June Sunday

 Check out a little interview I gave over at My Bit Of Earth.
Really fun blog and I am happy to be advertising on it!
 Mel, the writer, is funny and warm and down to earth.

http://www.mybitofearth.net

Morning light upstairs bedroom

Slipping Into Summer

 

Oh, it has been so nice with temps barely reaching the 90's the whole merry month of May.

Lowish humidity.

Bright blue skies and strong, mostly, northerly winds.

All the while I was hugging that weather to myself.

True summer is always a shock to the system. A bit of a hump to get over each summer.

So here we are with palpable, heavy humidity and rising temps.Highs inching into the 90's and lows in the 70's.

But all is ok because that heavy warm air is perfect for wafting elusive scents.

Agarita in bloom, our field of wild verbena, something unidentified from the woods. Those apricot roses! Oh my, they are so aromatic.

The barnyard scent from the horse field on our dawnish walk. I have mentioned  my love of that smell before. So evocative of a few small farms from my childhood.

When I step out onto our big back porch and hear the cicada's loud crescendos I get my yearly urge to read Southern literature while sipping a cold drink.

The porch is ready.

Must put that on a summer list then make myself do it.

I am usually seen buzzing about doing things and do not easily sit still. Busy hands and list making brain. 

 I am a firm believer in flourishing where you are.

I am here in central Texas living within hugging distance of all of my children and grandchildren.

On a beautiful piece of land in the rolling hill country.

Our roots are here. Our history with each other and this place.

That feels good and true to me. 

Peaceful.

So I embrace it all. 

In between happy family times I have finished some new patterns and fashioned a few prototype critters.

Baby Bear has a sleepy time of it so he gets a bed, blanket and tiny pillow.

He will come with a Papa Bear with a vest sporting a large pocket to carry tiny fish for picnics and Momma Bear with a shawl.

Brand new Mr Mouse. Plain and simple. Serious mouse.

Large Floppy Rabbit with vintage fabric clothes and wool felt shoes.

Lovely Essex linen body and lop ears. 

Lastly a school of fish! Made on a whim from available fabrics and looking like colorful koi fish. Total accident.

Love that!

Milestones and Snippets

There was a family gathering.
A lovely sit down party for Ginger's 17th birthday.
At House of Taurus, the home of Chia, Javier and the just turned one Desiderio .
With 3 point sized waiters serving our every need.
 One of them blew a lot of bubbles, one frequently broke into dance, and one very small one took the job very, very seriously.
Oh I love a baby in a button shirt with collar....and naked.
I just noticed that Jessie doglet seems very interested in that chocolate ganache cake!
Check out those smiles.
Check out that beautiful table.
Five daughters with partners and children.
A beautiful setting and a beautiful family.

Back in the country we had a bunny grooming day. This is Cocoa being very sad about his turn getting his bunny nails clipped.
Slightly harrowing, even for this former nurse.
Clip too close and they screech and claw, fly, scramble, panic, out of your arms and catapult themselves into the next county!
I have never experienced this drama.
Fingers crossed.
He is a Dwarf Rex....softest bun ever.

Rainlilys! 
Dozens and dozens of creamy white beauties. They close up at night and show off their mauve and pink undersides.
Which means that we had rain!
Drop by drop keeping the drought at bay.
The aquifers and wells not completely dry.
Beautiful.

I finished my summer lap blanket! 
Stealing time from Buddha Hill sewing to finally, happily complete it.
Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino ( wool, cashmere, micro fiber)
Cashmere, people!
Unbelievable soft. Creamy white with circle in a square design.
I love it.
Lastly, the 99 cent thrifted crocheted table cover.
Peeking out my front door.
Had to rescue it.
The work is beautiful...someone spent a lot of hours of her life creating it.....wish I could tell her that it found a grateful new home.

Inspiring Me Today

Pickles!



When I was gifted a 20# box of just picked cucumbers from Jennifer and Temple via their CSA Tecolote Farms, well, canning happens.
With my Dad's really old canning kettle and tongs,
two recipes from Ashley English's book Canning and Preserving ,http://www.smallmeasure.com/
and dim recollections of the many jars I put up in the past, I set to work.
 The rhythm of wash, sterilize, pack, process came back easily.
It was a fun 2 days.
Inspiring to take a break from sewing up my stash for fall/winter art shows.
Reading yellowed index cars written in my Dad's  small, precise handwriting.
His own canning experiments recorded.
 Wondering what he was thinking when he preserved salsas, jalapenos, German dill pickles.
He was not one to share his thoughts. I think life as he experienced it drained the sharing and caring out of him.
 Infinitely sad for us who knew him, but so much sadder for him.
So I think about him as I use his canner, pausing frequently to look out the row of kitchen windows at the meadow and trees out back.
Wishing things had been better for him.
Letting the unhappy times go.
Keeping the good memories.
Canning with his kettle.

This Morning

Morning coffee at 5:30, smiling at my silly chick vase and loving the bunny vase (gift from my oldest).

Looking past them through the porch to the meadow beyond.

Getting out of the door for my morning walk , camera in hand, to capture this .

<><>

Deer Family

Back home, a small spotted fawn very close to the back porch. His family is just out of the frame watching him closely. 

