how to eat a strawberry

the approach

the bite

the full on eyes-closed-juice-dripping-down-your-chin savoring

weekending

friday night dinner out, just us girls, to the thai place in town
followed by close to an hour at the nearby playground (which we had all to ourselves) sliding and chasing and playing together like puppies
I needed that
we needed that, she and I
that hour dedicated solely to just goofing off together and playing
no chores calling my name, no laundry or what-have-you
she just kept laughing, saying "this is FUN!"
oh yes, my sweet one, it is

saturday morning breakfast scramble and coffee, fresh-squeezed grapefruit/orange juice
followed by a trip to the annual plant sale at the UNCA Botanical Gardens
we are changing things over, swapping non-native species for native, adding edibles wherever we can

we came away with quite a bit (pictured above), more than we planned:

-native witch hazel (this is what I was going for and there was one there, just one, waiting for me...)
-soloman's seal
-heuchera
-false indigo
-elderberry
-marginal wood fern
-southern lady fern
-sweet spire
-columbine
-beauty berry
-some zinnias & geraniums for instant gratification
-2 tiny black eyed susans and 1 tiny echinacea, picked up for $0.50 each at the rummage/plant sale at the Unitarian church down the road (I also scored a giant pine cone for free and a compost container with the little filters in it for $1.50)

we spent quite a bit of time moving plants around, digging some up, planting others and trying to come up with a general plan for things (plant things, anyway... I won't pretend to have a "general plan" for much else)

we opened up the hives, anxious to see what was happening and curious about the observation that the weaker hive now seemed to be a lot more active than the other....... we nervously peeked in and saw....

things are looking quite fantastic in there, really.  we think it's all good, maybe some of the bees just decided to go back to their original hive, who knows.  it doesn't look like a bunch of robber bees as far as we can tell. (which isn't particularly far but that's alright) we'll continue to keep a close eye on things

we saw both queens (we got them marked this year for quick and easy identification, best $3 I've spent in a long time..... it's so nice to just be able to see her quickly and not have to search)

they are drawing out comb like nobody's business, making bee babies and storing some honey
bringing in pollen on their heavy little bee legs and doing their little waggle dances for each other to tell everyone where the good stuff's at

we aren't using foundation this year, but are instead letting them draw their own comb from scratch
I was amazed to see how white it is
and so strikingly beautiful in it's pureness and not-so-simple-really simplicity
I have plans for a detailed bee post soon with way more pictures than anyone other than me probably cares to see, but I want Mike to write the actual nitty gritty of it since he's the one who is all on top of our new approach to things this year
coming soon, I hope

we picked a bowl full of strawberries and gobbled them up still warm from the sun


coffee and french toast Sunday morning and then

we spent ALL DAY outside busting our rears in the garden and yard (Mike's rear, especially)
by noon he'd mowed the lawn, worked on framing the stairs for the deck, taken down a large ugly shrub from our front yard and a small cherry tree for a neighbor (who is planting hazelnuts and pecans in it's place, mmmmmmm), and was on his way up three large white oaks to prune out dead wood

after a brief rest he was back at it, working on the deck and turning more of our lawn into garden so that we can squeeze in more tomatoes...
I transplanted seedlings, mulched, moved plants, pulled out plants, sifted compost and hung with Claire
we ate another large handful of strawberries
then ate dinner outside
watching the chickadees, wrens and robins on their nests nearby
oh, and a phoebe too, but we don't see her much


I may have started a bad habit tonight... blogging a bit while sitting on the toilet (like a chair, you know, not actually using it...... don't know if I'd admit to that or not) as she bathed.

well then

I'm tired
he must be exhausted

good night~




*linking up with amanda at habit of being

keeping it real

pebbles in my shoes:

-just when I thought her sleep was finally getting much better...this week has proven me wrong
-it's been taking me hours to fall asleep as it is, unable to turn off the endless chatter in my mind
-feeling guilty about the fact that her new mattress is not organic and thus is not free of chemicals (and so it's been taking up a huge part of our screened porch for four weeks as I air it out as best I can)
-the setback with the bees has me nervously watching the hives and wondering how it will all pan out
-the recent freeze killed our fig trees (all the new growth for the year, anyway)
-struggling at times to keep it in perspective as our to-do list doesn't seem to get shorter but resources and energy to spend on it begin to fade


easy like Sunday morning:

