Category Archives: Our Little Home

Grrrrrr……

There are many charming things about 220 year old houses, the prevalence of mice is not among them (also low on the charm scale: bedrooms full of wasps…flying ants….lack of closets….architecture that I can only assume was intended to induce concussions…musty basements…risk of lead paint…but I digress).  Seriously, the mice are entrenched at this point.  This is their homeland, where generation after generation has been raised for time out of mind.  They’re not backing down.  They know every hiding place and every nook and cranny.  And believe me, in a house of this age, there are many nooks and crannies (quaint words for holes and dents).

All the same, my people and the mouse community have lived in relative peace and harmony.  I am so not the jumping up on a chair and shrieking type.  I live in the country, you know?  Mice happen.  Same with skunks, deer, the occasional bear… live and let live.  Stay out of my way and I’ll stay out of yours.  Granted, it you decide to camp out in my underwear drawer, I might set a catch and release trap or two.  But seeing as I’m usually too lazy to take the trap the recommended 2.5 miles away, generally settling instead for a feeble walk to the edge of the back yard, you can pretty much come back at your leisure, after a refreshing vacation out in the dewy grass and crisp country air.  All expenses paid, and you get a snack of peanut butter to boot.

Being somewhat nocturnal myself, the mice and I get a lot of quality time together after everyone else is in bed.  I greet them cordially when they are out and about and occasionally wonder at the domestic disturbances of the backroom cupboard when the squeaking gets out of hand.  Tasha Tudor used to keep a pair of dormice to sketch.  I haven’t yet taken to rodent portraiture myself, but it’s nice to know they are there, should I ever feel the inclination.

The mice are none to happy with us at the moment.  All of this shuffling things about is disrupting their regular rhythm, selfish people that we are.  And after yesterday’s excursion into the eaves, I can’t say I’m too pleased with them either.

I present to you both exhibits A and B…

holes

Also known as my two favorite scarves.  Or rather, what remains of my two favorite scarves.  The one on the left was one of my first ever knitting projects.  It was a Valentine’s Day gift for Steve, which I believe he wore all of once (was it even that many times?  I’m pretty sure he at least tried it on).  After several years of laying untouched in a closet, I claimed it for myself.  He’s tall, so I had made it long, long, long, like wrap it around myself 4 or 5 times long.  When I’m wearing one of the little ones on my back, I’ll wrap it around them, crisscross it in-between us, wrap it around me and then back again.  The ultimate in squishy warmth.

The one on the right was made by Mardi, namesake of the Mardi dress pattern.  I wore it all the time, whenever it wasn’t 4-5 layers of super thick scarf, cold.  It was my chilly-but-not-sub-zero-weather-look-at-me-I’m-wearing-my-pretty-lacy-scarf-that-makes-me-think-of-my-dear-friend-from-far-away scarf.  Harrumph.

We are talking about my wool here people.  So.  not.  cool.  I consider this a total breech of trust between myself and the mouse community.

By
Life, Our Little Home, Yarn Crafts
8 Replies

Is it really Friday already?!?

I woke up this morning and got to work doing various morning things and was genuinely shocked when I discovered it was Friday.  I was certain it was Thursday, at the very latest.  Where has this week gone??

The last two mornings had me seeking out a sweater and wondering where everyone’s slippers had gotten to.  A little tang of autumn seems to be creeping in at the early morning and evening hours.

these finches

Galen spotted these sweethearts over breakfast (both ours and theirs).  Seeing bird couples always makes me smile.  Love birds.  It seems like such a sweet thing.  I feel as though I’ve been rewarded for letting that thistle grow.  I’m partial to thistle.  I know, how strange is that?  And I left this small patch in an area where no little feet tread, though I diligently dug it up in other, more trafficked areas.

