House Projects

A side benefit of moving the ducks to the garage is that we had to run electricity, which has allowed C to set up and run his power tools out there. Ever since, he's kept busy with little house projects. First, I had him build some cubbies for our mudroom--to replace a big dresser that had lots of problems, not the least of which was that everyone was too lazy to open drawers to put away their hats and mittens.

I had found a set of chicken-coop-style cubbies online, gave C a design based on the size of our space, and he proceeded to modify it to work with materials he already had on hand. The final product didn't turn out exactly how I had envisioned it, but it works great. I see it as a metaphor for marriage--two people come together with their dreams and plans and then work with the tools and materials they have to make a rough approximation of the other's vision. Seldom does the result turn out to be an exact match, but with luck it is functional and pleasing to the eye. In the case of the cubbies, they make the mudroom feel much more open and spacious (compared to a large, dark bureau) and they make mitten and hat access much easier. (I didn't take a before picture, but here's our mud room after its last major tidy-up).

Next he build little shelves to go beneath our kitchen cabinets.

These were part of the original plan for our kitchen, but not being super high on the priority list, they never go built.

I couldn't be more pleased with them. They appear to both raise up the space between the counters and bottom of the cabinets and make the counters bigger. And they look so great--every time I look in the kitchen I feel like I'm looking at a picture in a magazine (if I ignore the compost bowl and drying plastic bags and dishes waiting to get loaded in the dishwasher).

Z arranged the teacups and saucers on this span of shelving. He was very adamant that practical things (the cups and saucers we occasionally use, versus the antique saucers and pitchers we just look at) have prime positioning. Again, no before pictures, but you can see the kitchen as it was here.

I used Real Milk Paint, which I love to work with, on both the cubbies (marigold) and the headboard behind the shelves (tavern green), with a clear acrylic coating for water resistance. 

Wild Wednesday ~ Trek

Last weekend, on our way to taking Christmas card photos, the boys and I went on a trek in the woods.

We discovered lots of interesting wild things: birds nests,Woodpecker holes,

Fungus,

And a giant water bug.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the boys have been building forts in the woods...I had begun to despair of their ever going out exploring on their own.

What We've Been Up To

It's been a few weeks since I've been in this space because my computer was threatening to never start up again if I didn't deal with its storage issues. I found lots of ways of avoiding doing so until this past weekend when I finally took every free minute to edit and upload photos online and then copy them to a memory stick and then delete them (which is a scary thing to do, even when you have two backups). I managed to only get through about four months' worth (of 2012!!), but it was enough to free up some space. My plan is to do a month or two ever week until I catch up to now. Of course, catching up with photo management has been on my new year's resolution list for the last three years at least, so we'll see how far I get.

In the meantime, we've been doing our best to get into the holiday spirit. On Thanksgiving, we had our traditional fruit parfait breakfast.



And then Z, M, and I made some corn husk dolls for our table. 

And I made a pear frangipane tart from this cookbook. Oh, my goodness, I don't do a lot of fancy cooking these days, but this was divine and so worth the effort.

The day after Thanksgiving, Z, E, and I drew self portraits. I took a few drawing classes last month and this was one of our homework assignments and it was super fun to do with the kids, even though they had no interest in following the steps in the lesson

Or maybe that's what made it fun--their own unique take on it. 

And then, all of a sudden, it was December. Last Monday evening I was sitting on the top step, putting the first Christmas book in a bag for our book advent calendar (aka CBC or Christmas Book Countdown) when Z walked by on his way to bed. He asked if I was putting all of the books in bags that night. "Not tonight; I'm too tired." I said. "I'm just doing the first book." He laughed and I asked, "Do you still want to do it this year?" "Yes! It's a tradition!" I thought maybe they were getting too old to want to hear Christmas picture books, but I guess not, especially not Z, who is particularly attached to traditions and doing things the same way year after year.

We decided to put off getting our Christmas tree one more week--it really wasn't tree-getting weather, C was busy with a project, and I had a workshop to prepare for and teach Sunday. Instead we did the prep work--dusting and decluttering and vacuuming behind furniture so the living room will be all ready for the tree next weekend. We also went out in the woods to take photos for out Christmas cards, which is always a challenge. This is one of the better shots.

St. Nicholas visited our house Sunday morning and placed gnomes, clementines, and chocolates in the boys' shoes.

The gnomes were supposed to be ornaments (I like to give them ornaments on St. Nicholas Day so they hang on the tree all season), but St. Nicholas never got around to attaching hangers to their gnomey hats.And we even squeezed making a batch of cookies in Sunday evening. I mixed the dough when I got home from my workshop and then E, Z, and M took turns cutting and decorating them with colored sugar in between their showers that evening. While we were making the cookies I remembered how when they were little, baking a batch of cookies was an all day event, with pulling out the play tower, and finding aprons, and making sure they took exact turns with the measuring and mixing and cutting. I thought that even though there are things about those cute little ages I miss, there are some nice compensations, like everything doesn't have to be a big production all the time. I put the cut cookies out on the deck to chill and went to work uploading and copying and deleting one last batch of photos.



When I got into bed at about 10:30 I was feeling very satisfied with myself for having accomplished everything I planned that weekend, and then I remembered...the cookies were still on the deck. So some things are easier nowadays with older kids, but sometimes I still have mommy brain.

