honeyflake

a holiday weekend

tea time

in the garden in june

planting new beans.

shelling the last of our peas.

savoy cabbage — getting big.

digging up the first beets.

two beets & two boots.

rainy day back-up plan

we woke up friday to another weather report of rain and thunder showers for the day! so instead of scooping up the beach bag and kicking off the weekend with a day of sun and endless blue skies like i had hoped, we scooped up our colored pencils and sketchbooks and headed off to some other endless inspiring views (and where the skies can be anything from gray - to blue - to even pinks)... the metropolitan museum of art.

viewing goya.

doing a little study of some van goghs. 

our first stop was the european paintings. we stayed there for quite a bit... wandering, gazing, sitting, sketching, coloring, talking, photographing... eventually moving on, we then briefly peeped in on the pen & parchment exhibit (which turned out to be packed with inspiration for both of us — huge old handmade books from the middle ages, pages and pages of hand-done lettering, ornate initial caps, etc... so many little design details) and we also fit in a visit with michalangelo's st. anthony painting and a few buddhas too. 

at one point margaret noticed that the light started getting brighter and darker in the museum. looking up we realized it was the sun outside — trying to break out from behind the clouds — shining in through the frosted skylights... and when we finally walked out through the doors of our rainy day retreat, out onto the city streets, we saw it was true — the sun was coming out. and it shone for the rest of the afternoon as we walked over to meet chuck for some frozen yogurt, then onto an enchanted little store, and back to our subway stop to start heading home... 

thinking perhaps if i stitch it, it will shine

on a rainy day

baked some of our strawberry bounty into martha's strawberry hand pies. a little bit of comfort on a day with endless rain.

yoga party

we planned this little party for margaret and a few of her friends — some bending and stretching yoga fun to celebrate her sixth birthday. we borrowed some space from my yoga ashram, brought along some hand-crafted decorations and snacks and simply set up for a mini kids yoga class/party...

well actually, first there were invites... the rolled purple paper invites were inspired by rolled up yoga mats - tied with embroidery floss to have carrying handles, like some real mats do...

after we set the date and time, and you can imagine it wasn't much long after, the yoga party ideas began to flow... here are a few of the details from the day...

we created a happy mandala design that we then silkscreened on some organic cotton t-shirts for the little yogis to wear at our gathering (and to take home too) to spread the happiness. we set these out on the mats before the guests arrived. then there were the prayer flags...

the birthday-wish-filled prayer flags were inspired by the traditional tibetan flags, slightly modified for our celebration, but overflowing with good intentions non-the-less... they were a mix of simple fabric rectangles, some were painted with fabric paints and others were embellished with fabric applique on the sewing machine. these were hung over the party tables where we set out the snacks and drinks and cupcakes. i tried to keep the food as simple as i could... organic red (or perhaps party matching purple?) grapes, cheese quesadillas, water and some homemade cupcakes (with cupcake toppers to match the shirts)... and what would a homegrown party be without a "get your picture taken as a ______ board"? (remember the pirate? well we still had some wood). this one actually starts out upside down, after they had their pictures taken, the photo can be flipped and it will appear as if they are posing in a hand-stand with lotus variation...

the last thing i planned was the actual yoga and body balancing/stretching games. i prepped myself as the parties yoga teacher with a few kids yoga books, websites and library dvds (this, this, this and this) and merged all that with some things from my yoga teacher training... and with that we became a room full of roaring lions, trees in a forest, rising/setting suns, and butterflies with colorful wings, etc... the kids were fantastic. to change the pace we also planned a balancing game (sort of like musical chairs meets prehensile toes and the tree pose.) and the limbo. 

and of course there was a little happy birthday and a few candles, and lots of happy party fun.  namaste young yogis, namaste. :)

home-vs-away

home field: 1 berry

away field:  200 berries (plus or minus the few eaten in the fields, in the car on the way home, while estimating the count for this blog post, etc...)

a few stats of the season...

so far the backyard home strawberry field has surprised us with 1 shiny big red strawberry (which margaret picked, danced around with and sampled earlier in the week). yay! there are still a bunch of green berries on the plants out there - and we'll be watching them ripen and hopefully keep them protected from the bugs and birds. let's–go–ber–ries!

