Category Archives: Gardens

G is for Galen, Gardens, Glorious, Green, and Grapple


Galen Micheal Millar-Mr. Loveiness himself, of course! A.K.A. Goozle, Twozle, Twosy-woozy belly boy, Gaily, Gaily Goozles, Peanut, Roo, bitty-boy, Munchkin Man, Wee one, and, oh, about a million other things… Steve often asks why we bothered to give the child a name. And let’s face it, it’s not like he has a lack of names to choose from!


Galen- Is both Greek and Celtic. It means healer and calm or tranquil. I took us several days to actually name our sweet littlest one. I’m so glad that we ended up giving him the name that we did. He came to us at a time when I was still quite ill and he brought with him so much love, joy and hope. I’ve always had this distinct feeling that this child has somehow saved my life, though I can’t even begin to explain why.

Micheal- Is of Hebrew origin and means ‘he who resembles God’. It also happens to be the middle name of my beloved.

Millar- Is Scottish and it was my Grandmother’s maiden name.


This boy is quite the little character! He is speaking a lot now and running and dancing and jumping everywhere. He still loves to sing and greatly enjoys entertaining all of us. He is completely convinced that he is a “big boy” and wants to be a part of absolutely everything around him. He has also developed quite the sense of humor!

Last week I stepped out of the room where Elijah and him were playing. When I came back Galen was sitting in a big pile of blankets and Elijah was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Brother?” I asked.
He shrugged his shoulders, with his hands in the air, and shook his head saying “Don’t know…”
“You don’t know where brother went??”
“N-o-o-oooo….” head still shaking….
At which point Elijah pops out from underneath him and exclaims
“he was sitting on my head!”
And they both fall over on the bed laughing hysterically.

Not only did he totally get the joke, but he played his part very well. Oh, I think I may be in trouble!

But my favorite Galen story from recent days, was when he woke in the night crying. I was quite worn and tired myself. When I denied his request to nurse, he stopped crying, scooted himself up so that he was laying just about nose to nose with me, looked me in the eye, gently stroked my cheek and said “Mama, puweeeaaaaasssse?”. Makes my heart melt, that little one does. Oh yeah, I’m in trouble…


Glorious- On our way home from the fabric store yesterday we were witnesses to the most intensely colored pair of twin rainbows that I have ever seen. One was exceptionally vivid. The other was fainter. There were points at which we could see the entire arch above us. So magical!


By the time I got home for my camera (why, oh why, do I ever leave home without it?!?), the second rainbow was gone and the first had faded considerably. I was happy to have a least gotten a few shots to add to our nature book.


Grapple- A celebratory drink, customarily served around the holidays, consisting of a mix of sparkling cider and sparkling grape juice.

Gardens-I stopped posting my ‘Around the Garden‘s a while back because the drought took quite a toll, leaving everything rather whithered and sad. Thankfully, rains have come again (just in time for the cold!). Currently mums (a gift from my dear love) and brightly colored leaves (a gift from Mother Nature) are providing us with a little end-of-season cheer.



Green- A word with so many meanings and so much of it applies to me. From my desire to live in a natural, sustainable, gentle way, to the plants I love to grow and eat, to the very color itself.


By the way, I finally got around to picking a color for the house trim! It’s to be a mellow gray-green that pleases me and seems to feel at home surrounded by trees.

And, just because I felt bad that the Elijah pictures were so poor, here is a recent one that makes me smile…

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About Us, Food, Gardens, Kids, Life, sewing
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Of Pumpkins and Dragons

Last week we stepped away from our current Main Lesson material to honor the Autumn’s arrival, as well as Michaelmas. While we did not cover everything that I had hoped, the week still went smoothly and felt full and well rounded.

Here is a little over-view of some of the highlights from our week.

  • Iain started his first ‘Saints and Heroes’ study with St. Michael. I have mixed feelings about the stories surrounding this saint. The theory of St.Michael’s over-throwing of the dragon as a metaphor for Christianity’s ‘triumph’ over paganism, is admittedly, a sore spot for me. So much so, that I considered forgoing any mention of this saint at all. However, there are other virtues there that I was interested in working with. Also, dragon fighting?? I mean come on, talk about your guaranteed hit for the 5-7 year old boy! (of which I happen to have two…) My very comfortable compromise was to work with the story in “The Seven Year Wonder Book”. The focus of this lovely tale (complete with fairies and other mystical themes) is more a personal theme of over-coming our own private demons (dragons) with the an ever present chance for redemption.