Wild Wednesday ~ November Color

I had Wednesday off last week, for Veteran's Day, and I went out again in search of my missing mystery tree. I tromped all over a different part of our woods, but still did not find one. I did, however, see several interesting fungi, including this one that had kind of spiny things instead of gills.

And this pretty green and red shelf polypore (I really need to get a fungus field guide!!).

I also found this little Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides), which I didn't know we had growing out there. Supposedly it's named Christmas fern because it stays green through the winter, but I think it's really because the fronds look like children's drawings of Christmas trees.

On Saturday we went hiking with visiting guests and saw some more November color, like this orange jelly fungus.

And a bright red partridge berry (Mitchell reopens).

And finally I found my tree: witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana).

C spotted it first, one of several growing together in an area. I think I would have just passed it by because it's not what I expected. Even though I've seen native witchazel growing in the wild, and know intellectually it's a smallish shrub and pretty low-profile, I had in mind those two beautiful cultivated trees (which, incidentally, are still blooming) and I was looking for something equally tall and bright and grand. These little wild guys had already shed their flowers, which look like leggy yellow spiders. So now I have a new mission: find witchhazel in my woods, looking for something smaller, and subtler, and altogether completely different from what I was looking for before.

What's wild in your neck of the woods?

P.S. I'm taking a self-imposed blogging break over the next week or two, while I deal, once and for all, with the storage issues on my computer that I've just been bandaging along for the last year. I'll see you on the flip side!

Weekend Things ~ Chili-in'

Way back a month or so ago, after our first frost, I picked all of the chili peppers off the plants, cooked the few poblanos that made it to maturity into chile rellenos, and stuffed the rest in a bag. C used quite a few in making salsa, but the rest, we just kind of forgot about, ignored.

Once in a while, one of us would say, "We should do something about those chiles," and the other would agree, and then nothing would happen. Then this weekend, C pointed out to me that they were starting to rot, and the crisis that I usually require for action spurred me on. 

I sorted out the still good chiles from the nasty ones and had enough to make two jars of pickled jalapeños, using Catherine Newman's brilliant refrigerator pickle anything recipe. I had some brine left over, so I threw a bunch of mini rainbow carrots in a jar and pickled them, too.

The rest of not-rotten chiles, which are a different variety (I'm not sure what), were already starting to whither a bit, so I strung them up to dry.

I suppose the crisis-response method of food preservation is not the most efficient, and it's fairly wasteful (oh, those sad chilis I had to throw away), but sometimes it's what's needed to get the job done.

Wild Wednesday ~ November Wandering

There's a certain kind of tree that's flowering right now. I had sort of forgotten about it until I saw two specimens covered in golden flowers right outside my office that I'd never noticed before, and I made it my mission last weekend to find an individual in our woods at home.

I think I've seen one around here before, but I'm not sure where, so I trekked off-trail, into the woods, eyes peeled for yellow blooms. As I stomped along, I came across this bright green log. The color is from a fungus, Chlorociboria, or green elf cup. Unfortunately, it wasn't fruiting right now. The fruiting bodies, just like their common name suggests, are also bright green, and I'd love to see one.

I did, however see a bright red fruiting body. Like I've mentioned before, I haven't taken the time to learn mushrooms very well yet--and I don't even have a comprehensive field guide--so I don't know what this little guy is called.

Nor this one, but it's so pretty with the yellowish gills and jaunty caps.

I trekked a fair distance one way, realizing that I was probably in the wrong habitat for the tree I was looking for, surrounded as I was by evergreens, but the walking was easy. I turned around and headed back along our trail, stopping to enjoy a moment by the river, before making my way into denser deciduous growth.

I think this fungus might be chicken of the woods, which is edible. I want to go back with a field guide in hand and bring some home to cook.

This is an amazing year for winterberry (Ilex verticillata). I found tons of the bright red berries in places where I didn't even know it grew.

But I didn't find the tree I was looking for. It should have been easy to find the tree I was looking for, with most of the leaves down. I kept my eyes open for its bright yellow blossoms. I was fooled a few times by golden apples or leaves that still clung to their branches, but I find any flowers. 

I did, however, see several larch (Larix laricina) trees that I never knew about growing across the road, and one somewhat haggard looking specimens on our very own land. These deciduous conifer trees are easiest to spot at this time of year, when their needles turn a delicious caramel color, in preparation for falling off. In the summer, they blend in with the other greenery, looking from the distance like fir trees.

And, when I retraced my steps because I had dropped something, I found this belated, confused, and somewhat shrunken buttercup (Ranunculus sp.) growing at the edge of the field. It's not what I was looking for, but it was a bright spot on a gray day.

I have not given up (yet) on my November bloom. Maybe I'll find one next weekend. Bonus points if you know what tree I'm talking about.

What's wild in your neck of the woods?

Saltfront

After a long, dry spell on the publishing front, I was very pleased to have a short story accepted by the literary magazine Saltfront.

While I've had a few nonfiction pieces appear here and there, this is my first piece of fiction published post-MFA, which is both exciting and gratifying.

Not only does my story appear first in Issue #4, but it's also accompanied by two fantastic illustrations.

I couldn't be more pleased!