I’m roasting chestnuts just now. I was persuaded (fairly easily) to buy some at the store last week. Galen just sat happily with me, handing me each and everyone to pierce and place in the oven.

The smell makes me think of my childhood. We had a neighbor, she was the mother of some of my friends. She was originally from Switzerland and absolutely fascinating to me on the whole. She had an entirely different worldview then anyone I had been exposed to up until that point. We were very close and I think she had a lot of influence in many of the things that I grew up to value. Her love of art and crafts and literature, of classics of all sorts, so much of that remains with me still. I remember her looking carefully over my beloved crocheted afghan, made for me by an elderly aunt, that I brought to a sleepover. “This was hand-made. I can always tell.” she told me, looking at it lovingly. “Just beautiful”, she added, putting it down with a sigh.

She introduced me to a certain culinary delights, chestnuts among them (as well as saffron and real Swiss chocolate and a great many other things). One autumn she spotted a chestnut tree, growing on the other side of our neighborhood. She asked the landowner if we might gather the fallen ones. What a site we must have been! Four girls in a ditch on the side of a busy suburban road gathering chestnuts! I could not imagine what we were actually going to eat from those alien looking, prickly, bright green balls. After everything had been pried open and roasted and peeled, my first taste was rather startling. This was not at all what I had expected! Not like any nut that I knew…sweet and soft and somewhat fruity, but still somehow different. I’ve never had another chestnut that tasted as good as the ones that we ate on that day. Still I like to share them with my children. And for several weeks last year, they made a regular appearance over our fire, where the boys grew to love them as much as I.

Enough reminiscing now! I’ve just been asked to go for a hike to a certain spot that is simply teaming with winter berry. Some impatient little people are wanting to see if anything is ripe. And there are many other things to tend to, before we head out to family chorus this evening.

And so, I now return you to your regularly scheduled post:

A certain little sleepy-head here.

This Sunday, I was still feeling a bit under the weather and my original plans for the day just seemed like to much. I turned to my sewing machine, where I felt I could be productive while still taking it fairly easy.

This dragonfly jersey is another organic fabric from the box. Galen has been waiting for me to cut into this one for a while now! I used the leftovers from Iain’s Peter Pan long-johns for the trim.

The pattern is Kwik Sew 3234 again, modified to fit a smaller person.

This fabric is very soft and cozy. I almost didn’t buy it, but I’m glad that I decided to add on that one yard at the very end. I think the bitty boys is quite glad I did too. It’s funny, a couple of weeks after it arrived, I started seeing all of these designer organic outfits, made out of this exact same fabric, selling for obscene amounts of money at the health food store. Our version was *much* friendlier on the budget!

And for the wee one…

All made from the New Conceptions ‘Baby Essentials’ pattern, in size 3-6 months. This is another pattern that has seen a lot of use in my house over the years.

Ok, time to go check on those winter berries…