-this week, as I worked on clearing my stuff out of the closet in her room I found a small stack of letters* that I'd forgotten about, ones from my parents (now divorced), written to me when I was in college.  Now, as a parent myself, I read the words in new light and new appreciation.
-a talk with my beloved grandma confirmed that she is indeed coming up to spend a week with us in June and I am already excitedly planning out our week together of leisure, good food, and talking
-upcoming (fingers crossed) Sunday afternoon lunch date with 2 lovely ladies, followed by dessert at the always wonderful chocolate lounge
-last night, as I got Claire ready for bed I asked her "do you know how much I love you?" and she said "yes".  I asked "how much?", she said "big", I asked "how big?", and she said "this SO" while stretching her arms out as far as she could. (and then I very promptly let go of any grumpiness I'd been holding onto regarding her sleep this week and put my face up against her head, trying to breathe in any of that baby smell that might still be lingering, so that I will never, ever forget it)
-lately feeling so, so thankful that he decided to let go of the tree work in order to be home with us more, and that we/he had the option to do so


*excerpt from one of the letters from my dad~


"Don't say I wasn't listening.. I was listening to you when I did something stupid to make you cry, I was listening to you when we drove you to the hospital when you were sick, I was listening when you came running into the living room when Marty broke your arm (that's my brother, and it was an accident), I was listening when I took you to school in the limousine (at one point, he drove a limo for extra money) and you made me drop you off a block away.  I was listening when you had all your friends over at night, I was listening when your friends died in the car accident... I listened to your pain.  I was listening when you said you met a good guy named Mike... and I was listening when you said you wanted to go around the country with him when you were just 17... (yep, same Mike) I was listening when you wrote me the card with the ball, the mountain, and the cow, and you told me how proud you were of me...
Don't say I wasn't listening... all the times you talked to me and I just stared at you and you said I didn't understand.... maybe I didn't understand, because when I listen to you I can't help but hear all you've ever done.  Don't ever say I wasn't listening to you pumpkin, I just may have been selfish in what I wanted to hear.  I love you, you're my baby girl... and you know what else?  I will always be listening."


Well, wow.  My dad and I are close but that letter is like nothing else I've ever gotten from him.  I am so glad that I kept it.  There is so much in those words, between the lines.  So much of our past together, the ups and downs... it wasn't always pretty and happy and great, but often it was.  Mostly, I see how even though I felt like he was being dismissive of my needs and feelings at times, he really wasn't.  He was taking it in.  As best he could.




linking up with ink + chai for 'keeping it real', and with momalom for "five for five" (although, I'm late in the game for five for five, having just discovered it yesterday, so I may be cheating here.....)

April showers bring.....

It has been pretty rainy lately.  The rain barrels are full, the grass is getting long again, the bees are hunkered down in their hives.  We are doing a lot of running and dancing inside.  A bit more video watching than usual.  Puzzles.  You know, rain stuff.

Like the baked oatmeal out of Super Natural Every Day, (which isn't really just for rainy days, of course) a book I borrowed from the library and then very shortly thereafter ordered for myself.  Mostly because of this baked oatmeal.

I haven't even tried anything else from it yet.  But I've made the oatmeal several times.

After breakfast Claire entertained us for a while by running and spinning her way from this corner of the dining room to the kitchen sink and back.  Over and over and over.  And dancing like she does, a slight bounce with her feet mostly planted in one place, arm (usually just one at a time) pumping back and forth, bum stuck out just a bit.

 

The deck is on hold.  Briefly.  There was the trip to Indianapolis and now all this rain.  And the fact that we still need to order the decking.  (A small detail)

Still, I peek out there several times a day and imagine the day in the not-too-distant future when I will be able to open doors and walk out there to enjoy my baked oatmeal and coffee.  And watch the bees (see the 2 white boxes in the second photo? those are our bees) and chickens (to the right of the bees, not really visible in these photos) and the garden.

