On the Clothesline

I love the Spring and Summer possibilities of outdoor goodness. Being able to hang laundry out to dry is a sweet treat for me. I enjoy capturing it's domestic beauty.

 

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Spring Meadow

We veered off one of our often-frequented trails to explore the nearby vast meadows. I truly could not avoid day dreaming about how I could utilize such land for farming. It was quite beautiful, especially since it was entirely surrounded by pines and cedars, yet open enough for an extensive farm. I am constantly plagued by this thought. When I am the passenger of our van, I find myself looking at pieces of property along the road and wonder why people do not use their land for anything. Then I inevitably begin laying out possibilities for the land if we owned it.....(((Sigh)))....In time....

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Farm Home in Primary Colors

I have had a love for green for a long time, particularly in the kitchen and in the home. However, for over a year I have come to find that I really love the elemental beauty of the primary colors, especially with a lighter blue or turquoise. Here are a few lovely farm-style samples from a variety of shop owners on Etsy.com.

 3 Vintage Colorful Enamel Platters Paella Pans by Dandelion Girl Vintage

Farmer With Chick Chickens Old School Vintage Wood Wooden Puzzle by Judy Great Condition by PaperSponge.com 

Daily Chores Children's Handkerchief by Mary Loo Whoo's Variety Shoppe 

Vintage Red Tin Oval Box by Daddy's Beer Money 

Vintage Summer Dress by Betty's Vintage Shop

Primitive Red Metal Egg Basket by Vintage Tea

Vintage Dansk Paella Pan by Marathon 1981

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder 1971 Complete Set by Oopsie Daisies

Vintage Tablecloth. Yellow Kitchen Scenes. by The Remainders

Vintage Pyrex Bowl by Kibster Vintage

Vintage Enamel Shabby Chic Coffee/Tea Pot Turquoise Blue with Navy Trim by Need or Want

Amish Butterprint Set by A Formal Feeling Comes

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Simple Dinners

Typically, dinner in our house uses a minimal amount of ingredients that are organic or as natural as we currently can get our hands on. Usually it is pretty basic and I often wing it and come up with my own stuff, according to what we have on hand.

I had some artichoke hearts, so I decided to make a pasta dish surrounding them. I simply sauteed some onion and garlic in olive oil, threw in some tomatoes and artichoke hearts, and added some whole wheat pasta and spices. I believe I served an organic mixed green salad on the side, too.

Easy burritos with tomatoes, shredded carrots, brown rice, beans, cheese, and mixed greens wrapped in multigrain tortillas. I have made burritos a billion different ways. I am looking forward to making my own tortillas in the future (and my own pasta, for that matter). 

Easy frittata..... I can't wait 'til we have our very own chickens! 

I made this pizza with a no-yeast whole wheat crust. It was superb. Half of our pizza was deliciously decorated with fresh jalapenos from Daniel's mom. I wish we could have made the entire pizza with them, but then the kids wouldn't touch it. I also made another pizza with the remaining artichoke hearts and sun-dried tomatoes. Molto Bene!

I have noticed I use wheat quite a bit, which is very useful and yummy, but I simply must expand my flour variety. I want to eventually grind my own grain and make different flours, such as amaranth, brown rice, and quinoa, to name a few. Ah, so many ideas......

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This Moment

Inspired by Soulemama, This Moment captures a moment in time, perhaps a fleeting emotion or a perfect angle of an event or even a mysterious perspective of a person...... This involves a photo and the lack of words pertaining to the photo or the moment itself. Join in if you like. Feel free to share your moment with us, as well.

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Just Making Stuff

We have been a bit busy around here, both indoors and outdoors. Daniel has persistently been looking for work, now that he officially has his nursing license. Yay!!! I have been working outdoors on the garden and the property, doing what I can with what we have. The boys have been helping a lot and exploring the world of the outdoors quite a bit lately. I am slowly leaning toward preparing all of the food I can from these two hands and our family farm.. Well, I don't want to jump ahead too far, but I have been coming up with some different ideas for snacks. Not to mention other things, like my successful butter-making and my not-so-successful cheese-making (we'll have to try that one another time).

