gratitude

I awoke friday morning by noises, sure it was a bear, never saw it but knew it was here......I am overwhelmed with a sense of happiness, lucky to live in an area so rife with natural wonder and beauty as well as man made history and innovations. I am so blessed by our family situation to see my son experience new milestones up close and personal....to be home most of the time with him and living our little simple life, laundry, dishes, home cooked food, mending and stretching what we have, trying not to be influenced by the trends of the day......it is the little things I notice most, the askew bird feeder, that has been empty for weeks, but put back on the stand since we had company, to make it look nice. This friday morning the bear had looked at that bird feeder for sustenance, but I KNEW it looked askew............later in the day a neighbor confirmed it, they had seen the bear in our yard...took photos even, but in the dark of the early morning no visible evidence........I am grateful that we spent the day together today, just the 3 of us, running errands to the hardware store, playing in the yard......watching a glorious sunset together and hearing our 3 year old tell us about things he has gleaned from his overhearing us talk or answering his questions, one small example was this morning when I was hanging the sheets on the line to dry, he was playing underfoot and picked up 4 sticks then told me he was building a see-saw car so it could be taken apart when he moved it and when i glanced at the piles of sticks.....he had two in each direction rolling along like axles supporting the top 2.....something in me just pounds harder when he exhibits this "natural" learning...not from our direct instruction but maybe just from our providing the environment for him to experiment.......

performer for a child

This is the boy at the center of his universe, he actually thought the 120 other kids at the south lake tahoe library on this friday were there to see him, when in reality all were there to see the Bubble Lady and celebrate summer reading with free ice cream on this hot afternoon!

He was spinning and not keeping his bottom on the ground like normal, he got in other kids faces and wanted to hug and kiss and perform for everyone, the loudest laugh in the room, the loudest clapping, the most enthusiastic volunteer that never was picked......he just exudes the "look at me gene" one would expect from professional performers and he did have those adults around us cracking up with his acting....but alas we had to leave early he would not stop distracting other kids!

waking up to make pickles?

Let me preface this with I am NOT pregnant

I woke up a little early, munchkin still sleeping, hubby not up yet for work and had the ferdent desire to make pickles......why? I did buy some pickling cucumbers at the farmer's market and had made some fridge pickles last week....but today I wanted to do bread and butter pickles, and while perusing recipes found one for Branston pickle, and lucky me having some apples headed south and dates in need of use, I used up the end of my cauliflower in the branston pickle

The house smells odd, the dishes need to be done, but somehow I find the bottled cucumbers etherial and pretty......the branston is yet to be bottled still cooking.....all have to sit for 1-4 weeks before they are perfectly edible but I will be impatient I am sure!

3 farmer's markets in one week!!!

I went to our local fabulous south lake tahoe, california tuesday installment (on hwy 50), then the following day went to the carson city, nevada pony express pavillion offering at mills park (on hwy 50) and then sunday had me pushing the family to placerville, california for the founders day celebration and wagon train arrival/parade and we made it and parked and were able to attend the placerville downtown weekly offering saturday morning (on main street that backs up to hwy 50)......what a great week for me! I got some great eggs at two of the markets and peaches at all 3, I have to say the corn from carson city was not great, and the onions from south lake were super HOT......The fabulous vegetables have been great in everything and we are eating a tomato or two a day, they are just the best, how they make the horrid grocery store tomatoes seem like a whole different item, like comparing a cup of coffee to water, the flavors and scents are that different!

trying to cook myself out of this bad mood

blame the moon or the weather, I am just in a bad mood for going on over a week, my poor family is hiding.... I can suddenly snap and start emitting dragon like fumes and just feel like I am going to explode over small trifles......of course does not help to have hormones that seem to pour kerosene on my fire.....so today I baked these items, made fab food from the farmer's markets into meals.....yes i mucked up a bit and burnt some oatmeal and toasting nuts enough to make the house stink! I hate throwing away food, but the burnt nuts were never going to enhance the bread.....so i made the bread without the nuts, plenty crunchy as is!!!!!!

Farmer's Market finds me giddy!

The Farmers Market was FABULOUS today

tomatoes, berry bush, red onions with tops, baquette, rainer cherries, spinach, honey tangerines, salsa, nettles, peaches and eggs all found their way home with me!

time stands still for no one

I am proud of this capture, the floating fairies of dandelion puff seem to linger and dance in the shadows of the trees in our backyard on a sunny sunday morning