Um, and the neighbors' monstrosity of an RV.  It's quite possible that I typically try to keep that big ol' rig out of my photos of our yard, but let's just be honest, shall we?  In case anyone was under the illusion that we live on a large piece of land surrounded by nothing but green...... nope.  Smallish 1/3 acre lot.  Big ass RV.  I'd like to add that in the 2+ years we've lived here, that RV has replaced a somewhat smaller one, and has left their driveway a whopping 3 or 4 times.  Maybe.  Definitely at least twice.

uh-huh.

anyway~  The sun is now out, she is napping, and I am off to see about some eggs, water some seedlings that will soon be transplanted outside, and come up with something for lunch.

chilly April notes

Papa got home from Indianapolis ("Indias-apohlis", according to Claire) Saturday evening and we enjoyed a leisurely weekend.  Quiet dinners at home, a visit from Beeba and Wes, some gardening.  The bees seem to be slooooowly evening out (perhaps), with the weaker hive slowly gaining ground while we do what we can (like switch hive positions mid-day to coax the foragers from the heavier hive to come back to the weaker one, sneaky us) to help even out the numbers.  The last two nights have brought freezing temperatures and we had flurries today, so we've been out covering tender plants to try to get them through this (last?) cold spell of the year.  Tricky, tricky April.

I've got just 5 1/2 weeks left of work until summer break.  Working for an after school program, I am now back on a school calendar and feeling pretty giddy about it, to be honest.  I think we'll be able to swing me not working for a couple months.  Some budgeting will come into play, but we'll manage.  I'll do the market here and there and possibly a few other little things, but mostly, I'm just looking SO forward to the time off.

I'm working on getting my grandma to take a train (she's afraid of flying, as am I) up from Florida to stay with us for a week in June.  It's a little complicated, both logistically (as we have no commuter rail service in Western NC) and in that she is used to her routine and such, but I think it just might happen and I'm so excited about the possible visit.  I've told her that all she'll have to do while she's here is play with her great grandbaby and be waited on by me.  She said that sounded like a pretty good deal, and I agree.  This is a woman that I want Claire to grow up knowing.  Not just in pictures and annual brief visits, but really knowing.  She is the 42-years-older version of me, and something special happens when we're together.  Claire needs to get in on that, and as soon as possible.

And now it's getting late.  I need to throw another log on the fire (that I was quite sure we were done tending to for the season), and hit the hay.

Tea for two..... Or four

During our recent trip north, Claire and I got to spend some time with one of my very dearest friends and her 2 1/2 year old girl.  (the lovely ladies from yesterday's farm trip post) It's an interesting thing, to hang out with a friend that you became friends with when you were children yourselves, and to watch as each other's children play together.

While Claire and I were at their house one day, both girls actually napped and Liz and I found ourselves enjoying one of those rare and fleeting moments of grown up time that sometimes occur during the early years of predominantly-stay-at-home-mom-hood.

I noticed her hutch full of the pretty china she'd received as a wedding present.  Almost seven years ago.

She told me she still hadn't used it.

I promptly suggested a tea party.  With the good stuff, of course.

We made tea and cookies and, as predicted, two sips and one bite in and we were greeted with a cry.  Claire had woken up in a strange bed and was shouting out for "mamaaaaaaaaa!".  Our tea party continued, only slightly interrupted.

While we sat and finished our tea and snacks and doled out "tea" and snacks to our little ones, I sat there feeling both slightly bummed to have had to let go of that precious 'grown up time' so quickly and happily content to be sharing the moment with our girls.

Ah, mothering~ what a mixed bag you are.

Use the good stuff every day, I say.  There's certainly no good reason not to make it all special, right?

a garden state farm trip

Mike's folks live a short drive away from a very sweet living history farm.  His mom used to volunteer there and bring one (or more) of the kids along, Mike and I have gone together many times over the years to listen to fiddle contests, tour the farmhouse, eat freshly-churned ice cream (did you think I was going to say butter?  I'd be down for that too, no doubt) and just walk around, and I've made a point to take Claire there whenever we are up.  I think if we lived up there, I'd be at Howell Farm with (or without) Claire a minimum of several times a week.

My dear friend and I took our girls there a couple weeks ago.  As always, I was smitten.

Mostly with this horse.  Just look at this guy......

