October!?
How is it that these months keep sneaking up on me? Lately I’ve been hearing a lot of sad thoughts from people regarding the end of summer, but I just don’t feel sad about it. I’m invigorated thinking about this time to "hibernate" and focus on other things. Time to turn things a little more inward- work on the house, craft more, read more, nurture my relationships more, be more creative with Vera, think about next year’s garden (so exciting!)… I’m all too ready for the down time. This summer I worked. Making babies… growing food. It was good. And now I want to wear scarves in the house and drink hot tea all day. Oh yes. Lots of story time with Vera. Lots of soup. Lots of walks that leave your cheeks red and your body refreshed. Lots of color, lots of picture taking. Lots of warm food, spices and house-filling smells. Lots of watching my babies grow. Lots of writing. So much good to be had with this cool weather break. No mourning of summer for me!
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We harvested our potatoes. We got a good amount, I think, considering it was just four square feet. However, they really were only to be found in the bottom of the bins- we ended up with 14 lbs of the Kenebec, and 20 lbs of the Red Pontiac. We’ll eat them for a while! Although, next year I think I’ll do more experimenting with different varieties, and I’ll also be more vigilant about watering and being sure that I really mound them up with dirt quickly. I still think that’s a good haul for such little space, but I guess I don’t know. I’ve never grown potatoes before! We may just end up making several little boxes throughout the garden, that only go up a couple of feet… I don’t know. I’m happy. We’re going to eat some this weekend. I’m thinking some good hash browns are in order for Sunday’s breakfast.
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Vera got a little haircut from her cousin Tuula. Lovely. I couldn’t believe that Tuula was able to get to the scissors, but she did. Of course it happened in like a split second and there were two of us watching the kids, but that’s how it happens. She’s actually really clever about getting into mischief and finding forbidden goods, and all I can say is that it only speaks well of her intelligence. Now, if only she could be a little smarty and NOT go on dolling out hair cuts, that’d be great. Love those girls. So SO glad they didn’t get hurt. I had a stern conversation with them about only using scissors with grown ups and so on. We’ll see… Yeah, but V’s haircut could have been MUCH worse. 🙂
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We went to the children’s garden again yesterday, and we plan to keep going every week until it’s too cold. That place is just lovely. These pictures are just from the front area.
On the way home Vera and I had this funny conversation.
Vera: Why Papa have to go to work?
Me: Well, so that he can help people and make money.
Vera: … Why Papa have to go to work?
Me: So he can help people and make money. Then we take the money and give it to the people who… if we don’t give it to them… so we can keep our house… and we want to keep our house…
Vera: Why? Why Papa go to work?
Me: … good question, Vera.
How the heck do you explain this system to a two year old? She has continued asking these questions throughout the past 24 hours, and I’m just laughing about it now. She asked Doug (our friend who lives downstairs) where he was going, and when he replied "to work" she said "Why Doug? Why you go to work?" He just said "I don’t know, Vera." We all laughed about how she really brought to light the absurdity of it all. Thankfully, we see that and are actively working to be as free from it all as we can. Hopefully the answer will change soon.
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love this time of year, it’s the absolute best:)
Vera was lucky, that haircut doesn’t look too bad…I think I was just her age when my sister decided to practice her scissor skills on me, lol
I know, right? Although, I’m curious about what winter is like where you are…
Yes! Do you have any pictures? Haha! I suppose it’s almost like a rite of passage to get into that kind of mischief. Both my sister and I got caught with cuts on our faces from getting at my dad’s razor and “shaving”. Kids. 🙂
unfortunately no pictures, our house burned down a year or so later, lost everything like that:( the only baby pics we have are whatever my gran/family had.
Winter here is pretty variable. Some years we hardly get any snow at all, usually at the end of December or into January or February(though it still freezes off and on, but with really mild stretches mixed in), but other years it doesn’t let up. We usually get lots of wind storms, with power outages sometimes for days at a time.
It’s generally unusual for it to dip below -10C, and mostly it hovers around or above 0 or -1, but very rarely it has been known to drop to -25 or more. (which is -13F, and I totally had to look that up!)
I get the idea that there’s a lot more snow/cold where you are?
Adri was four when she found the scissors her daddy had been using to wrap christmas presents. He was looking for them for an hour, and finally gave up to go make dinner. She came downstairs with a blanket on her head telling him “Daddy, my hair is new!” He thought he was talking about the blanket being like Rapunzel hair–until she took it off. I got a phone call at work asking if I would stop by after to help fix it. *shakes head* Sometimes they just have to try things out. lol
P.S. I promise to take a post pictures of Seattle winter if you promise to post pictures of the snow and such there. They are predicting a hard winter all the way around, but it’s supposed to be especially hard here–they might get 6 inches of snow over the whole winter, and they’re very concerned with how that will shut the city down. 😛
But really, I have a feeling I may actually miss the snow. And your pictures are always so awesome. 🙂
P.P.S. Can we grab a beer when I’m back in Michigan? I’d love to give you a hug and catch up about things in person!
Of course I’ll take pictures of the snow! Haha, I love it when places that don’t get snow get like an inch and shut everything down… So funny!
I’d love to get together when you come back for a visit. Just keep me posted!
Yes, it does grow back!
You really should try it! Even though we got less than we hoped, we realized that we got about 6 times as many potatoes as we could have using traditional rows (based on what our friends got this year). That’s pretty awesome.
Yes! We did grow garlic. We harvested a while ago, it’s delicious. I’ll definitely be growing it again. I’ve got to plant it this month, I think. 🙂