Monthly Archives Jul 2008
Stocking the Larder, Locally: Part Two
July 31, 2008
Owning one, small, old car and not driving it a lot, having no debt and a smaller urban footprint (fancy speak for living on a small city lot and renting part of our house) are three biggies that enable us to buy more local food.
July afternoon sun flare
July 30, 2008
I'm experimenting with this, and almost going blind. No seriously, the sky this afternoon was magnificent. I just had to try and get a shot (or twenty). Good thing I took my camera to the mall after all. Yep, took this shot in the mall parking lot. Cropped out the ...
Photography Flutters
July 29, 2008
This may sound pathetic but I seriously got the excited "I can do this, I can do this..." flutters in my stomach when I read these Top Ten Photography Tips from Me Ra Koh Photography. I found the article from one of my favorite photography blogs, Shutter Sisters. To all ...
Pretty Lady
July 28, 2008
Thanks to a recent butterfly post at the lovely blog, gardenpath, the kids and I were able to easily identify this weekend visitor to the garden. Vanessa cardui, commonly known as Painted Lady.
Living Summer on Tumbledown Mountain
July 28, 2008
Yesterday we lived summer, under a bright blue sky. Hiking up and through a rushing brook, wading in a mountain top pond, picnicing and snoozing on the rocks, eating handfuls of wild blueberries. Tumbledown Brook Waterfall East Corner of Tumbledown Pond Webb Lake, Mount Blue State Park Wild Blueberries on ...
Fridge Pickles
July 26, 2008
I don't can, except dilly beans (pickled green beans, so delicious) when we get inundated mid-summer from the farm. Should be any week now I guess. But I do make refrigerator pickles. No bubbling, boiling water and finicky sterilizing needed. Well, the jar should be clean of course... I dare ...
Education and Doll Making
July 25, 2008
Celine's childhood, all three kiddos in fact, is not about acquiring school subject knowledge. It's about the freedom to learn, grow, explore, experience, play, create, fail and succeed in the safety of a family's unconditional love and support.
Echinacea and Achillea
July 25, 2008
Is that kind of like "Ebony and Ivory"? (You are a blessed individual if you can read that and not hear the song in your head)
Summer update - Rain
July 25, 2008
Enough eco-friendly orientated posts. What I want to know is what's summer like in your backyard these days? If you care to share, leave a comment with a link to a blog post or flickr photo (my latest photography foray). Oh, and please share something sunny. Because summer in my ...
Potty Talk
July 24, 2008
There's been a lot of potty talk these days and not from the usual under-four-foot tall crowd. It started over a month ago when Samantha at Our Green House wrote about hating waste and hum... could she somehow reduce that daily, down the toilet, paper waste?? Right around the same ...
Stocking the Larder, Locally: Part One
July 23, 2008
Obtaining local, organic and sustainably grown foods costs, sometimes a lot. So why do we do it? Basically, our family has made the choice to value the health of our bodies, community, planet and the farmers who grow our food.
Garlic - good for whatever ails ya'
July 22, 2008
My sis-in-law wrote a good article on garlic over at her blog Inside Out. No need for me to reinvent the wheel, check out what she has to say and while you're at it stock up on garlic next time you're at the produce market.
Celine's Isabella
July 21, 2008
My 9 year old beauty peaking out from behind her handmade (by her) rag doll.
Evening playground sunshot
July 20, 2008
I'm getting tired of waiting to get my new DSLR so I'm pushing all the limits of my point and shoot. Last night I took it into total "manual mode" to try and capture the sun as it peeked out from behind the clouds. This is the best into the ...
Blushing Beans
July 19, 2008
Is it possible for a bean blossom to blush? I'd say so. Seems to me the barely pink blossom is almost hiding behind the leaf but in spite of "her" best efforts is being "exposed" by the sun. Oh My! I didn't even notice the bean pods already growing (I ...
Greener toilet paper
July 19, 2008
I thought I was green in using recycled toilet paper. That didn't come out right. I mean toilet paper made from recycled paper. My friend Cori is taking to the next level though with cloth toilet wipes. I am nowhere near there yet and not sure if I even think ...
I Love Words
July 18, 2008
I especially love well crafted sentences and paragraphs. But words in general will do. Through Blogs of Photographers I found this way cool on-line application called Wordle, "a toy for generating “word clouds†from text that you provide". You can input any text or even input a blog address or ...
Summer day crafts
July 17, 2008
The kids hijacked my plans for the day. That's a reality of child-led learning. You go with try to go with the flow.
Incredible Edible Nasturtiums
July 17, 2008
If you are interested in growing something in your yard, balcony or windowsill but don't have a lot of time, space, or money for plants - I've got the plant for you.
