A Garland of Leaves

Ahh, the bright oranges, reds and yellows of fall seem so far away, don't they?  Winter is swiftly approaching and I am not quite ready for my goodbyes to fall yet.  Our late November skies are greying to white and our trees are nearly bare.  It happened so late this year and fall seems too short.

With this ephemeral season in mind, I decided that we would give Ginny's idea a shot (although I have to admit, it was especially enticing because it gave me a reason to {1} buy beeswax and {2} use the funny little mini-slow cooker that came with our real slow cooker). While the leaves were still falling all around us like little gifts from the sky, we collected them from a variety of trees for our garland and pressed them between the pages of heavy books for a couple of days.

Once the leaves were ready, I melted the beeswax in the mini-cooker (this was, perhaps, the best part--the sweet smell of beeswax might be one of my favorite things in the whole wide world).  Then taking turns, we dipped our leaves into the melted wax and let them dry on some newspaper.

Finally, we threaded a needle with some thicker thread and strung our new garland!  It now hangs on our mantle and although the leaves have lost some of their splendor, it still serves as a nice reminder of those not so long past orange, red, and yellow days.

Nature Study Monday: Blue Jay

In our backyard neighborhood, the Blue Jays are the rabble-rousers; they are the ones that arrive late to the party and they clear the house with their unrefined antics.  I rarely spot Blue Jays, for some reason, in the wee morning hours, just when the sun is coming up and our breakfast is being served.  They seem to pop in later and with a lot of fanfare, typically scaring the other (smaller) birds away from the feeder but not scaring them so much that they leave altogether.

We spot them fairly frequently, but not as easily as we spot wrens, for example.  They are a great deal larger than most of the birds feeding in our backyard, and, although they are a bit gruff, I still stand at attention when one comes around.

Blue Jays can be found all year round in the Northeast, although some do migrate south for the winter.  Their nests are large and bulky, and they may have appropriated them.  According to my source, Blue Jays sometimes feed on eggs or newly hatched young of other birds.

What a pleasure it is to see their streaks of blue and black amongst all of the other colors right here in our backyard. 

Out Sick

We are one sick brood right now, especially Mama.  In a couple of days, I will be posting regularly again.  Right now, I am just trying to take in the still.  Hope your weekend was full and your days leading up to Thanksgiving are warm.

Thankful Thursday

Joining in again with Kerry today...

When I realized that today was Thankful Thursday instantaneously I knew what I would write about.  With our oldest of Kindergarten age next fall, much of my time has been spent lately pondering our options regarding schooling.  I have been reading, talking to friends, and mulling things over with my husband mostly.  So today I am thankful for the options that are offered to us in this incredibly unique and diverse country that we live in.  I am grateful to those that came before us, whose independent spirits laid the groundwork for much of what is possible in the United States today.  

Yarn Along

I think posting on Wednesdays might be one of my favorite things to do!  Knitting and reading (and writing) all together in one post.  Wow!

By my bedside table is still Teach Your Own.  I am about half way through the book.  Has anyone read it?  There are parts of it that really resonate with me and other parts that I simply can not relate to at all.  But I keep reading still...

The littles and I went to the library with some friends on one rainy day and picked up some books.  Elsa Beskow's Aunt Green, Aunt Brown and Aunt Lavender was a big hit with the kids.  I love all of her stories and illustrations but many of them are a hard sell for the littles. For some reason, this one really resonated with them.

And on the needles is a gauge swatch for the Rainbow Dress--a present for our oldest this Christmas.  

Christmas 2008 Sweater Finished October 2010

I had grand plans 2 years ago to knit a warm, cozy winter sweater for the warmest, coziest person in my life (my husband) each year for him.  This sweater that should have been knit up in a month took nearly three years.  It was started, then stopped way back when I realized that I was clearly delusional to think it would be complete for a 2008 Christmas.  It went to sleep during the long, cold winter of 2009, it was resurrected, ripped,  resurrected again, ripped again, then finally finished.

Was it worth the work?  Every bit of it.  It is New Jersey winter warm, it is soft, and he wears it all of the time. Nothing like seeing the love you put into making a sweater on the one you love.

Nature Study Monday: Milkweed

For the past few years I have been interested in attracting butterflies and hummingbirds to  a (our) garden and this is one plant that a butterfly garden can not be without.  Surprisingly, I didn't know what the plant looked like until late this summer and still have not seen one in bloom.  I purchased a couple of milkweed plants at the garden center in late summer and had the chance to see their airy seeds flit and float, blown by the breeze, the breath of a child, or of seemingly their own magical airiness, away to some home in the far corners of our garden or off to a neighbor's, where they may not be as welcome as they are here in our backyard.


Milkweed can (evidently) be a pretty intrusive plant so many folks pull them as soon as they sprout.  In fact, I read that the biggest "predator" of the milkweed plant is actually the gardener!  The leaves of the plant are poisonous so littles need to be kept away from the plant or watched closely around it.

Interestingly enough, the plant, which is host to the Monarch butterfly caterpillar, does not poison the insect but makes her poisonous to her own prey therefore giving her some protection against them.  How amazingly complex and so simple all at once!

In addition to being a host to the Monarch, it also attracts other butterflies, including the Swallowtail, and hummingbirds.  This plant really delights me (and others) and I can't wait to see it in blossom in the Spring!

Quotable Sunday

Against the Wind

It seems like yesterday 
But it was long ago 
Janey was lovely she was the queen of my nights 
There in the darkness with the radio playing low 
And the secrets that we shared 
The mountains that we moved 
Caught like a wildfire out of control 
'Til there was nothing left to burn and nothing left to prove 
And I remember what she said to me 
How she swore that it never would end 
I remember how she held me oh so tight 
Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then 


Bob Seger

Grateful Thursday (on Friday)

Joining in with Kerry again.

