Flower power

This year seems such a promising one for our poppies.  Two blooms today, many more yet to pop.



Big, ruffly poppies, with center pods Calder affectionately calls "cupcakes."

I love love love these large-hearted flowers.

#regram from here.

For the love of Oregon

More photos from our week roadtripping Oregon.  Surely there are a few choice pics still trapped in the lazy space between the laptop and the iPad, the camera and Instagram.  Ah well.

I can't get the Zumwalt Prairie out of my mind.  It felt really good to stand there and I can't wait to return.

Crooked River Ranch 

Smith Rock State Park (below and above)

 

Painted Hills, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument

Painted Hills, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument



Blue Basin, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument 

Oregon Trail National Interpretive Center, Baker City 

Life in a yurt, Wallowa Lake State Park

Lilacs in Imnaha Canyon 

Imnaha Canyon 

Looking south to the Wallowa Mountains from the edge of Zumwalt Prairie

Our route:  2 nights Tumalo SP, 1 night Prairie City, 1 night Baker City, 2 nights Wallowa Lake SP, 1 night Edgefield.

Berry fingers

Yay!  It's berry time again!



We are down to our last bag of blueberries, so I suppose the 30-some pounds we picked last summer was just about right.  Though, I have held off on opening that last bag, so I suppose we could do with more.  It's so wonderful having a freezer filled with berries!





Yesterday, a quick search of our local Craigslist revealed the u-picks were ready at my favorite patch just south of town.  I scooped up my family and our neighbors and we met in the field for an hour of early-season picking.





We are lucky to live in such a fertile valley, with a climate that accommodates a most wonderful variety of produce.  Berries abound in the summer.  You could pick buckets of different types each week if you wished.





Many of yesterday's berries are already frozen away for future smoothies, galettes, and ice cream... yum!  Our neighbors shared a quick batch of tapioca with a sweet strawberry and fennel puddle at the bottom... pretty and delicious!  I made a half recipe of these strawberry paletas to check for flavor.  Lake approves, so I suspect there will be more.  More picking.  More freezing.  More feasting on berries!

A mother's day (so far)

(A lucky thrift shop score I found just before Lake's birth, this tree of life has four figures, Papa, Mama, and two boys, along with a creative menagerie of animals.)

6:35am: Wake to Lake crying from a bad dream about a basketball coming out of his nose.  What?!

Tuck him into bed with Calder and return to my own bed for a last few minutes of rest.

6:45am: All the boys are in the kitchen and, from the bedroom, I hear whispers and the sound of chalk art being made on the chalkboard.

6:50am: Calder and Lake run in to get me up and out of bed to see the "Happy Mother's Day" greeting and artwork they've drawn with Jeff.

7:00am: I make breakfast (waffles) while Jeff does some much-needed yoga.

~ a couple hours pass easily by with waffles, pear sauce, coffee, piano playing, car+trucks+trains ~

9:00am: Jeff and Calder go for a quick bike ride in the neighborhood.  I take a shower.  Lake plays with his cars.

9:30am: Clean and dressed, the boys back from their ride, I set myself down amongst a pile of diapers(!)

10:30: From where I sit on the bed I can...

HEAR: Calder and Jeff playing T-ball in the yard;

SEE: Lake, his long blonde ponytail reaching halfway down his back, completely occupied in the sand boat outside; and

FEEL: Overwhelmed by the sheer volume of cloth diapers/liners/covers surrounding me.  We've accumulated so many through Calder and Lake's baby-hood.  They were both out of diapers early, and the bags and boxes of quality bum-covers have taken up space in the closets and bedrooms for far too long.  I'm buried in diapers we haven't needed for years, and it's time to sort through and post them on Craigslist.  A giant cloth-diapering pot-o'-gold for some lucky family.

In and amongst all this, I KNOW: All this, all I see, hear, feel, and do today IS because I am a mama.  It's wonderful and difficult, easy and complex, scary and amazing, trying and fulfilling.  Thanks to my boys (Jeff, included) for all the love and recognition.  You guys made me "Mama", and everything about my life was forever changed.

Swarm

We were lucky enough to be around when a hive of bees swarmed in our neighbor's tree this afternoon.

And where we live, it's not hard to fine someone willing to adopt the swarm into the hives they keep.  

In no time at all, our friend Tal was there with an empty hive.  The kids helped spread honey on a few of the frames to attract the bees and offer them a little food before they build combs of their own.

I've never seen a swarm so close.  The branch they were on was right over the sidewalk, maybe just 7 feet off the ground.  The bees were so docile, Tal said because they were with their queen and didn't have a hive or honey to defend.  I was able to stand right underneath the basketball-sized wad of bees and watch their activity.

A branch or two were sacrificed.  The bulk of the bees were shaken off, and the lid swiftly placed on the box.  Not everyone made it in, and those guys will apparently find their way back to their original hive... or not.

What a cool thing to see on a hot, Saturday afternoon.  Keep your eyes and ears peeled, folks.  You never know what amazing everyday things may be coming your way.