....he stood there, so solid and content and soulful.  I felt like I was in the presence of a very wise horse, indeed.

I think I could've stood there with him, breathing in his comforting wise-old-horse smell, for hours.

But, that wasn't exactly a realistic option for anyone, so I kissed him farewell.  Until next time.
(there's my new 'short' hair, for anyone who was wondering...)

Does this little one not look like he (or she) thinks he (or she) just told me something pretty important and is waiting, watching, for my reaction?  And with a perfect little smug-piglet grin on his (or her) face?

There was pretty important-looking dialogue happening between those two, over snacks, as well.

aaaaaaahhhhhhhh...........  I'd live there.  If I had to.

oh, bees

The bees...... oh, the bees.

This morning, I drove up and over the mountain and through some very sweet farmland to pick them up from one of the sweetest old men I've ever met.  We joked a bit, he told me about his "diversified hobby farm", and he shared his concern about making sure (really, really sure) that there were no stray bees in the car with Claire.  Because, you know, we have no idea if she is allergic to them or not.

So the plan had been for me to wait until after work this evening for our friend Josh to come pick up his bees (which I had gotten this morning as well, making the total number of bees in the car this morning somewhere around 60-75,000) and to help me "install" our 2 boxes of bees into our waiting hives.

But.

But, I was feeling confident and didn't want to wait around for the (very nice and helpful) man to come help me.  I was ready to do it myself.  Claire went over to play with our dear neighbors and I set up a little staging area and got to work.

Everything went great.  I removed some frames from each hive, slammed the bee boxes on the ground, dumped the bees into the boxes, replaced most of the frames, uncapped the queen cages and dropped them in, then replaced the final frame and took several (several several) steps back to watch, veil and gloves removed.

If you type in "how to install bees into hives" into google, you will get hundreds, maybe thousands, of different links and you tube videos on how to do it, and they don't all match up.  We are following the advice, mostly, of a fellow named Michael Bush at Bush Farms.  His suggestion is not to close the hive up right away.

So, I didn't.  I gave them the twenty minutes I had until I had to go collect Claire and go to work, and then I put on the lids (but not the entrance reducers) and headed out.  Feeling good.  Brave, confident.  Accomplished.

A few hours later I came home and Josh was here waiting, bee suit ready.  I told him I'd already done it and he seemed pleased.  We went over to look at the hives and.........

And.  All of the bees were in one of the hives.  No one was paying much attention to the other.  Hmmm.  Not great.  Not exactly what you want.

Maybe I should have closed them up right away.

We opened them up and indeed, there were many, many bees in one hive and a handful or two in the other.  That handful, however, was surrounding the queen.  At least we still had her.  Unsure if they were 'balling' the queen (clumping around her to, essentially, heat her to death) or protecting her, we decided to try to catch her again and put her back in her little cage.  Amazingly, it was successful.  We shoved a jelly bean into the little hole to keep her put for the time being.  Then, we swapped an (empty)  frame from the abandoned hive with a frame full of bees from the other, placed the queen back in (the idea being she and the others will eat through the jelly bean plug within a day or so and she will then 're-enter' the hive and start doing her thing) and closed the boxes back up, fingers crossed.

It could have been worse.  They could have swarmed (while my tree-climbing husband is away,  and therefore unable to help by climbing up a tree and catching them), the queen could have flown off...... I could've not been so lucky as to have a friend here to help me sort out the mess I came home to.  And honestly, had he not been here, I probably wouldn't have caught on to the problem right away.  I'm very grateful Josh was here to help.  Very, very grateful.  He has also offered to come bearing a frame of brood (bee babies, basically) from one of his thriving hives over on Thursday should I open up the hive in a couple days and find it nearly empty again.

Still, I admit I was bummed to come home and have a bit of the wind knocked out of my little accomplished-feeling-self parade.   I worried that Mike would think (not say, of course, but think) that had he been here, it would have gone differently.

But he didn't.  I called him up and told him about the day.  He thanked me for doing such a great job (which I then realized was exactly what I needed to hear) and we talked about the hows and whys of it all (which we really can only guess at) and then he was off to dinner with his conference-going friends and I was off to cook up some syrup to offer to the struggling hive, and to hold my needy toddler who had earlier decided that today was not a day for a nap.

