A Year in the Woods

I've always had a special sort of fondness for dandelions. I have been moved by how long their roots are - Burdock and Arrow-leaved Balsam root too - it's amazing to me how they can push their roots down so deep - often through hard poor soil and settle in to the business of growing their flowers and spreading their seeds. They make do with the soil they come to and they seem to thrive. They bloom where they're planted as the saying goes.Perhaps I feel an affinity with them because I too am someone who puts down deep, deep roots. I have always been so. Home has a very special meaning to me and I have always had a deep connection to my "home" no matter where it has been. This home is my third long term home; we have been here for just over ten years now and have many special memories here. This is also the home where my love for gardening was able to have free reign. We've put our heart and soul into these gardens and so it has been a bittersweet decision to sell this place...this place my boys have been raised in, but we've made this decision in order to get one step closer to our dream of owning an acreage.
These past few months have been extremely emotional for us - deciding to sell, preparing our place for sale, having people come through, getting rid of things we've outgrown or no longer use, selling and then trying to find somewhere new to live. Things haven't always gone as we had hoped, we've learned a lot about ourselves and our attachment to "home", I particularly have had some difficulties with the idea of being "home"less since I have identified myself mostly as a "home"learning parent and a "home" maker these past 13 years. The loss of my gardens and all the time that I normally spend in them has also been cause for some serious "stretching lessons" for me. Just now I find myself feeling very rootless - unsettling for a deep-rooted person - and although I don't want us to be bare-rooted for too long, I also believe there is value in moving beyond our comfort zones sometimes. In a book I love by Sue Bender she writes about "stretching lessons" and I prefer that term over "growth opportunities", I think we can all get so comfortable in our usual way of life/habits that we can forget there are other ways of living. I love the idea of stretching (or sometimes of being stretched against our will) beyond our comfort in order to "get" a much-needed lesson - sometimes (often in human nature?) it takes that uncomfortable stretch to really get a lesson. Much of my life and my boys' lives happen around the garden season - tree pruning time, blossom time, planting time, weeding (always!), roses blooming, strawberry time then apricot, peach, plum, walnuts, etc, then harvest and preserving - an unending parade of natural happenings that we follow along with, things we have grown used to. This move means a change to all of that and I believe that this shake up could mean big changes for us...certainly for the year but hopefully it will also be a time to make even more conscious choices about the way we are living each day.
We have less than a month left here and most of it will be spent packing - packing away a life and a way of life. The interim place we will be living will not be a place that supports my gardening addiction; it is a home in the woods, high up with a short growing season and loads of deer around. We've decided to consider this next year as a sabbatical, some people take A Year by the Sea, we will take a year in the woods. No renovations to do, no yard work, no fruit trees, no garden. What will I do? I ask myself. What will you do? people ask us. Certainly it will be a time for reflection. A time to consider just how we want to go forth from here. A time to decide what parts of this life we want to bring forward to the next part of our life and the next home and what parts no longer serve us. A time for more fun and play with the boys. A time for more living, loving and learning. A time to remember what used to bring us joy - what hobbies, habits and activities - before so much of our time was taken up with "home" work. A time to see what of our "stuff" we actually use and what is just excess. And, hopefully, a time to find our future home...our acreage, our future gardens. In looking at places to rent I have seen that the boys also share my deep attachment to "home" and that they have a real need for the comforting sense of home that they have grown up knowing. I'm pleased that that is important to them, I want them to place a priority on "home" and have it be of value to them.

Certainly it will be sad for us to leave here and there will be lots of tears. Already as we take pictures of certain things we each of us hold dear - the tree house, the "dirt pit", the gardens, particular flowers or trees - we feel sadness that it will be the "last time" we see these things. There is also so much to be done as we pack that there just isn't a lot of time for melancholy especially as I'm trying to fit in as much fun as can be had during such a time to ease things a bit. We've been out for lots of hikes lately and this helps to remind us that we can enjoy nature's offerings as well even once we won't have our own gardens, for my husband and I having less "home"work to do offers us the chance to get back into more hiking - something we used to do all the time. We found all sorts of good stuff on this weekend's hikes - mushrooms, wild clematis, wild ginger, prickly pear cactus and much more.

Good reminders to me that there is beauty everywhere, goodness all around, abundance and growth in unlikely places...and many, many opportunities for joy, if we are only willing to be open to it. And that sometimes, even as life offers up some prickles here and there... sometimes those very prickles can lead to far greater loveliness than we can even imagine

And all that to explain why things have been so quiet around here lately. ;-)

Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns

Yesterday seemed like a good day for a special treat. Since the freezer still has loads of pumpkin in it I thought a treat involving pumpkin puree would be especially good. I found this recipe here and thought it sounded good enough to try Right Away. ;-) I thawed the pumpkin to use in the dough. (There's nothing quite like the smell of pumpkin, cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg.) Then we headed to the library to pick up our books while the dough was rising.

This was the part of the recipe that I found interesting. Usually I spread butter on the rolled out dough and then sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon on top. This recipe had you mix the butter, cinnamon, sugar, honey and vanilla in a bowl to make a soft spread for the dough. Isn't that genius? (let me assure you that it IS genius - the taste is amazing)

This is a double recipe - if you're going to have a treat you might as well have a treat, heh? :-)

One thing I did a little differently was the icing. This icing is just a bit of cream cheese mixed with some runny honey and a bit of vanilla. It would also have been delicious with a squeeze of fresh orange in it. By the time they came out of the oven it was almost dinner time. We enjoyed one straight from the oven while sitting out in the sun. W said how good they were and then figured that we should have another - since they were best when warm - and I quite agreed.

