Summer Solstice 2012

As we celebrated Summer Solstice it was a perfect sunny day, kissed by a light breeze as it swayed through the fields of tall grass surrounding our home. The wildflowers were all bursting heavenward in multitude and beauty as their new life that had sprouted in early spring is finally coming into its fullest :)

And just in time to!

We picked clover, buttercups and daisies to decorate our sun shaped solstice cake with.

The children enjoyed cooking hotdogs over hot embers as the fire burned low...

and warming toes chilled by running through damp grass that wasn't quite dry from the wet days before.

No one really wanted to wreck our cake by cutting into it but you know that didn't last long *grin*. I think a few even had seconds and perhaps thirds LOL.

But all the extra energy was quickly burned off by having a snowball fight in June. Oh how I love the fluffy ball shaped clusters of flowers that my snowball tree provides and they really do make for a fun summer snowball fight :)

 

As the sun finally dipped below the mountain range, streaking the sky with pinks and purples, we waited for the darkness to come so we could stoke up our fire and sit in its glow...

keeping warm, roasting marshmallows and setting our sticks aglow :)

Hugs,

Rosina

Weekending

Did you remember to spring ahead this morning? I didn't! *grin*

Our day started with my usual lighting of the woodstoves, making sure everyone got breakfast, puttering around the kitchen tidying up, planning for lunch and today I popped on a pot of bones and veggies for chicken soup. Just before we reached lunch which was now past lunch I realized that I was truly running an hour behind. I had joked on my twitter page that I had been living in the past all morning but the truth of it was that I never caught up with the time today!

So I decided that I was not going to set my clocks ahead today since I simply just could not catch up!! That's right I had my own personal time zone for the entire day and tomorrow we'll catch up to the rest of you LOL. I swear sometimes it's a good thing we live in the sticks where we can march to the beat of our own drum *grin*.

We've had quite the run of weather to with sun, rain and snow flurries and sometimes they were happening all at the same time. The temperature in the shade today was just above freezing so the kids had to do a lot of running and jumping to keep warm but when they realized that just wasn't working for them they came up with a new plan to help keep themselves warm....

Chicken warmers!

I bet you didn't know that chickens make great hand warmers *grin*. The kids would run into the pen, pick up the closest chicken, tucking their hands around their warm fluffy bodies and warmed up a bit. Plus the chickens just loved the extra attention :)

In payment for providing warmth for their little hands my youngest two collected pine cones from the mugo pines in our front yard and blades of grass to create a soupy treat for the chickens. You've got to love their imaginations! The chickens weren't to keen on their treat but did pluck out the odd blade of grass for a nibble :)

Before my husband left for work on thursday he had been a busy boy demolishing my old clothesline stand. It had been getting pretty rickety and rotten and he knew that I really wanted a new one so he finally tore it down. I can't wait for my replacement stand. The warmer days are just around the corner and I can't wait to get the laundry out to air dry again. For now though the scrap lumber has been stuffed in the back of our horse trailer so we can haul it down the the bottom of our property for a big bonfire when he returns :)

I've been making a lot of homemade yogurt to. It is sooo good! I just have to remember to make sure I put it on in the evening so it's ready for our granola in the morning :)

How was your weekend?

Hugs,
Rosina

Happy Snow Day

The weather man had been hinting that we might be due for a flurry of the white stuff towards the end of this week but I hadn't really given it much heed since his forecast has been a little wonky lately but when I awoke this morning this was what I saw out the kitchen window.

I must be being punished for having started turning over the soil in the garden for spring planting to early *grin*. I knew full well that there was still the possibility of frost and snow when I got in there to weed and make the beds but still seeing it covered in 4 inches of fresh snow sort of sucks.

Hubby had to go down to the wharf in the afternoon to check on his tug so we tagged along and enjoyed the scenery. You can't beat the clean, bright look of fresh snow. It just makes everything look so pretty :)

Halfway to our destination we spotted flashing lights from a local police truck and the fire and rescue truck lodged in the ditch. It seems that he had a little incident and slipped off of the road. No one was injured except for maybe their pride.

