Growing

A beautiful day for a walk into the garden:




Feeling a bit like Mr. McGregor:






Still getting pattypans (or scallop squash if you prefer):



Beets, beets:






"Volunteer" tomatoes under the rotating compost bin:




A beautiful heirloom pumpkin... but tiny.




Mystery squash:





A volunteer butternut that took up housekeeping on the side of the big compost bin:



And what I've been working on:

where we're at

Wowie! Six months has passed and while I hadn't quite forgotten about this blog hanging out here in cyberspace, it's obviously been low on my list of things-to-do.

What has been at the top of said to-do list:

Dear Daughter - so many changes. She's 16 months old now. Talking, walking, running, eating every fruity thing in sight - leaving her father and I to wonder if she isn't somehow part monkey or other arboreal creature.

Graduate School - the applying to and eventually being accepted. I can now gladly report that I will begin graduate school in the fall in hopes of becoming your friendly neighborhood librarian.

Growing People - there's another one on the way. Due around the beginning of next year. That has taken a lot out of me lately. Well, it likely has a little to do with chasing around an energetic toddler as well.

Not to mention: gardening (and what a great garden it is - more on that later), cooking (trying - sometimes failing miserably- new things), loving the chickens, natural harvest of wild berries that are starting to come in, lots of swimming, yoga, and scrambling for quiet moments to myself... I think I'll go grab one now.

Putting in

Apple Yummy-ness

Before it's too late, I thought I'd share something we enjoy every fall. Adapted from the wonderful (and out-of-print) Whole Earth Cookbook, here's a recipe that is simple enough for an everyday dessert and delightful in that simplicity.

Ingredients:
Apples - around 8 cups.
Honey
1/4 lb butter - softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbs. cinnamon
1 1/2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 375.
Cut apples into small 1/2 inch chunks. Place in casserole.
Drizzle honey over apples.
Combine butter with flour, sugar, and cinnamon until it resembles a coarse meal. Spread over top of apples.
Bake for about 40 minutes - until top is nicely browned and apples are tender but still crisp.

Enjoy!


And here we are Sunday, making delicious crockpot greens and barbeque. Wes made a spicy-sweet cornbread to accompany our dinner and the apple dessert was the perfect ending.

Garden Walkabout

Though I love the fall - it also means the end of the gardening season. It brings a beauty all its own, and yet it means leaving the splendor of summer behind. This has struck me powerfully the past few times we've been out on our walks. I thought I'd share some images from around the garden.










Have a lovely weekend. I'll be sharing a wonderful apple-delight next time - while they're still at their peak.

Feeding

Harvest time is coming to a close. It is one of those chilly, wet fall days that make me ready to hibernate. There are leaves plastered to the sidewalks. And, as I look up at the mountains they are gold, scarlet, evergreen.

I'm scrambling to make some preparations - certainly not all I had planned in this year of sleep deprivation, so much to do and never enough time. I am hopeful that I will find my stride soon.

Lucy is eating her vegetables:
Asparagus here. Despite my efforts to introduce her to many different foods, she still loves rice cereal best. I'm trying to take all the advice to shove new foods in her mouth with a grain of salt. Letting her explore the new tastes and textures is more important. Although I wish she'd truly enjoy all the fruits and veggies she's been offered. If you are looking for a good resource
for making your own baby food - it's easier and cheaper than you might think - along with many other tips and tricks, I love The Super Baby Food Book.

She does seem to love her carrots, especially as playdough.

These are the seeds from the giant butternut squash we harvested from our garden - ready to give us more beautiful squash next year.


Here are Lucy's two first pumpkins.

This time of fall makes me so grateful for the bounty of the land and the blessings and beauty of nature.

Fall - Gardening

As the season has changed, so has the format of the blog. I'm trying to find my stride here and thought fall, and all that it brings would be a good time to experiment a bit.

We found a four-leaf clover on Saturday. Lucy, her Gigi, and I all went for a walk to enjoy the cool weather. It was the first one we've ever found here. Lucy contemplated eating it.


Something about this season always excites me. There is a different smell to it, a different feeling in the air. This is Lucy's first fall and her daddy and I are both hoping that she enjoys it as much as we do. Wes asked yesterday if we could move somewhere that it was fall all year 'round. I wish that was possible. Although I suppose we wouldn't appreciate it quite as much... and when spring comes to the mountains, I'm tempted to think that it is my favorite season.

Here are the butternut squash we harvested on Saturday. The daddy and baby. There was an acorn squash which most resembled me, but we ate it before I photographed it.



Some of the leaves are already changing, and I've been hearing that it's going to be an early color season because it's been so dry.

Here is a volunteer squash of origin unknown. Hopefully, it will be tasty. It just sprouted out of our compost pile so I guess it's something we've eaten before.


And, for some reason the strawberry on our porch may start producing again. The ones we got early this summer were small but sweet.


And our collards are popping up. These are the ones we're trying in containers. The ones in the garden are much more impressive - probably because they were started earlier.


Here is the last sunflower of this year.

The rest have already had their seeds harvested for planting next spring and for feeding the birds this winter.

Enjoy this new season.

Meet the Chickens

We have seven chickens. Originally we had eight but one has mysteriously disappeared. We fear it may have become a subterranean chicken, scratching, pecking and laying in the bowels of the earth. There does seems to be an epidemic of fowl disappearances among those who keep chickens which has more than anecdotal evidence.


Here is the amazing chicken coop that my dear husband built out of salvaged materials, including part of my swing set from when I was little:


The second picture shows the coop with the nest box access door open - which makes collecting the eggs super-easy.



Right now we are getting two to three eggs a day. They taste so different from store-bought. They taste of the earth, fresh air, grasses, and insects the chickens eat.

Happy Little Accidents

I am borrowing this phrase from the late, great Bob Ross to describe and talk about conception. Specifically, the conception of our darling (sleeping, for now) daughter.

Wow, what a surprise. And, I hesitate a moment to say, shock. My mother and father tried for several years to conceive a baby before finally carrying a pregnancy to term (me). I was told it would likely be quite difficult for me to have children as well - which was fine. I thought I didn't want children. I was taking birth control pills.

For four nights, I woke with terrible abdominal pain. My husband insisted that I go to the doctor - he wouldn't leave for work otherwise. They did a pregnancy test - and when it came back positive - my jaw literally dropped. As did my mom's - she was in the exam room with me. I protested - "But we're moving to New York in two months for grad school." As if, somehow, that made it impossible - and it would reverse the doctor's statement of fact.

All this to say that I was mistaken. I do want children. Lucy has made everything better. Now, I too, am new. This world around us seen through her eyes is truly delightful.

Should I feel guilty to have this blessing I didn't want? I do. I do when I see our friends who've known their whole lives that they wanted to be parents and are devastated as another month passes with no sign of pregnancy.




Our lotus is blooming - another miraculous event. We've been watching and waiting as the flower stalk emerged and grew. Now it has popped and we'll enjoy the beautiful bloom for the brief time it's here. Hopefully we'll collect the seeds and have another plant or two next year.

The fall garden is going in very slowly. I am trying to remain optimistic. But, getting everyone together on what actually needs to happen is a battle.