This says fall to me like nothing else. We went out to try out the new camera the other day. This is one of the good shots. I love this cooler, pleasant time of year. The harvest, the clean-up, the practicing of the marching band on our street (and the subsequent dashes down the alley to see if we can catch a glimpse of them before they turn the corner--today: Success! Along with a "parade" of neighbor kids riding their bikes to school) and even gearing up for winter. It is very possible by the time you read this that we'll be buried in snow. Until then I'm going to relish this autumnal glory.

I was watching my tiny girl today and my heart just swelled. She is exploring the world and it's such an amazing thing to watch. Today I watched as she went on a little walk through the backyard on her own (as I peered through the kitchen window) with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I don't know what captures me the most: the rocking steps, the confident air, the sandwich that would get attention every few feet. I can't capture her amazingness on film--she's too fluid, so much movement. She is movement and it is so delicious!

Apple Tasting Party

We had an apple tasting party this week. We took 5 different types of apples sliced them thinly and arranged them on a platter. We had some friends come over and we tasted. The kids loved eating the apples. They weren't that interested in the evaluation process, but Moms had fun evaluating. It was so simple and I only used 1 apple per type: Gala, Granny Smith, Pink Cripps, Pink Lady and Red Delicious. That fed 7 kids and three adults--with quite a few left over. The leftovers were gobbled up by the end of the day.

It was a beautiful day and a fun, SIMPLE party. I'm thinking next year I might plan a girls night out apple tasting party. Maybe we'll try to head west and find a bigger variety of unusual apples to try--Gravensteins perhaps. Dreams of apples. Mmmm.

I forgot to take a picture of the tray with the labels, but as last minute as my labels were (scribbled on a left over scrap of something and taped with clear packing tape to toothpicks) it made me feel very posh.

Credit for the idea goes to the picture book: How to Bake An Apple Pie And See The World by Marjorie Priceman. Thanks Marjorie! We would have read your book if the weather had been poor, but where we live if the weather's nice we simply MUST get out in it!

Sewing

Note my lovely model's skirt. Made in a last minute flurry before we hit the road. I worried that she would have trouble crawling around or that she would get lots of scratches on her legs. Worry is such a pointless excercise. It was long enough she could crawl around wherever she wanted (which was not always where I wanted) and it protected her legs. I think I'll make her a few more as this long legged girl doesn't have many dresses that really cover those little legs. Show and tell another time.

The Welcome Home Sunflowers

From such a small seed.

PS

Jess look for a little package coming soon to a mailbox near you!

What We've Been Up To

Talking on the phone

Cutting up meat

Harvesting carrots, cabbage, kohlrabi, and zucchini (an unusal Japanese vegetable--didn't you know?!)












Fishing





Bike Riding (with momentary pauses to look at birds, airplanes and other flying objects going by)

And you?

I mentioned we went on a trip recently. At our 2nd overnight stop my camera died (thank you sand). So I missed taking pictures of family and friends, pictures of my beautiful sister's wedding, Mowgli feeding birds, and lots of other fun things. However, I did get a few fun things recorded in visual form:

Cloud Watching

Do you see the fish?

Beach

Walking

And crawling

Not to mention a few very short "hikes".

This one through the "Spooky Woods"


You learn a lot about yourself and your children when you travel to places that seem familiar to you, but are not to them. On our first "trek" into a forest Mowg asked, "What is that on the trees?!" I looked for a bird or some other creature. It took me a few minutes to realize he was talking about the moss. So common place to me and so unusual to him. Forest's are spooky to him and so peaceful to me. There is so much that "place" does to build a person.

Embroidered Friendship

Tonight I watched my tiny one trace the stitches her great grandmother had embroidered on a table cloth. This after she continually "toasted" friendship to her Dad, brother and me. There is nothing like clinking your glass to a sippy cup "Friends!" How I love this little ritual her brother started. Though she doesn't say the words the feeling is there. Oh how I hope that friendship between the four of us will continue to grow forever. I hope too that those little connections of tableclothes and cups will forge strong bonds. I have to tell you about that table cloth. I love it. It was given to us by my Aunt and Uncle as a wedding gift. It is extrodinary in two ways: 1. My Grandmother is gone and it helped me feel her presence on that important day in my life. 2. My Grandmother was going to get rid of that tablecloth because it had a stain on it. My Aunt rescued it because of all the work Grandma had done on it. It's square with geese and strawberries embroidered in a square in the center. Then there are details of strawberries in the corners. One of these corners may carry a pizza sauce stain after tonight. I will treasure it all the more if it does because those tiny fingers touched the thread that her Great-Grandmother wove into the fabric long before she was born. Two women I love.

Return

We returned from a trip recently. I expected to find a dried up garden, the piles I'd left in the house. It had been a long day in cramped space and before I got out of the car a lovely lemon colored flower caught my eye. It was a sun flower from Britt's Garden (the one that was to grow up around the tipi poles). What a delightful welcome! Then the next day to our delight we discovered that we did indeed have some things to harvest. Not the harvest we'd hoped to fill our freezer with, but a harvest none-the-less. Kolrabi, carrots, green beans, potatoes, and even one cucumber. Hope your transition to fall is a good one!