The kids had a blast outdoors building fortresses with giant snowballs for the walls and building snowmen all over the front lawn. The snow was heavy and wet, just the perfect consistency for those lovely 'slush angels' of the wet west coast *grin*. Mega fun was had and now I have 3 sets of sopping wet snow dripping and drying in front of the woodstove :)

How's your weekend shaping up?

Hugs,
Rosina

Weekending

Somehow we were spared the deluge of rain that was supposed to hit our end of the island and instead we had nearly two full days of sunshine!! So out we went to enjoy seeing our shadows and exploring what was left in the garden :)

As the kids ran through the secret pathway and tromped through the knee high grass that has taken over a neglected flower bed they found some fairy lanterns. Well poppy seed heads actually but the winter had left nothing but their skeletal innards and my daughter thought they would be perfect little lanterns for fairies to use to light their way through the long winter nights *grin*.

Their next exciting find was the 'Ice Whales' swimming in one of the frozen buckets of water :) The thick piece of ice covering one of the pools of water had formed some mysterious shapes that we could think were none other than the dorsal fins of miniature ice whales that were visiting our garden :)

As the kids continued to poke around and dance around the giant mullein stalks still standing in the garden I thought I would get busy and take on the mega job of digging up and turning the soil in the garden for spring planting.

I usually have it rototilled but as I was plucking some of the weeds I noticed how many wriggly fat worms there were just under the surface layer of soil mulching and fertilizing and I made up my mind that this year I would take it upon myself to save those precious little workers from being chopped up in the tiller tines and turn it all by hand.

I only got a quarter of the way finished today and my shoulders and back are aching a bit from the strenuous activity after a lazy winter but if I can get it all finished I'll actually have it ready for planting even earlier than usual since I usually have to wait longer for the soil to dry for tilling so it doesn't cake up to much as it is turned.

I think I'm going to see if I can get my strapping young teenager to help me out though when I return on the next sunny day *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

Hello King Winter

Winter has finally come to our little neck of the woods bringing with it breathtaking beauty.

It started snowing yesterday evening, with the snowflakes falling quite heavily and this morning we awoke to a little over 4 inches of snow on the ground :)

I could hear the squeals of delight from the family room as I lay all cozy in bed and I knew that I was going to have to officially designate today a snow day because there was no way that I was going to get the children to focus on school work with all that snow beckoning them to come out and play.



With their snowsuits on and their gloves cinched up tight they were all gone by 8:30. Not long after there was a knock on the family room window letting me know that they had made paths around the house to the chicken house, the woodshed and around the front yard :) The snow is so light and fluffy that they even shovelled half of the driveway and that is no small feat!

There were no snowmen built today because the snow refused to stick together but there was a whole lot of snow angels, sledding, snow eating and the occasional face plant *grin*. All I can say is BRRRR!!! The temperature was around -6 today and with the wind chill it was more like -15 making our little jaunt to the mail boxes down by the main road a little nippy so we really had to do some speed walking to get the old blood pumping and create some internal heat :)

More snow is forecasted for tomorrow so I can just imagine what filled their prayers tonight at bedtime *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

Weekending

It has been a simply beautiful weekend full of bursts of sunshine, squeals of laughter, splashing in the kiddie pool, weeding, planting, crazy flash rain squalls and time playing together :)

There was stick tossing in the raging river...

glimpses of the pair of canada geese that have a nest in our pond...

the calls from our cow as he begged for more clover and handfuls of grass...

major growth spurts in the vegetable garden...

baking sweet strawberry galettes, grinding wheat for pastry and rye breads, cookie mixing, a whole lot of finger licking and lip smacking...

and of course enjoying the fruit of all our work :)

Now you know where we've been hiding *grin*. Our days are just bursting with activity. Some of it chores but there seems to be an awful lot of play LOL.

I was listening to a podcast today about the different stages of a child's development and how important play and imagination are in those precious younger years and it was so reassuring to hear. Sometimes I feel that I am way to easy going and there isn't enough academics to counter balance the free time but I know they are learning everything they need to know and more and I just want them to enjoy every minute of childhood. There will be many days ahead to learn the hard stuff. For now I want them to spend as much time as they can exploring nature, creating things out of found materials, letting their creativity shine and learning gently through our daily routine :)

Ahh to be a child again would be such a treat :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Weekending

I thought I'd share a few snapshots from our weekend :)
It has been a beautiful couple of sunny days which was a lovely change from the rain and weird hail storms we've been having although as I type this I think we are heading back to stormy days by the look of the gray clouds that are sweeping across the blue sky!