So we each had a second and decided to call it dinner. And what could be a more special treat than that. ;-)

Apricot tree in bloom

Joy delights in Joy
~William Shakespeare

Our apricot tree is in full bloom right now. It's lovely. I also love the way the ground looks once the blossoms start falling - a sort of petal snow fall. This is just such a delightful time of year - so many blossoms to see and beautiful scents to smell, the sun's rays shining down and warming our winter white skin, the birdsong reaching our ears from up in the trees. A feast for the senses. Our cherry trees are also pushing out blossoms so we tend to go from one delightful sight and smell to another just now; it truly is an abundant time of year.

This morning I dug some of last summer's apricots out of the freezer bottom (yes, I'm still working at emptying out our freezers). They even look like golden sunshine...and that is exactly how they taste.I popped them in with the same ingredients from yesterday's nettle smoothie. I always freeze apricots halves just for this purpose. I find they give a sort of mellow creaminess...a smoothness (wink, wink) to smoothies that we quite enjoy.

I find fruit tree blooms fascinating and love getting an up close shot of them. Amazing to me to think that these blossoms turn into fruit which we can pick off the tree and eat. Delight in the flowers, delight in the fruit.

And tonight...sun-dried sheets fresh off the line - no matter that they are still flannel because it isn't warm enough for warm weather sheets yet. They'll still be delightful. What will you be delighted by today?

For everything that lives is holy, life delights in life.

~William Blake

Nettle smoothie??

Nettlejuice left a link to her nettle smoothie post in the comment section on my last post so, of course, I had to try it. I used banana and nettle tops as she shows.

Added some soymilk to blend it until smooth. Then added some of my frozen plums and strawberries and whizzed it some more.Delicious!! The boys are happily slurping theirs up right now.

Drying Stinging Nettle

I came home from a friend's house on Sunday with a box full of nettle - such fun to pick wild food with a friend on a sunny day. The timing is perfect as my supply of dried nettle from last year has almost run out. I use it daily for a nourishing infusion and go through quite a bit.

Yesterday I put the first batch into my solar dryer to dry quickly. I'll also do some in some brown paper bags since there isn't enough room for it all in the dryer and then take some to a friend for her to juice.

And some will be eaten cooked in pasta sauce too, this is a lovely green to eat until our own Lamb's quarter is ready to pick. I love this time of year when there are so many wild greens coming to life.

Earth Day, Dandelions and Dogs...Oh My!

We spent the afternoon at the beach for Earth Day (well, except for the latter part of the afternoon which was spent hunting for our neighbour's lost dog for hours, finding him, getting bitten by him, and then bringing him home on my bike once he had calmed down from his ordeal and returned to his normal lovely self). The beach near our house is surrounded by dry rocky slopes - the perfect environment for Arrow-leaved Balsamroot flowers. The hillsides there are so beautiful right now. E had his plant book with him and I had mine so we were identifying edible plants. We tried a little nibble of the balsamroot leaf as all parts of this plant are apparently edible, we found them to be very bitter. While we were soaking up the sunshine sitting on our blanket E thought up a recipe that he wanted to try with some dandelion greens. The minute we got home he disappeared into my garden and came in with a whole bunch of dandelion plants - roots and all. He washed and trimmed a few of the greens and then cooked them up just so.

He heated some olive oil and then melted some butter in it (for extra flavour, he says) then sauteed the greens until wilted. He added a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and sauteed for another couple of minutes and then sprinkled some grated Romano cheese on top. It was quite good (although W wasn't impressed). E ate some of it as is and then decided to mix the rest in with the pasta that I had made for dinner. I liked it that way as well so then we had to make a bit more so I could have some in my pasta as well.

How much do I love that my 9 year old thinks up recipes for wild food and then immediately makes them and, not only that, but enjoys them? So much more than I can say.

Edging addiction

Hello...my name is Heather...and I'm...an edger.

It's true. I'm addicted to edging(that's my favourite edger below). I have such a hard time stopping myself. This addiction has served me well in years past though as it serves to make my perennial beds bigger and bigger. That can't be a bad thing. ;-) I think the thing of it is that it just makes all the gardens look so tidy and pretty, who can resist that?

While I was out there edging I couldn't help but think that before I know it this area...will look like this.

Truly, I find gardening to be just magical.

The hyacinths are in bloom and their scent is combining with the scent from the carpet of violets we have up front. It is absolutely delightful.

All the blossoms seem to be attracting the bees.

And this? This is one of my favourite flowering shrubs (there are many). It is a double flowering almond tree. Each year, when it is in full bloom (see here or here), I take a photo of the boys standing in front of it. I love to see how much they grow from year to year, not to mention the changes in our house and gardens year to year.

It isn't in full bloom yet but I couldn't resist taking some photos of the bits that are in bloom. Spring seems late this year and all my plants are somewhat behind but things are picking up now and the ferns are starting to come up too, I love seeing the way they unfurl. Life really is good.