At our house, I’m looking around and seeing a lot of my favorite color – yellow.  We finally finished painting the kitchen (hooray!), boiled our maple syrup (we only put out one tap this year, and just boiled it inside on the woodstove), got some bulbs at the garden center, and our chickens are delightedly scratching at the soil and giving us amazingly orange-yolked eggs.  Wishing some golden color to your days, as well.

Six eggs from six chickens, two days in a row.  I had to make cheesecake (Keller’s, from Ad Hoc.  It was divine, of course.)

A dog who comes in from a night on wandering, reeking of skunk. This is, apparantly, becoming a yearly ritual. (This was very helpful. And doesn’t he look hilariously embarrassed?)

Greens in the hoophouse, planted inside, and transplanted out.  Hooray!

Some color for the kitchen floor, using what I’ve got (lots of scraps) to bring in some sunshine.  (It’s the patchwork mat from Patchwork Style)
Blessings on your weekend, everyone!

Today, the Spring edition of Rhythm of the Home is live with an article by yours truly about the importance of working with our hands in the home.  Be sure to check it out for lots of amazing inspiration from all sorts of folks!

Also, I’m joining Ginny and others today for Yarn Along.

The second sleeve for my Hourglass sweater is almost done.  After that, I have just the yoke to go – which will take a little while because I’m going to change the pattern to include a Fair Isle pattern found in Zimmerman’s Knitting Around.  I’m running short on yarn, and when I saw her gorgeous Fair Isle yoke, it seemed serendipitous.  Knitting Around, by the way, is amazing – lovely patterns as always, and Elizabeth’s incredible life story with fabulous old photos.  Love it!

Also this week, I’ve been reading The Natural Knitter and The Knitter’s Book of Yarn.  My friend Sarah and I have been busy cleaning fleeces (remember last year’s shearing?) and so I’ve been learning about what weight yarn I want, and how many plys .  . . really exciting.  I can’t wait to have Molly & Curly yarn.  Hmm . . . which reminds me, that I need to order some shears.  Anyone have some to recommend?

(photo by Seth Seeger)

This is taken from far away, but can you see Ella riding on Ben’s back here, while he drives Cole?  Ella, Seth, Cole, and Ben had a little adventure while Mama was baking yesterday afternoon!

(photo by Ben)

Grateful for our good earth.

Grateful for our winter wheat trials coming up, looking healthy and strong.

Grateful for flowers to come.

We are all so grateful for spring.  Blessings on your weekend.

]]> http://www.localgrain.org/fieldsandfire/2010/04/09/gratitude-friday-april-8/feed/ 5 http://www.localgrain.org/fieldsandfire/2010/02/10/seeds-it-must-be-almost-spring/ http://www.localgrain.org/fieldsandfire/2010/02/10/seeds-it-must-be-almost-spring/#comments Thu, 11 Feb 2010 02:56:57 +0000 adrie http://www.localgrain.org/fieldsandfire/?p=1232 This week, our gorgeous seed rack from Seed Savers Exchange arrived at Wheatberry, which means that spring really is almost here!  We are just a little bit excited.  Ok, a lot (Ben started out first flat of onions today!)

Seeds, glorious heirloom seeds.  Many of these varieties are ones we’ll be using at our farm, too, and we’ve been hustling to get our sunroom (i.e seed-starting space) cleaned up and ready (since it’s been a total wreck all winter!).

I was looking through some photos from last spring, and that got me even more excited.  It seems hard to believe, but already I really notice the light returning and feeling warm.  Soon the sap will be running, we’ll be boiling down our maple syrup, and then, we’ll be seeing the bare earth again, and the green fall-planted grains!  A few teasers from last spring (I just can’t help myself) . . .

And just because it’s too sweet not too add:

On Tuesday, we celebrated Ben’s birthday.  As you may remember, we’re a big fan of birthday pies around here, and so at Ben’s request I made Pascal Rigo’s Caramel-Pecan Chocolate Tart, from our favorite American Boulangerie.  With the help of my, um, assistant pastry chef Ella (just don’t tell her she’s not the main chef), it wasn’t quite as beautiful as I’d hoped, but I was somewhat amazed I pulled it off at all, and once we cut into it, I didn’t hear any complaints.

Since Ben’s birthday was on Candlemas, we waited and did our Candlemas celebration on Wednesday.  Neither of us had ever done one before, but I was tickled when I first read about it in Mrs. Sharp’s Traditions, and then when I read this post on The Parenting Passageway, I knew it was meant to be.  First, I love breakfast for dinner, and pancakes are traditional for Candlemas/St. Brigid’s Day.  Secondly, in addition to celebrating the half-way mark from Winter Solstice to Spring Equinox with candles, it is also a traditional time to bless your seeds for the coming year.  I brought that big beautiful jar of Tiger Eye Beans to the table, we lit some new red beeswax candles, and we said blessings and good wishes for the season to come.

My other favorite Candlemas tradition?  The beginning of spring cleaning.  Ben and I have definitely being going on a bit of a spring purge around here, and I am very excited about it.  On Sunday, Ben took Ella to the bakery for a few hours since she and I were driving each other nuts, and I suddenly had to move my sewing room from its tiny, dark room upstairs to a big, bright room downstairs.  This room has been rented to housemates in the past, and housed WOOFers, but it was standing empty.  No longer!  I got my sewing table set up, some of my fabric in, and took 10-year old inspirations off my inspiration board and made room for the new. It feels great to be moving into a fresh space, with great light.  Soon – shelves going up, fabric organizing, yarn organizing, space for projects, a bigger table for cutting out patterns.  I am just a little bit excited.

That night, I stumbled across this:

Yes, yes, and yes.  That totally sums up how I feel – we started really trying to de-clutter our home (and therefore life) last summer, and we’re now entering round 2.  Bring it on.