The big news from here is that we are moving again, for the second time in 9 months.  It’s another rental home, another temporary place, but on the whole a situation that I think will be a lot better for us.  And that has been a big part of what has been keeping me busy lately.  We were lucky this time that it didn’t take us all that long to find what we needed.  I do wish that we could be settled somewhere for good, but if the worst of it is that we have to spend a year or two in a perfectly gorgeous house in a beautiful area, well then I can’t complain really!  I’ve mentally likened it to an extended stay at a bed and breakfast, only I’ll have to change the sheets and make the breakfast.  Not too shabby, seeing as I do that already and all.  And I’ll have a whirlpool tub in which to drown my sorrows.  There is a chance that all of my photos from then on out might be taken from that vantage point.  You may get tired of it, but I doubt I will.

Moving day is about three weeks out at this point, and there is much to be done.  I think it will be a happy moving day this time around, hectic and stressful in it’s own way, but not the heartrending experience of last time.  The little rootlets that have crept tentatively out over the last 8 months, aren’t really deep enough to cause much pain when they are yanked back up.  There will still be a good bit of upheaval for the little ones, there always is with a move, and I’ll be very happy to settle in and have life get back to normal.  In the meantime there is a whole house to pack, a new house to clean and paint, plants to dig up and plant again, a new school district to contact about homeschooling approval for next year and many other things both little and big.  Wish us luck!

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Gardens, Life, Our Little Home, photography
6 Replies

the colors of our weekend

vase and dreamcatcher

big rock

stump

really green

roots

lilypads

The beauty of the natural world, at home, in the woods, at the bog.  A selection of images mostly just straight out of the camera, no time for editing these days!  Luckily the world is a place of awe just as it is.  More later (or tomorrow), as I’ve already run out of time.  There is a lot going on here these days and I will catch you up in time, but for today I’m keeping my posting brief and then I must be off!

By
Life, Our Little Home
1 Reply

a rock….with lace

Inspired by Margaret Oomen of Resurrection Fern, I practiced a bit of crocheting on this stone I found in the car after our trip to the ocean.  It belong to Galen, but he gifted it to me.

stone 1

It’s my first try and so seriously, not the best work.  But it was actually quite fun.  And probably would have turned out better without the cranky, clingy toddler climbing in and out of my lap the whole time.  We were chased outside on account of all the sneezing from the proceedings of the chimney sweep.  You’d think that after four children I would know better then to schedule the arrival of a service person to coincide with the baby’s usual nap time, but apparently I’m just a glutton for punishment on this point.  The children up in the tree (they pretty much live there now) calling me to watch them perform some mildly dangerous feat, time and again, were somewhat distracting as well.

stone 2

Also, it would have been better to use new purl cotton, rather then trying to use up little strands from a bag I bought at a rummage sale, which meant attaching a new bit of cotton on four different occasions (though I do like the effect of the green ring on the bottom and I probably wouldn’t have experimented with that had I not run out of shades of white).

stone 3

I started off using the new tutorial, over at the purl bee.  But my crochet hook was too big and my rock wasn’t the right size and after a bit I just kind of went my own way with it.

stone 5

For now it’s hanging out on my mantle with a collection of nests and shells.

By
Kids, Our Little Home, Yarn Crafts
4 Replies

A nice place to sit…

this one

This spring, my outdoor rhythm has been somehow, off…  Usually well before now we have a nice pattern going of things we do outdoors and things we do indoors and times of day for each….with the vast majority of the time falling in the ‘outdoor’ category.  But this year something didn’t seem right, we didn’t just fall into our regular groove.  Then one day it occurred to me that it wasn’t comfortable.  There were things to do and stuff to keep us busy, plenty to look at and explore… and sun on sun on sun.  So much sun!  Eight years in the woods and I’m not used to it.  Don’t get me wrong, I like it and the plants love it.  But every time we were out doing our things I would start to feel a bit parched.  And baked.  And oppressed.  And after a time it would drive me back inside.  And make me hesitant to go back out again.  But I never really thought about why.