I was sitting downstairs on my living room couch yesterday thinking about our Thursday gratefulness.  Thinking of what I was most grateful for right in that moment while middle was upstairs in my room playing with tin soldiers that were my brother's, and before him, my father's.  Oldest was occupied in my craft room with a dollhouse that one of my grandpas built and painted and the other furnished with tiny wooden pieces made with his very own hands.  And I thought--I am thankful for the history, a shared history, here in our home where we can hold tight to where we come from and at the same time, let go a little too.  Make new games, new worlds, new histories.  Not just in our one little house but in all the homes that came before us and the myriads that will follow.  I am thankful for our place in time, thankful for what has come before and and for all that will come to be.

Yarn Along

 Following along with Ginny again this week.

Still knitting those broken rib socks.  I cast one off the needles last night and then realized that no one older than 10, and definitely not my 34 year old brother, could actually get their foot in it so I am ripping and watching old Thirtysomething episodes on Netflix tonight (Gary, Hope, Michael, and Eliot are household names here.  We talk about them as if they are actually a part of our circle of friends).


Just finished this and am starting Teach Your Own tonight.  Starting to consider our options for public schooling next year so I am collecting information and beginning here.

Making New Crayons from the Old

We had a cozy, crafty, homey kind of weekend over here.  No plans, starkly bright blue skies and good moods all around.  We spent most of Saturday morning melting down the many, many crayon bits that we have accumulated over the years.  As I have gotten older (and maybe wiser), I have resisted the urge to throw away useful bits like crayons that we get in restaurants or ones that are too small to use anymore so the collection we have amassed was really quite impressive.  

We began by sorting the pieces--the fun part for my girl.

Then, using the mini-muffin tins I got expressly for this purpose, we prepped them for the melting.

After that, we put them in the oven heated to 350 degrees.  They came out looking like this in under five minutes.

Now we have six (or so) new sets of crayons.  I am going to bag them up and give them as party favors for middle's birthday in February.

Nature Study Monday: Eastern Black Swallowtail

In July, when watering our potted dill plant on our front porch, I came across the most spectacular caterpillar--one straight off the pages of an Eric Carle story.  She was green with yellow, black and white markings and she had clearly been eating a lot of dill.  The kids and I found our fish bowl (which had recently housed another caterpillar whose fate was not a fortunate one) and put her inside with a hefty amount of leaves, sticks, and some water.

In a week, she hatched into what I now know was an Eastern Black Swallowtail butterfly.  The bright blue and yellow makings on her hind wings identify her as a female.  Males have a row of yellow spots on their wings and some dimmer blue spots under those.  {Eastern} Black Swallowtails like plants in the carrot family, like dill and fennel, so if you want to attract them to your garden, definitely plant some of these host plants.

Quotable Sunday

Inspired by Kyrie

NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay. 

Robert Frost

Thankful Thursday

Kerry of Young Ones has dedicated all of her Thursday posts until Thanksgiving to expressions of gratitude and I am going to join along.  Today I am thankful for so much, for the big and for the small, for the lasting and for the fleeting and more specifically for:

• a day off from nursery school for my two older children
• the rain--it kept us inside and together
• paper and crayons and the budding artist in my middle child
• high heels for my oldest to don
• my husband, his open heart and open mind
• the smell of bread
• and for our baby's new word "ug-ok" or truck

Yarn Along

For the next few weeks I am going to be joining Ginny as she shares what she is knitting and reading.  There is little that I like to do more than knit or read so to post about them at once sounds lovely!

Today while my older two were at school I stole a rare knitting moment while our baby played with yarn and some books from our seasonal book basket.  Each year, I knit my brother a pair of socks.  This year I am making him the broken ribbed socks from 101 Designer One Skein Wonders out of some stashed cotton yarn.  Usually I make his socks in wool as he loves it but I love the color of this yarn for him so we are going cotton this year.

I recently began reading The Mood Cure by Julia Ross based on a recommendation.  While the author can be a bit "pitchy" for my taste (and I remain skeptical about some of the claims that she makes), there are some definite kernels of wisdom in the book.  I am really interested in her claims about adding protein to your diet in order to sharpen your thinking and elevate your state of mind, for example.  I look forward to trying some of her suggested recipes in the coming weeks.

I am also reading Chickens in Your Backyard.  We plan to get our chicks in the spring so this book is giving me some ideas about coops, breeds of chickens, fencing, etc...

Nature Study Monday: The Gingko Tree

I am going to start a little Monday nature series by writing about a new-to-me discovery in my backyard or on our daily walks.  I love learning about the birds, trees, bugs, and butterflies that we encounter on a daily basis and I think this will be a good way to record them--our nature journal of sorts.  Please join along if you like.  I am looking forward to learning so much more!

Gingko Trees--I had only heard of these before this season.  My mother-in-law found a large gingko tree leaf last fall on one of her trips and brought it home to show the kids.  The leaf was large, from a tree much more mature than the one pictured, and exotic looking.  Even a novice like myself knows that it is not native to the area, and yet we have two within a half mile radius of our house!

The Gingko hails from China and somehow its leaves tell that story--beautiful fan-like delicacies, they are.  It can evidently get quite large but those in our neighborhood are fairly small--maybe 16 feet tall or so.  I would love to know how much upkeep they require, given that they are non-native.  I feel as though this might not be a tree that I plant in my own yard, and it is still simply stunning to behold.