Morsels

Morsels:  Tiny bits of goodness from the past week...

For better or worse, I pruned our fruit trees several weeks ago, and brought these pear branches in to force flowering.  They were looking lovely in our bedroom, until we realized, wow, pear blossoms smell really bad!  I moved them downstairs where the smell wouldn't over power the larger space, and they have become kind of a roaming tree.  The flowers are gone now, but the leaves are a welcome sign of whats to come outside before too long.

Kale: "I think I won't be an astronaut when I grow up.  I think I'll be a skateboard guy."

I've come to realize that with each shift in seasons I get the urge to move furniture.  I suppose its fitting that with everything looking new and fresh outside the inside should be the same.  So, last week when my mom invited the kids to play for a few hours I did a little sewing and moving things about.  I only moved two things, but it made a sweet little spot for reading books, and a sunny flat surface for all of the wooden block play that Kale's been doing recently.  

 

I also managed to sew two pillows, that I've been trying to find the time to make for months.  I am so excited to replace the piles of old pillows, that end up strewn across the floor every time a child enters the room
(I swear, its as if they walk into the living room with the sole purpose of tossing a few pillows on the floor).  Not anymore.  These suckers are stuffed with the remnants of an old wool/cotton futon shared by a friend (thanks M!) and they are heavy.  Plus, being new they have a bit of specialty status, so no one stands on their ear if I tell them don't move the pillows!  

 

 

With the snow gone (again) and the mud quickly thawing the garden is suddenly visible and inviting.  Thats was enough motivation to get me in their, slogging through mud, raking off straw, and gathering bits of broken/strewn this and that which seem to collect in our garden over the winter (couldn't be that I left it there last fall?).  In the brief patches of sun between rain showers (and after the 2 inches of snow melted).  I put in a few rows of peas, radishes, and carrots, which the chickens just as quickly scratched up!  I'm hoping to start some beets later this week, just as soon as I can figure out how the ladies are getting into the fenced garden.  Inside we'll be starting tomatoes and broccoli.  

We've also begun work on phase II of our bridge/bike path.  Last fall Rob re-built our old walking bridge, making it sturdy and smooth enough for bikes, and now we're working to widen and smooth out our "bog walk" so the kids can use it to bike over to the slower, side road on the west side of our property (the road in front is too fast for kid biking).  Last weekend we all spent close to 2 hours out there, raking, clipping, climbing trees, snacking, and setting a smaller bride in place at the end of the path.  Next will be a lot of clipping and hauling gravel by wheel barrow.  Its a race against the black flies.
                   
                    big bridge 

                  little bridge

                      photo by Rob

Hope you all have a great weekend.  Things are warming up out there!