A better to-do list
July 15, 2008
Today's Raspberries: A photo that is somewhat but not necessarily related to the following post. This morning during my sporadic (some days I'm disciplined, most days I'm not) quiet time I wrote. Mostly prayers of the "please guide me" variety. My last scribbles of the morning were: simplify be content ...
Today I choose to embrace
July 14, 2008
scrubbing the bathroom and kitchen floor, having clean kitchen counters (hoping to avoid the dreaded after supper build-up that makes me a cranky best-friend and mama) and de-cluttering my son's room. It's difficult to embrace these homemaking tasks in the midst of summer. The garden calls my name... The kids ...
Tumbledown West via Loop Trail
July 13, 2008
Keeping this simple (trying to enjoy my good life), no hike synopsis, except to say it was many times better than last weekend's hike. I really enjoyed the day, even enjoyed the physical exertion, and time spent with my family. Blackberry Blossoms? Tumbledown West Peak: At this point we were ...
Tired, of the good life
July 12, 2008
I'm tired. Of trying to do everything really well, I can't. I can only do my best and what frustrates the heck out of me is that even my best isn't nearly good enough. Don't tell my kids I said this, I tell them the opposite all the time. I'm ...
Summer day moments
July 11, 2008
Summer is simply heavenly some days. Even though no day is perfect, summer (at least for my garden, farm, beach, woods, mountains, outdoors happy family) tends to have more perfect "moments".
Neighborly-ness
July 10, 2008
Good things are already starting to come out of our weekly love your neighbor flower bouquet deliveries. During last week's delivery of patriotic inspired red Gaillardia, white Chrysanthemums and blue Hydrangeas (to celebrate July 4th) we met a relatively new family to our neighborhood. While talking I found out that ...
Early July Backyard view
July 9, 2008
It was hot today and humid. Before retreating indoors this afternoon to the relative cool (we don't use AC) the kids enjoyed one of their favorite summer backyard activities - sprinkler trampoline jumping. An activity most definitely not recommended by trampoline manufacturers and no doubt against all the "rules". Rules ...
Make It From Scratch Blog Carnival
July 8, 2008
My experimentation with making my own moisturizing cream is included in this week's Make It From Scratch Blog Carnival over at the funky Home Ec 101 What You Wish Your Mama Taught You. Other entries that were of particular interest to me are: A lemon-lime body scrub that sounds good ...
The rest of the camping story
July 7, 2008
Ok, so Friday was a tough day. I guess looking back it wasn't quite so bad. All I had to do was hike uphill (both ways it seemed) 5 miles through bug infested forest and muddy bogs. I take that back, it was nasty. Saturday however, was a gift from ...
Funky Falls
July 7, 2008
I have no idea why the shot came out this way. The camera was in a manual setting I don't usually use. But I'm really pleased with the result. Laurent crossing Bear River at Screw Auger Falls, ME var addthis_pub="rtougas";var addthis_feed="http://fimby.tougas.net"; var addthis_pub="rtougas";
Not all hikes are lovely and other camping thoughts...
July 7, 2008
We're home now after camping 3 nights at Crocker Pond, in the White Mountain National Forest. A rustic and kind of buggy small campground overlooking Crocker Pond and Albany Mountain. A really lovely spot if you've got bug repellent and can boil water for cleaning up. This past weekend was ...
Butterfly Eyes book review
July 5, 2008
Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow by Joyce Sidman A gorgeous book of science, poetry and art. We love exploring meadows and we loved this book! If we were a book-buying family (we're library lenders) I'd buy this in a heartbeat. It's everything a good's childrens book should ...
Sew Easy
July 3, 2008
I come from an amazing heritage of industrious homemakers. In addition to raising kids, gardening, cooking, canning, running households, serving family, friends and neighbors these women could sew. Anything. Quilts, clothes, home decor. My grandma made her own lace for pete's sake! My own skills in the sewing department are ...
Garden Report - Tomato Fruit
July 2, 2008
I spied the first cherry tomato fruit yesterday in the garden. Today I pruned and staked the plants using these instructions from Frank Ferrandino. This afternoon we're off to the beach. The garden grows. I pick a few weeds here and there, squish a few bad beetles, but mostly the ...
Happy Canada Day
July 2, 2008
Taking this picture of our backyard red and white berries was the closest I got to observing Canada Day. We moved to the United States 8 years ago this month. The first few years we celebrated Canada Day, special suppers and the like. But these days July 1st means July ...
Trash Report
July 1, 2008
No worries, I won't make this into a weekly feature, like the garden reports. My sis-in-law recently issued a garbage challenge over at her blog InsideOut. Specifically to record how much trash your family generates in one week. I'm all for participating in some good ol' fashioned eco-friendly competition. So, ...