And to have some ben & jerry's and red wine for dinner.  (yes, truly) Ahem.

As Pooh says, "you never can tell with bees."

back at home~

Our week or so back at home has mostly revolved around a special birthday (papa's) and lots of gardening chores.

And deck-building on papa's part.

those 3 windows will soon be replaced by a set of french doors

Papa's birthday was celebrated with an awesome breakfast (I made it and really, it was awesome) of blueberry pancakes, bacon, fruit, fresh squeezed OJ and good strong coffee followed by some gardening (by me) and deck work (by him) and then a dinner of pizza and cake (yellow with chocolate frosting for this man of mine, and don't you try to tell him birthday cake is anything else).  It was supposed to be pizza, cake, and a movie (I used redbox for the first time and LOVE it!) but I've unintentionally developed a habit lately of falling asleep with Claire in her bed while I'm getting her down.  He says the movie wasn't all that great anyway. (probably because I wasn't there to snuggle)

The best way to keep leftover birthday cake from staring you in the face daring you to eat it is to eat it quickly and be done with it.  Ha!  Take that leftover birthday cake!

We had three nights of frost that left us scrambling around to cover up flowering fruit trees and shrubs, strawberries, and tender garden transplants. Night two claimed both fig trees, even though they were covered.  The arborist in the house says they will leaf out again, and so since they don't fruit until later (although, strangely, one of them actually did have two tiny little figs on it before the frost) I am keeping my fingers crossed that we may see a few figs this year.  Everything else made it just fine and Claire and I even shared the first strawberry from the garden yesterday. (!!!!!!!)  I think we are going to have a pretty sweet strawberry season in this little yard of ours.

This is our second spring here in this home, and it is nice to start seeing the landscaping coming together as we want it to.  A slow start, but it's a start.  We are just about maxed out on cramming garden beds and fruit trees/bushes (and hens and 2 bee hives) into our little back yard, and now I'm starting to dream about the side yards.

And about how I will soon be able to walk out of the dining room and onto a deck and just plant myself down on a chair and prop my feet up and bask in the sunshine and toddler laughs and chicken-talk to my heart's content.

This morning Mike left for a fire conference in Indianapolis for the week.  Tomorrow, I am supposed to drive out to pick up our bees.  Fingers crossed, all will go smoothly.  I am so ready to get started with new hives this year and once again hear that steady humming buzz out in the corner of the yard.

our trip north

an explosion of forsythias greeting us through our window at Nana and Pipop's

Horses were fed, friends and family visited..... Claire kept everyone on their toes, surprising them with her interest in and ability to hold a conversation on just about any and everything (well, any and everything that a 2 year old might be privy to), from why she likes forsythia to what she's 'supposed' to do.

I learned how to make some really good tahini spreads.  I learned that playing with an iPad while sitting up in bed at night is both fun and a little dangerous.  I was reminded of how, when we are up at Nana and Pipop's house, Claire needs only to check in with me once every now and then since she's so busy seeing and doing and visiting.

This was her expression nearly every time she pressed play on the answering machine to listen to her special message from papa.  She would then squeal to whoever was around that "it's Claire's my baby song!"

I met some good friends at a favorite Indian restaurant (not only did I enjoy a dinner with grown ups, but it was one that included dosas the size of my arm and fantastic coffee and dessert!), visited a favorite farm, ate good bagels and some really good wood-fired pizza.  Became reacquainted with a dear old friend. Visited, visited, visited.....  watched Claire soak it all in.

playing around on the piano

We did a lot of hanging around the house.  Painting, drawing, reading, snacking (she ate her way through a fair amount of nana's frozen blueberry stash, for sure)...... a nice easy week.

She was a champ on both the drive up and back.  I split the drive home into two days.  It was the first time I've ever done that, but this was also the first time it was just one of us grown ups with Claire, and so I happily embraced the idea of adventuring a bit more with my little one.  (I also embraced the hotel gift card in my pocket, a gift from Mike's parents)  We snuggled together in the big hotel bed, watched a couple cartoons in the morning, and ate breakfast downstairs before hitting the road.  An adventure, indeed.