously thought but have felt at some deep level.  When you see the words on the printed page you recognize the deepest longings of your soul expressed in a way that you can't.  It's a little eerie, but also wonderful to know that you are not alone in what you long for or think about.  For me right now that author is Henri Nouwen.

Food for thought....

We'll miss you Tig

We lost our sweet kitty Tigger this week.  He was a member of the family for 16 years. During that time he survived being dressed in doll clothes and pushed in strollers,  being loved by overly affectionate toddlers, and even a raccoon attack.

Tigger was always friendly and happy and pretty much purred his way through life. I'll especially miss his company while I'm gardening.

Happy things

I LOVE these!

They were  written out for me as a wedding present from Gail.  She wanted me to have a few of Ron's mom's recipes.
I keep them in this lovely little book:

made for me by--you guessed it--Gail :)

A life well lived

Stan lived ninety years on this earth with integrity and kindness and love for his family--what a legacy  to leave for your children.  He will be deeply missed.

The briefest of interludes

Ron has been spending much of his time care taking his dad.  It's very difficult because he still has to go to his very demanding job, but also so good for him  to have that precious time that will never be regretted.  He came home briefly tonight, and we had wine and a 'nibbly dinner' on the deck (it was a little cold but we tried not to notice) and then we drank more wine and listened to John Mayer by the fire.  It was a lovely little interlude in a sad season.

Is there any dilema my cast iron skillet can't solve?

Oh, probably.  But, to my delight, I keep discovering its hidden talents.  Mark got Ron started on cooking steak in it, starting on the stovetop and finishing in the oven.  A brisk and tidy process with apparently happy results ( I'm not really a steak fan.)
I was home alone for dinner tonight and happened to have a bag of Trader Joe's whole wheat pizza dough in the fridnge.  I decided to make a small pizza for dinner.  But when I turned the oven on the preheat, I was reminded that the oven had been sending out an ominous natural gas smell, and that I was going to be calling the repairman in the morning.  So no pizza for me.  But then I started thinking about how much better pizza is on the grill than in the oven, and I wondered if my cast iron skillet could produce results similar to the grill, without needing time in the oven.  I googled 'stove top pizza'.  Would you believe someone actually posted a recipe for pizza that involved stovetop stuffing??  But I also found this:http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/tips-techniques/weeknight-dinner-how-to-make-pizza-on-the-stove-top-095403 much more useful link. Before I knew it I was enjoying delicious sausage, olive and tomato pizza with a glass of wine and the Gilmore Girls.  Lovely!

Currently reading

• Look at the Birdie   --  a collection of short stories by Kurt Vonnegut
• The New Evangelicalism-Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity by Soong-Chan Rah
• Eating Animals  by Jonathan Safran Foer
• A Timbered Choir -- poetry by Wendell Berry
• The Writer's Desk by Jill Krementx, who, coincidentally, was married to Kurt Vonnegut.  It is a collection of portraits of writers and their thoughts about their workspaces.

A Busy Day with Ava

Ava and I spent the afternoon together, as we do most Fridays.  Today we:

• finger painted with banana pudding
• worked together to vacuum and mop the floor (post pudding)
• watched 'Heidi'--the Shirley Temple version
• danced to James Taylor
• read Each Peach Pear Plum for the first time (so fun to share my favorite books with her as she moves beyond the board books only stage )
• fed the ducks at the pond (in the rain) and tossed pebbles off the little bridge for awhile
• came in to get warm and had cocoa and popcorn by the fire
• played Polly Pockets and dress up
• made apple pancakes with rhubarb sauce together for dinner

A fun day with my sweet girl!