Anyway, the other day we enjoyed "Moon Crackers", essentially made with wheat flour and oats.

The boys thought it fit to bake banana bread, since the bananas were getting a little too ripe. 

Also, I am not one who crochets, but my friend was crocheting a cotton dish sponge when she came over for a visit, and I asked her to show me how to make them. So, once I figured out the basic concept, I began making a few. I love how it feels to wash the dishes now, especially since I decided to abandon using the dishwasher anymore. These cotton sponges are natural, cute, easy to wash, effective, cleaner than standard sponges, and durable. 

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A Touch of Red

I decided to create a quilt, while I await being able to afford nice thread and a proper presser foot to finish Jared's quilt with. This quilt has experimental wacky blocks in rainbow colors. Yesterday, I created the red block.....

...And we made strawberry rhubarb pie. Yum!.....

....And, furthermore, I noticed I too was clad in red.

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Snow in May?

Today was reflective of the crazy weather last year. Just days ago, it was warm and beautiful. All the plants were dressed in bright green and decorated with gorgeous flowers. Birds were singing, caterpillars were crawling everywhere, squirrels were playing together, the wind was like a refreshing whisper, the sun was a warm invisible blanket bringing life and transformation to everything......... However, today was a repeat of last year.... Snow in mid-May! How am I supposed to have a garden when it is snowing in May? Apparently, when the dogwoods bloom early on, cold is on the way. I have talked to friends and people in our community about this weather lore and lately this theory seems to be true. Thank goodness I have not officially planted anything in the garden as of yet. When we eventually run our own farm, I think we will either create a fantastic greenhouse or we will move down the mountain a bit where it does not snow nearly as much...or both.

Here is a photo from the back deck as soon as I awoke this morning. I would have posted this first thing in the morn, but we had no power for at least 4 hours.

Hopefully this is the last snow until next Winter. My fingers are crossed.

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Swarm of Blue Moths

Down to another shore of the American River we go (we have visited several parts of this river, among other bodies of water). We had a picnic this sunny day and a shorline rocky hike.

We began with a riverside picnic, of course...

These cirrus cloud were like speckled cotton balls methodlically painting the sky.

...Our view as we picniced...

Now, this is the incredible swarm of blue moths....it seems that we were blessed with this rare seasonal moment. I actually had it on video, but I can't seem to figure out what happened to it....

Blue moths seem not to notice the exhuberant movement of the boys, as they continue dancing around them, regardless of the boys' sporadic and ever-present energy. 

For us, this was truly magical, as if we had conjured up our elders' spirits in a tribal sense. The manner in which they swarmed us seemed surreal and dreamlike. We all could not believe our eyes. It truly was magic...in the natural sense, or perhaps the supernatural sense............

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Spring Essence Along the Bike Trail

I promised Jared that we would take him on a local bike trail this week, and so we did. My goodness, I just love Spring and it's endless changes and magnificent beauty....Actually, it forces me to climb insane mountain-sides at times, just to capture it's short-lived perfect essence....

I really loved the colors as I looked up toward the sky. Red and green are complimentary opposites, and the blue behind them was absolutely divine. 

 I was going to incorporate these yellow beauties in a yellow-themed post along with my yellow wacky quilt block, but I simply could not resist sharing these wonderful flowers right now.

More yellow heaven....and let me tell you, the scent was intoxicating!

I just love purple flowers! When Lukey was little, I used to always show him the plethora of purple wildflowers as we drove around our area. I find myself reflecting upon those days when I do the same for my current little ones. Ahhh........

My youngest is becoming so big and responsible. 

These fantastic flowers were a genuinely good reason to climb up a crazy hill. They are pretty much the same as the first yellow flowers shown above, yet they have a rich incorporation of red deliciousness! There were very few of these naturally growing among the many solid yellow versions. These were my favorite thing along our trek down the bike trail. 

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