savoring: june's here!

1. BELLA'S FIRST STEPS! On Saturday night when I got home from work, I bribed my little computer addict with my very clickety keyboard, and she took a step with her left foot, and then did it again a few minutes later! And then on Sunday we were at a playground before I headed to work, and she took two steps in a row. I'm so excited!



2. Babies that heal and forget. Ugh. If I had messed up my mouth as badly, I would have complained all week. She's already back to normal, just three days after sheering off some of her top gums with her bottom teeth. Yum.

3. Our first garden fresh salad. Made so much sweeter by Dave handing me little pieces of lettuce (ooh, here, let's split this one, it's soooo good!) and asking me why it took me so long to introduce him to homegrown food. (Why did it take me so long myself?)

4. A transplant that survived the desert portion of my garden! Of course, now I've gone back and planted even more... aka waaay too many since it's squash!

5. Jamie at Home. I heard this mentioned the other day online (where??) and immediately got it out at the library. Now I want to own it. It's about cooking the food you grow. So it includes gardening tips. AND he names his recipes things like "rhubarb and custard kinda soufflé", uses blob as a verb, describes the stages of the recipe vibrantly, and includes common sense advice everywhere he can. It's an awesome book.

6. A baby with words. Even if they only have meaning between the two of us.



7. A baby who's ready to eat fruit this summer! I'm so excited.



8. A clothesline on our porch. We'll get greener bit by bit.

9. Bella's sudden fascination with the ceiling, and the look on her face when she gets to touch it. I seriously think she just noticed it and realized it was something tangible. (We have a popcorn ceiling, so all the better!)

10. Our Farmer's Market opens today! As soon as Bella wakes up, we're heading out.

Read more...

love thursday again

oh this baby. she always wakes up crying in the mornings. deep, wrenching tears that make me wonder what she dreams about. she tries to get up, so many times. crying and blindly plopping one rubbery limb in front of the other, still asleep and searching for comfort.

and when she finds me, we cuddle together. belly to belly, the way it always has been. head on my chest, drifting back to sleep or waking ever so slowly. content to just listen to the rhythm of my heart. i'm afraid to move, afraid to break the spell. sometimes she sits up for a moment and a half-grin crosses her face before she realizes her body is still numb from sleep, and she slops back on to me, sinks back into me. she looks up from time to time, coyly, just to make sure i'm there. maybe to reassure me i'm not imagining this dream come true.

i love our mornings together, silent cuddles, tears and all.

Read more...

a rhodie story

This is my uncle's yard.




This is also the land of rhododendrons.



This is where I do all my gardening.



This is my garden.


These are my friends.

The air practically vibrates from the hum of these bees working away. I think we make a great team.

There is no where you can stand on my uncle's property and not see a rhododendron. They bloom for months because when one is done, another begins. Right now almost all of them are at some colorful point. The ones near the garden are particularly happy since they used to have to share land with trees, which had to be cut down last year. Now they rule the roost. It makes for a very pleasant garden and wonderful photography subjects.

Read more...

a photo hike

I have like a million post planned. But the sun came out. For all of you NOT from Seattle, you have to understand what this means. If you ask a Seattleite when summer starts, they will say, July fifth. It's ALWAYS the day after Independence Day. Memorial Day weekend (that's this weekend) is notoriously rainy. Last year all the local CSAs were sending out apologies because it was so cold and rainy the only crop growing was lettuce, and even that was tricky. So the fact that the sun is out and there is nary a cloud to be seen, well, I haven't gotten anything done. The house is a mess, laundry is everywhere, sewing lies unsewn, photos sit unedited, blogging remains unblogged.

BUT, I have treated it like a mini vacation, and have been outside quite a bit. So here I am to share with you the beauty that is the Pacific Northwest (heretofore PNW), the reason Seattleites brave the dreary fall and winter. Summer here is like no other, and spring like this is even better.

Ronnie and I decided to take advantage of this amazing weather and we headed to a hike that I haven't been on since Bella was a few months old. It's rather steep, but very beautiful since it snakes along a river and crosses over two water falls. (Hence its name, Twin Falls).

Ronnie was a wonderful hiking partner and never once rolled her eyes (that I could see!) when I asked her to stop (yet again) for the camera. And to change my lens. And to pose on a bench with Bella.

The forests here are not at all like the ones I grew up with in New England. The PNW forests smell sweeter, somehow (maybe all those wild berries), and have moss hanging from every branch. And it seems to me that there are way more water falls here! Anyhow, enjoy this little photo tour of the PNW in spring:

Read more...

savoring: a secret revealed

Sometime before Christmas, our knit group found out that one (one, hah!) of our members was expecting her first baby. Well, you know crafty people. Crafty people can't possibly let such a wonderful occasion pass by without some handmade gift giving!

So, Angi from Swell Yarn spun up a special MJ inspired collection of colors, and the rest of the group knit them into squares. We had the seaming party two weeks ago (we kept the cursing to a minimum), Rhonda and Erica graciously finished it and worked all my ends in ;o) and last week we had the pleasure of giving it to MJ! It was a blast, but a lot of hard work. So if you're expecting, don't plan to get such an elaborate gift from this group any time soon unless you promise to break down in tears of gratitude and knit socks for each of the participants in return.

The rest of the post is just photos, enjoy!

Amy, Rhonda, Erica and Beorn at the seaming party:













MJ unwrapping the blanket at Starbucks, where we meet (re: monopolize) every Wednesday (sorry these are red, I didn't fix the colors):



The beautiful Gwen multitasking with Bella. (She's a natural.)


The unveiling reactions (mostly responding to the fact that MJ didn't break down into tears of gratitude and promise each of us her firstborn child).


Special edition of our weekly game of Pass the FO:


Emiko, Erica, and Gwen (note Bella's snazzy perma-hawk).





Did I mention we completely take over Starbucks? Yes, that's a swift hard at work in the back ground.


And Angi herself admiring the different ways people worked her yarn:


MJ taking time to admire each square (but of course, she's covering mine up):





Happy blanketing, MJ!

Read more...