I am so glad that Sam the Lab shows no interest in chasing these little ones

 She is in her usual spot just under that same porch.

A few feet away. 

Watching, but not chasing.

The most gently natured dog we have ever had.

Sometimes when I open the  back door I hear a dull thump.

Sam's head hitting the porch floor as she leaps up.

Out she dashes and makes a just for show ,tail wagging loop around the meadow. Pretend chase.

 The deer are usually not impressed.

They look up but then just get back to munching native grasses and flowers.

I am lucky to see these scenes every day.

I pause frequently throughout the day to note how beautiful this place is.

Trying to not focus and worry about the chores and tasks to be done.

My mental list.

That list is worrisome. A weight on my daily thoughts. But also how I stay organized. Finding the balance. Making it work.



And on to work. Forest Dolls to finish up. They need vests and gathering bags.

Of course, they will need mushrooms and acorns to gather.

Forest floor treasures to stitch up. They get stuffed with the soft organic wool batting on the right. I love handling this wool, and smelling the lanolin it holds, and feeling it warm in my hands. Just lovely.

Sweet wool stuffed lambs and mouse. Sewn from thrifted cashmere sweaters.

Sold at the farm this weekend.

 One is flying across country for a new baby.

So nice to know where they end up.

And Then There Were Five

These pictures give me hope for the world.
They are the best of us.
The next generation.
Part of a strong thread of family.
Lovingly taking the best of us and building on it.
Respectfully rejecting that which does not make the world a better place.
Being shown by their parents the power of love. The responsibility and strength of family.
I can see the love here shining from their faces. That is always the start of something great, right?
I am proud to be the mother of six children and now five grandchildren.
I like being part of this. Very grounding. Joyously uplifting.
Because despite squabbles (rare), busy, busy schedules (constant), the minutia of day to day life (never ending) we find time to gather, we stay connected, we will drop everything to help each other.
I consciously think about each of these folks every day. Usually during a dawn  walk down the country road out here or while stitching.It takes a while. Down the list I go.Five daughters. A lovely adopted son via marriage to his equally nice Dad.Five grandchildren.
Sending them good thoughts. Wondering what they are doing. Staying connected.

Apples and Such

We are very pleased to have apples for the second time ever!
Patience rewarded as the tree we planted is now six years old now and thwarted by a draughty summer and possibly neglectful watering on my part.

However, persist it did. Plants must display some degree of toughness to bear fruit in south central Texas. Lovely.

The newish hens are getting to peck the windfall apples.
I am tossing them into the coop, trying not to hit anyone.
Not my fault that the hens move so quickly!
Our annoyed looking Golden Laced Wyandotte does not approve.

I love this view of the garden fence near the chicken coop, prayer flags fluttering in the breeze.
It looks like a massive amount of weeding is in order. The frothy mass is a stand of 20+ year old asparagus

 Sam the chocolate lab (outside the garden yard) likes to look at the chickens while I garden. She does not mind the weeds. Good dog. So pretty.

A Perfect Day

Gentle rain the whole day. The kind that soaks in and gives the trees and plants time to soak it up before it sinks through the dry cracks .
Just perfect.

Those of us in central Texas are still reeling (literally) from last summer's historic drought and 90+ days with temps over 100 degrees.
If that sounds like hell, well, it kind of was.
Please let there be enough to fill the lakes and aquifers and keep us green a bit longer.

But today we have rain and cool temps and happiness.

Sam the Lab

Sam the lab and I walk across a green meadow in the rain to feed and water the flock of hens that live in the garden enclosure. Dampish, fluffy, rapidly growing 5 month olds and two stately 6 year olds  flap their  wings and crowd round to vie for first choice of brown rice , strawberry tops and lettuce bits. Somewhat spoiled, those girls.

Fern the Barred Rock Plymouth impatient for snacks

I pick some cherry tomatoes that have sprung up by the coop gate, no doubt seeds from last year's chicken snacks, washed out from the hen house to grow along the perimeter. They are thriving in the rich runoff from the coop.

I love the smell of the  coop's deep hay litter in the rain. Love of farm smells runs in this family. Not everyone-there are camps for and against but count me happy to stand in the rain and breathe it all in.

Sam is waiting outside of the gate to practice walking at my side back to the house.
She knows that there is a dog treat nubbin in my pocket, like there is everyday.
Sweet dog.

And because this is a perfect day, I turn away from the scheduled chores, grab a basket of baby gnome parts, a latte, listen to the rain and stitch away while watching episode one of Downton Abbey ( I know, the last person in America to see it!)

Gnome Bits

A really good day.

Quietly

So hard to know what my writing voice will be because,

I am a quiet person who spends most days quietly stitching, gardening, caring for animals, and the rest of the puttering and erranding that are needed to make a home, family, and business continue to move forward.

Ok, I do talk to my plants, rabbits, chickens, chocolate lab, and possibly the small sewn creatures that I make.

But they are all silly creatures who invite a bit of chatter now and then.

I do wisecrack with my five daughters and one son and husband but they are also silly and sweet ...

and they think I am funny and wise and possibly interesting so there is encouragement from that quarter.

I am reckoning that the blog will evolve a bit and become after a bit a reflection of who I am, how I live, and what I make.

Well, we will see where this goes.

Thanks for looking.