The children have been enjoying the first dandelions of the season and making necklaces, bracelets and earrings with them. I can't think of a better way to use them up :)

Under a big oak tree in the backyard we have an old tractor that we use for parts and it is the perfect refuge during a flash rain storm or when it's to hot out :) It makes a pretty good play place to as the steering wheel gets a good workout and all of the knobs and levers are cranked back and forth *grin*.

Of course with three bums and only one rusty old tractor seat it just doesn't accommodate everyone so naturally someone has to ride shotgun on the giant tire *grin*.

Lately my oldest has been using it as a bit of a learning tool as he takes apart bits of the engine at a time to see how things work together. This weekend he freed up the gear box which has been sticking and he was rather pleased that it can now be shifted into first, second and third gears *grin*. It will never run again as it is missing to many parts and seized but how wonderful it is that he can tear it apart and rebuild to his hearts content :)

It wasn't hot enough to dry up all of the puddles but what is a puddle without someone splashing in it :)

Sending warm thoughts to all of you this Sunday afternoon.

Hugs,
Rosina

Weekending

Oh happy weekend :) We got to see some more of that ever elusive sunshine so I took my baby tomatoes outside for a little light therapy *grin*. They were outgrowing their little jiffy sevens anyways so it was time for an upgrade to larger pots. One of the cool things about tomatoes if you have never grown them before is that you can re-pot them and bury them right up to their necks in soil so that just their leaves and a wee bit of stem are sticking out of the top of the dirt. This actually helps them to grow a stronger root structure all up that buried stem. The only tricky part is when you have short and tall seedlings. Sometimes the taller ones don't get buried quite as deep as you would like :)

Hubby tackled the big job of trimming all of the hedges that surround our home. They are quite extensive as they run up and down our long driveway and fully enclose our backyard but this year he had it a bit easier :) In past years he would cut them using heavy clipping shears but he finally spoiled himself and bought an electric one which makes the job much easier and quicker!

L and I spent a good chunk of the morning out in the field raking up leftover hay from feeding the cow over the winter and putting it into the compost bin. I took a minute to turn some of the compost already in the bin before adding the hay and it is already turning into black gold. It won't be long now and we'll be able to use it :)

The boys kept themselves busy in the dirt pile creating roads with their tonka machinery and creating pirate hideouts for their playmobil men to play in. Of course a pirate play scene wouldn't be complete without an ocean to float their boat in so a mud puddle was created *grin*.

I had mentioned how we were dreaming of camping the other day and Hubby must really have camping on the brain because out came our travel trailer and it got a good scrubbing :) All of the windows got a new coat of silicone around them to prevent any leaking and it's all plugged in and raring to go!

And today we loaded up the kids into the truck and hit one of my all time favorite trails along the estuary. I'm completely exhausted tonight so I'll have to share more photos of our nature walk tomorrow :)

I hope you all had a great weekend to!

Hugs, Rosina

Snowball Fight

Hubby made it home last night just in time for the first big snowfall of the winter :) When the kids woke up they were so excited to see all of the snow that had fallen overnight. We got a little over a foot and it was just calling them to come out and play *grin*.

Hubby headed out to shovel a path from the woodshed to the house so that we could bring in some wood and ended up caught in a massive snowball fight! The three of them ganged up on him pretty good and at one point he tried to make a mad dash for the house but he didn't make it unscathed *grin*.

It was tough going for the little guy with the snow up to his knees but he didn't seem to mind. He is CRAZY about eating snow. So we've had the 'don't eat yellow snow' talk a couple of times this winter and I think it's pretty safe to let him munch away LOL.

The front yard was turned into a battle field as snow forts were erected on opposite ends and battle lines were drawn. It was great to see them all get to enjoy the snow. Usually we get a huge snowfall like this and it immediately turns to rain but so far it is staying cold enough and tomorrow should provide another day of fun in the snow :)

With any luck we may get a whole bunch more! It is snowing a bit again tonight and it is so pretty :)

Hugs,
Rosina