When I finally thought about it, I realized that the solution was so very simple…make a place to sit in the shade.  DUH.  I found two chairs that a former tenant had left behind, drug them under a big old tree and it was as easy as that.

rose

I potted up some shade tolerant flowers to make it more pleasant.  Just like that our outdoor life started to work again.  My favorite part is when we all take our handwork out to this very spot in the afternoon.

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Gardens, Housewifery, Life, Our Little Home
3 Replies

some more yellow

A couple of the pictures that I was considering for the “Yellow” challenge…
more

This one would have been better if the window had been clean!

iain-yellow

Since this would otherwise be a rather short post and because I was laying in bed thinking about it this morning; a random little list of things I love….

~afternoon naps in a patch of sunshine

~being nuzzled by a purring cat

~sand sifting through my toes

~toddlers with curls

~staying up all night to finish a really good book

~the smell of fresh lavender and sweet basil side by side

~the sound of the wind rushing through giant pines

~slipping the band off of a fresh skein of yarn

~tiny babies, fits raised, bottoms thrust back with huge body arching yawns

~laundry on a line, whipping in the wind

~when Steve comes home and doesn’t bother to change, but takes off his dress shirt and goes around looking so handsome, washing dishes and things in his tee-shirt and work pants

~white birch trees by moonlight

~floating on my back and watching the sky slip by

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

By
Herbs, Kids, Life, Our Little Home, photography
4 Replies

A little bit of everyday

this one~on our way to a baseball game earlier~

Our dishwasher is broken.  I’m spending a lot of time in the kitchen washing dishes.  I’m trying to be mindful and appreciate the view from this vantage point.

bowls~the tower of wooden bowls that Iain made as he oiled each one~

paint~soaking the paint jars~

chives~chive flowers infusing vinegar on my window sill~

I’ve been listening to this a lot lately.  But right now I’m listening to the thunder.  I’m grateful for the rain, even though I am just now remembering the diapers that never came in off the line.  It’s going to be a powerful storm.  It’s really the first one of the season.  I love a good thunderstorm.  It make me feel the way I do while listening to Moonlight Sonata. But I’m checking in often with the little one who is still frightened by them and hoping that he’ll sleep right through it all. No one has been getting much sleep here lately.

********************************************************************

The sleeping through didn’t work out.  He’s now laying next to me here, wearing a sleep mask and listening to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (‘Spring‘ currently).  It seems to help.

It’s funny how we have the exact opposite reactions to an approaching storm.  I have to remind myself that it’s not safe to go stand out in the middle of it as I would like.

********************************************************************

Back in the morning, and after the storm to finish this post…

The kitchen that I was speaking of so fondly above, isn’t such a happy place today.  I’m getting a lot of flak lately about our food limitations.  All of this was so much easier when our kids where younger, but now we’ve entered the age of awareness and comparisons and it’s hard.  Oh, so hard.  Hard to be hated and despised for trying to keep them well.  Hard to devote so much time and energy and be met with so much frustration in return.  Any one out there been through this and have some words of wisdom?  Or at least encouragement??

knitting

On an entirely different note, I think I have something like 5 finished knitting projects to share, just as soon as I get some pictures.

I’m not getting a lot of traction on my current knit though.  Ever have a project like that?  It just feels like I’m getting no where.  I think it’s because it’s really long rows of lace and I’ve been loosing my place at every little interruption and I’m not far enough along to have the lace pattern memorized.  Perhaps today is the day that this pattern really starts to ‘click’ for me.

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Housewifery, Kids, Life, Mothering, Our Little Home, photography
9 Replies

Happy Mother’s Day!

We’ve been having flurries off and on here today.  We’re waiting for it to warm up a bit before making our regular trip to the garden center.

kids clothes week

I’ve appropriated the table that we usually use for home schooling for the kid’s clothing week challenge.  An hour of sewing a day for a week.  I’m excited to finally be working on some projects that I’ve had on the back burner for a bit.

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celebrations and festivals, Housewifery, Life, Our Little Home, sewing
3 Replies