  • The ‘Rhyme Elves’ made an appearance and added this verse:
“Michael, great knight,
Strong and pure and shining bright.
I’ll be a knight of Michael, too,
And polish my crown to a golden hue.
Ask the gnomes the iron to mine,
Iron from the stars, from the earth, so fine,
To bring to the blacksmith, who with his might
Will make me a sword, so strong, so bright.”

to Iain’s Wonder Book in glittery, golden script, with a picture of a shining gold sword.

  • We all drew pictures of Michael and the dragon. The boys added them to their Main Lesson Books.
  • Iain wrote out the poem from that chapter of “The Seven Year Wonder Book” to accompany his drawing.

  • We spent a good deal of time, over the course of several days, mastering the most difficult form drawing we have attempted to date. It was a circle, with a design in the middle that spiraled outward in four directions. It took a lot of effort and practice for Iain to be able to keep the four points balanced. It felt like a very appropriate form to work with around the time of the Equinox. We had a lot of fun with it! I required quite a bit of practice as well!
  • We did some harvest-y baking.

  • Elijah added a number of leaf rubbings to our nature journal and Iain labeled them with the name of the tree or plant that they came from.
  • I finished my needle felted dragon (no pictures yet though).
  • We did make an attempt at flying a kite, though it wasn’t a planned thing, just kind of worked out that way, which was rather nice (kite flying is a common way of celebrating Michaelmas). Unfortunately, the wind decided to die down, just as we were getting ready to launch it!
  • We started transplanting some perennials in preparation for putting the gardens to bed for the winter.
The Chosen Ones…
  • We began work on a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle of and autumnal scene. It’s rather advanced for Elijah, but Iain really appreciates the challenge.
  • We read several nature stories about animals preparing for cold weather.
  • We spent nearly an entire day making and decorating a huge paper dragon. It turned out so large, that I had a very difficult time photographing it! I’m hoping that it is going to stay nice enough that we will be able to hang it over the play area, once the addition is finished.
  • Iain lost his third tooth and got a rose quartz and a shell. Elijah lost a button and got a piece of amethyst. We talked a bit about some of the qualities that are sometimes associated with each of those stones.
  • We finally began carding and hand-spinning the fleece that we spent so much time washing around this time last year. Iain is hopping to have enough homespun to make Galen’s Christmas present. I’m not entirely certain that’s a realistic goal, but it’s worth a try!

Note: Since coming across my sister’s old dog costume, Elijah is now a puppy. At all times.
  • We all helped to bring in the pumpkin harvest at our CSA. Two pumpkins, perfect for jack ‘o lanterns found their way home with us, along with one that was “just the right size” for Galen.
Puppy says “THIS ONE!”.
  • Between the CSA and shopping, we came home with a large selection of all different varieties of locally grown squashes to prepare in this coming week.
  • Iain and Elijah each picked out some Indian corn to decorate the house with.
  • We rearranged our living area so that it is now possible to sit around the table without someone getting scorched by the wood stove. Not very exciting, but very, very important, I assure you!

The smug look on his face? I had just suggested that perhaps tossing the pumpkins was not the best way of keeping them intact. Advice that he obviously took to heart…

I started to teach myself the song “Michaelmas” on the recorder, but did not get to the point where I felt comfortable enough to teach Iain. We also did not get around to the recorder case project I had planned. I hadn’t planned on working with the fleece last week, but the children wanted to bring it out. Working with it ended up replacing some of my previously planned projects.

And that pretty much sums up our week!

Apparently, puppies are fond of popsicles.
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Books, celebrations and festivals, crafts, Food, Gardens, Homeschooling, Kids, Yarn Crafts
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Frost Advisory

I’ve just come in from gathering up all of my potted plants by flashlight and plopping buckets over the tenderest of my green beloveds. I kindled our third fire of the day as I was beginning this post.

Sundays are the only mornings that Steve is home. I take this rare gift as an opportunity to stay snuggled up in bed with our baby, for as long as humanly possible, knowing that my early-bird son (Iain) soon followed by his drowsy, but afraid-to-miss-a-moment brother (Elijah Rain) are safe in the care of my ultra early-bird husband. They relish this time together and I, a life-long night owl floundering at reformation, am more then happy to not have to bounce out of bed first thing.