Inbetween the raindrops

I kind of love that it's been raining the last couple days.  Watering the garden is not a chore I love, and I have yet to put a system in place that doesn't involve me dragging a hose around the yard for a couple hours.





The Winter and Spring rains give our garden a great start.  It feels very nearly self-sufficient up until July and August roll around and the plants starts gasping for refreshment.  The last few weeks we've lucked out and had a steady cycle of sunny days punctuated with rain.  Right now the yard looks full, robust, perhaps even overgrown.  At this point in the year, I feel I have far too much Lady's Mantle, but I dread the bare spots that result when it's removed.







Sadly, the deer have also made their way through.  Looking around you can see signs of their trespassing... the fig, the grape, blackberry, vine maples, strawberries, geum, dogwood, and hosta have all suffered.  But over the years I've learned a thing or two about what the deer will and won't eat.  Many of these resistant plants thrive in our garden, fill in wide swaths, and very nearly take care of themselves, (Lady's Mantle, iris and crocosmia, foxglove, euphorbias, a little silver leafed spreader, these pink (and purple) spiky guys, lamb's ear, catmint, grasses, lavenders and sage of all varieties.)

This year I decided to pretty much not bother with a vegetable plot.  It's just too darn risky with the deer.  Jeff did put in our 4'x8' bed of potatoes that I know they won't touch.  And the other day a friend shared some kale starts with us, and I couldn't resist the thought of a bounty of cucumbers and red peppers, so a few seedlings were bought knowing the risk.  The kale and peppers were planted amongst other things the deer avoid, so hopefully they won't get noticed.  The cukes are rather exposed, but we'll just have to wait and see if they make it.  Fingers crossed!







Against the never-ending list of never-ending projects (so so sadly true, and yes, we are those people), today, I'm rather more interested in enjoying my garden rather than expecting to be fed from it.  Happily, the raspberries have come on full force.  I did nothing to wrangle their spread this past year, so they are everywhere and bountiful.  We picked a pint plus in a matter of minutes inbetween the raindrops this afternoon.  The eggs are always beautiful, and at this time of year we are not lacking.  And finally, a gift of lavender discovered on the doorstep upon our return from the morning's outing.  Sweet sweet neighbors, thank you.

Other gardens and farms will feed us this year.  This Spring we paid in advance for our veggies from the farmstand down the street, not a CSA but a special neighbor's credit arrangement that I am loving.  And I'm not going to stress about the deer or the slugs or really, even, the watering.  I think it'll all be okay.  We've found a pretty happy balance here on our little plot of ground, and this year, maybe, I'll just get to enjoy it.

At trip to the museum

When last in Portland we finally paid a visit to the art museum.  It had been many many years since I had been there.  And Calder, in all his years, had never been to an art museum.  (How could that be?!  In actuality, I know that living in this small town and taking field trips to farms and forests instead of institutions of high art, is certainly the reason we haven't been until now.)

Dan Flavin's piece was a hit.

But I gotta say, Calder was a real grump for the most of it.

And Lake wasn't too sure about the Dishwasher, but he grooved on roaming the buildings with the non-judgemental curiosity of an almost-2-year old.

We're gonna have to take these boys to a few more museums before too long.

Do you look at the world differently after spending time in a museum?  We admired the raindrops on the light and dark cement.  The little things.

Family Camp :: III

Monday.  Day 3 of Family Camp.  

Getting ready to go, but still time for a class on Reptiles and Amphibians.  Time enough for Lake to place a call back to civilization: "We're not coming back!  Science camp has stollen our hearts.  The desert is too dry, too beautiful.  We can't face the pollen count in the valley.  Please send care pacakges.  We love to get mail!"

I'm in love with the sun-bleached views through old, warm, worn-in wood and screen doors.  The sound of the spring stretching.  The "thwack" and "thud" when it falls closed.

They taught us how to catch lizards with a long pole and fishing line loop.  It worked so well!  Gracie held onto hers for an hour or more.

No online learning here.  Hands on, people.  Live and in your face.  

The kids ate it up.  The grown ups too.

Lingerers that we are, camp was over, but we didn't leave for another hour or two.  Ate our lunch.  Played a bit of basketball.  I gathered a bundle of sage, and we finally said our goodbyes to camp.

And just as we had done on our way there, a stop in Sisters at Sno Cap for a scoop or two before heading back over the pass.  Gracie let her avant taste shine with a scoop of black licorice over rainbow sherbert.  (When we stopped in on Friday she had chosen bubble gum.)  That girlie had the darkest green tongue I've ever seen.

And Lake, sweet Lake.  Way to roll with it, babe.  I wasn't sure if this weekend was going to be a bit challenging for you, but you totally rocked it.  Way to camp, my boy!

I'm not sure yet if I'd do the camp right away next year, or give it a year to let interests brew and then go back.  It was a fabulous experience for our family, and I think it's totally worth doing again.  

So glad we went!  So happy Hancock is alive and flourishing out there.  It's a wonderful place to be able to send my thoughts when things get a little too, you know, around here.  A little bit of a brain break, a kiss of sun, a big sky, sage in the wind, the shade of a juniper, and a rock or two.