In the last month or so, they’ve taken to building a fire, in our stone-ringed fire-pit, which is a pleasant sort of thing for me to wake up to.

This morning I was restless, and creep away from my still snoozing babe to sneak in a bit of time knitting by the fire. Even with the blaze my hands were too stiff to work the stitches well. When we came in for breakfast we decided that a fire was needed inside as well, as I had no desire to change our little one in such a chill. And so we had our first fire of the season. The house soon became very pleasant and cheery and I was sorely tempted to devote the rest of the day to knitting by the fire. I did finally rouse myself, granted it wasn’t until after I had finished the glove I was working on. One of our favorite local harvest festivals was today, and as much as it pained me to leave home, I knew that we would enjoy ourselves once we were there. Steve stayed behind to help B the Builder start sheathing the roof.

The children and I did have a lovely time. There was a fabulous story-teller performing. I’m awfully fond of a good story! We had a lot of fun playing with a huge collection of home-made hula-hoops. Galen was hilarious in his attempts to mimic us. Eventually he took to picking the hoop up from the inside and walking around in circle with it! We had maple cotton candy. They use pure maple sugar in the machine instead of that pink chemical crap. I’m sure that it’s still dreadfully awful for us (so much sugar!), but it’s such a treat! We came home with two varieties of gourmet garlic to plant this fall and a special variety of Italian beans to plant in the spring. I can’t wait to get it all in the ground!

Now if you will excuse me, I have a dragon’s wing to mend and my lesson plans to work out for tomorrow, before I collapse into bed. 5:45 a.m. is going to be here awfully soon!

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celebrations and festivals, Gardens, Herbs, Life
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Around the Garden: June into July



This is the time of year where the flower gardens tend to slip into a bit of a lull. The spring bulbs are long gone, the pansies are looking a bit weather worn and the full splash of the true summer garden has yet to hit. Honestly, I don’t know that our garden ever gets quite that flashy. I tend to think that it has more of a subtle beauty, more dignified and graceful.

We now have four beds like these and another smaller one. Two are down with the fruit trees in the lower yard (we often picnic down there) and two and a half are off behind the new house. They are full of all kinds of delicacies and I am really quite pleased with them.

The fruit trees have done well this year. Thankfully, our proficiency at pruning seems to have been adequate. None of them have shown signs of any kind of irreparable harm!

The peach tree seems to be particularly productive. It was so tiny when we planted it last year! It is Galen’s placenta tree and I can remember writing in his baby book about how it was so dainty and sweet and pink all-over (in bloom) just like him. Not but a year later and it’s nearly 7 feet tall!

The plums are quite covered in fruit. We had enough cherries for everyone to have a few. Next year the cherries will be more productive. The blackberries are starting to form on the canes and we’ve started to come across a few ripe raspberries here and there.

We added four new trees this year, two mulberry and two hazel nuts. There was a very kind man in town who had a great many extra trees and donated them to any one in town who was interested.

I’ve never tasted fresh mulberries before. I’ve only ever had dried. It will be exciting when they are large enough to fruit! I’m hoping that the hazelnuts will form a hedge with the yew (also a gifted plant) I have in the lower yard to define the area and give us some added privacy from the street.

Despite all the debris created by construction and the projects of very active little boys, the garden is a peaceful, pleasant space to just be. The air is sweet and fresh, full of birdsong and sound of swaying trees. There are rainbow hued dragonflies and butterflies darting about. The whole place is full of life. We’ve been blessed by a pair of great blue herons nesting near our land this year and it’s always a delight to watch them fly over. It is a daily reminder of why I so love being here.

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Food, Gardens, Herbs
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In the wings

Pictured below is the yarn that Elijah picked out for his next sweater. He liked how well it went with the lilacs he picked for me right before the yarn arrived.


The yarn is peaches ‘n cream in “Winterberry”. It seems I’m all about the cheap yarns these days. I won’t be starting this project for a bit yet. I only ordered the yarn because I needed more yarn to finish the sweater that I’m currently working on for Galen. I’m about 3/4 of the way through now. The other knitting project that I’m concentrating on right now, the one yet to be named, that I’m still not quite ready to reveal yet, is around two-thirds of the way completed.

I finish the diaper bag that I mentioned in a previous post a little while ago. Well, technically I still need to sew on a button and stitch up the small opening in the lining. But I’ve used it “as is” for several outings now and it works ever so well. I should have another little outfit for Elijah to post shortly as well. Buttons and button-holes…why, oh why, do I find them so distasteful? Elijah is needing some clothes so I will have to suck it up!

There has been ever so much going on here. We are spending lots of time in the garden, coming in every night covered in bug bites from head to toe. The lilacs, irises and lily-of-the-valley are all in bloom and the air is full of sweet scents. I’ve brushed off my best (terribly pathetic!) Yorkshire accent for our annual reading of “The Secret Garden”. And I’ve been serving many a meal on a blanket set under a plum tree.

I’m so full of plans lately that I hardly know where to start. I have so many projects tumbling around the corners of my mind, bubbling to the surface every now and again, giving me a poke and saying “come on, get on it already!”. They are all beckoning and calling to me at once, old ideas and new ones alike. Nothing to do but see what life brings and what, if anything, materializes.

I’m going to see what I can do about getting some pictures of recently finished projects later this afternoon. We are expecting showers for the rest of the week, so don’t be surprised if I disappear for a bit!

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Books, Gardens, Life, sewing, Yarn Crafts
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All about Steve….

As the title of this post implies, this one is all about Steve. Not some much in the “he was born in the suburbs to a working class family…”, kind of way, but in a highlighting some of his projects, kind of way. We’ll just refer to this one as my butch post. Those of you who are here to compare sewing notions are just going to have to bear with me, because today I am talking about saw bucks. Now, how’s that for a change of pace?

Here we have, as promised, a saw buck…designed and built by my sweetie, with the assistance of our two eldest sons.

Materials used included 2×4′s, that have been leaning against my bathroom wall for about 4 months now, and screws. I especially like how he positioned it in front of some tulips in an attempt to entice me to photograph it… Smart guy.

And while we are showcasing Steve’s work, how about a little behind the scenes look at the building of a garden bed…

Remember when I mentioned us having a lot of rock? Seriously, I was not exaggerating… And this isn’t even while building a stone garden, this is just trying to get a rock out of the way!

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building, Gardens, Life
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TULIPS

I’ve been waiting ever so patiently for the first of our tulips to bloom. (Alright fine, I haven’t been patient at all about it, but you know what? It was a long winter, so give me a break…)




Ah, lovely… *sigh*
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Gardens
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Corners of my home: Stone

I’ve loved the “corners of my home” idea since I first encountered it. One of the things about living in a home, that you are also in the process of building, is that those kinds of sweet little domestic scenes, don’t tend to exist yet. You’re just not to that point. Mostly it’s about chaos and making due with whatever you can use “for the time being”.

Things are slowly, slowly (did I mention slowly??) starting to come together here and become more finished and home-like. So as part motivation and part inspiration, I’ve decided to join the corners of my home flickr group. I suspect that many of my corners will be of the outdoor sort for a bit, as that’s where my heart and mind are these days. There doesn’t seem to be any kind of rule against that and the fact of the matter is that we feel as much at home out of doors here as we do in.

This week I’m featuring some of the stone work we’ve done around the yard. To be clear, when I say we, I mean that I point to a big rock and stay “move that there”. Then after Steve has transported and settled the several hundred pound boulder, I say something along the lines of “hmm…do you think you could nudge it to the left just a smidge??”.

Actually, I usually don’t say “to the left”, I say “that way” and point. A fact that tends to drive my poor beleaguered husband crazy, as he’s generally looking at the rock he’s working with, not at me. I am occasionally called upon to assist in prying up a particularly large specimen or to help hoist a full wheelbarrow, but mostly? It’s all about Steve.

(Hey sweetie? Have I mentioned lately how swell I think you are??? Or how much I love, love, love the new garden beds???)


We live on a mountain. Here there is rock, upon rock, upon rock. There are moss covered rocks, dirt covered rocks, bug covered rocks, and tree covered rocks. You can not stick a spade into the earth without coming in contact with some sort of stone.

Terraced perennial beds in progress…

We began shaping these a couple of weeks ago as a way of managing the steep slope up towards another proposed garden site.

Elijah was inspired by the work going on. Imitation is indeed a powerful force. He woke up one morning doggedly determined to build his own garden bed. He would stand to have no one help.


So his bed was built and filled by his own two hands, including that final bucket of compost, lugged all the way up from the lower yard to make the earth rich. Elijah’s garden is the small one, pictured above, just beyond the large beds.


Elijah refused Iain’s help with his bed. So Iain set out to make his own.

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building, Gardens
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