next up, the sweet as always, u-pick away field, with row upon row of organic berry plants filled with fruit was as fruitful as ever today. chuck, margaret and i went to the farm this afternoon. (to be able to pick a strawberry right from it's stem and taste it's flavor, while still warm from the sun is quite an important ritual of june. quite important.) we've found this past week to be a bit 'full', as this time of year tends to get, so the peaceful time out there at the away field was much appreciated by all of us i think. add to that serene setting a shining sun, that decided to make an appearance in what seems like forever...  and all was right. it was a chance to be together, taste the season, get some fresh air, and allow the limbo rock to stop looping through our brains... (who's idea was that anyway? oh, yes, right. that would be me.) well, anyway... home-vs-away... when the season wraps up in a week or so, and all these shining stars are done for the year, i'm sure that for all sorts of good reasons that both these fields, each with their own 'advantages' will come out on top. 

in the works

its friday! currently we're in the midst of a bit of last minute party preparations. a party this weekend to celebrate turning six. party time is quickly approaching and the house is full of activity — for instance, right now chuck is working on burning the silkscreen... the butter is being brought to room temperature on the counter for baking... limbo rock has been purchased and downloaded from itunes... and i'm going over my checklist every few seconds. (it should be an interesting friday night — and hopefully a very fun saturday afternoon.) happy weekend to you!

it's been a while

after five years of being on a break, the band phish is playing together once again... they've scheduled a bunch of shows for the summer and we quickly hopped on board again for a couple of nights. this past thursday and friday, with two rain ponchos, one pre-show picnic and our crisp tickets in hand, chuck and i got to experience two nights of outdoor, waterside, rain-drenched live music down at jones beach. the concerts were rain or shine so despite the cold and rain, the shows went on. thursday, bad forecast and all, i put together a little pre-show picnic (which we ended up having in the car to stay dry and warm). on the menu was buttermilk cheddar biscuits, sauteed organic bok choi from our csa, halved strawberries, a thermos of lemon ginger tea and a sigg filled with water. on friday the rain fell so hard, we skipped the picnicking and dashed between the raindrops to go straight from our car to our seats joining a sea of fellow winter-jacket and poncho wearing fans (um, didn't those tickets say summer tour?). ultimately being in the midst of the music lifted us above the elements and both nights were incredible. filled with songs and music we love. filled with something that chuck and i have been enjoying together for a long time... when i can turn to chuck and say, "you know that super funky boogie on reggae woman cover sort of reminded me of that time we heard the dead's extra-funky shakedown street at rfk in 95.." and he replies "i was thinking the same thing!" i think, wow, it's really been a while. 

".... and the crowd went wild"

celebrating six

yes, our margaret is now six. six! so far, being six seems to be off to quite an exciting start!! the first day alone included a special crown and dress to wear, extra hugs and kisses, nonstop energy-filled cartwheels, twirls and tumbles, many rounds of rock-paper-scissors, cupcakes with purple icing, many rounds of happy birthday, many smiles and silly faces for the camera, gnocchi for dinner (her request) and chocolate fondue for dessert. good, good, good sixth birthday kind of stuff... shared and celebrated together. happy birthday!

seahorse

we found this tiny galloping trinket down at the beach this afternoon, washed up in a pile of broken shells...  not exactly what i imagined i'd be taking pictures of when i headed out with my camera... but that's all part of the joy. hope you're weekend is filled with a little surprise or two, too.

me & my mom

spring tonic

detoxing and daily dharma

my little greener-than-green wheatgrass elixir... a small glimpse of a bigger something that i embarked on a few days ago... starting this past weekend, as part of my yoga practice, i began doing a deep spring detox/cleanse... a whole spiritual-physical-mental experience meant to purify, change habits, restore balance, and good things of the like. :) 

it has been a pretty interesting past couple of days. especially the eating and drinking. i felt that our family ate very naturally and consciously as it was, however, as i've witnessed, there's always room to go a little deeper. room to strip away and freshen up a bit more. simplifying in a really pure and fresh way. going from a starting fast-day of only juices, water and herbal teas, to raw fruits and vegetables, to adding cooked vegetables, next adding legumes, nuts, whole grains, and eventually tofu, etc... (i'm sort of hovering now at the fruit/veggie/grains/legumes/nuts stage... it feels right for now, so i haven't added anything past that.) there have been lots of arugula salads, grated carrots, mugs of veggie broth, organic licorice tea and the occasional shot of wheatgrass. 

there are other aspects to this whole experience too, like fasting from news, computers, negative habits, etc... but obviously since i'm here typing for my blog, you can see that i've powered up the apple once again, but at least for now, with a little more awareness.  

ॐ

let me take you down

cause i'm going to... la, la, la, la... yeah, you know the rest. strawberry fields was the song of the day around here. that's because a mini-strawberry field is currently now in the works out back. woohoo. today, after the rain passed, margaret and i (and a basket full of "kids") went out and planted about 16 wee, organic, scraggly-rooted strawberry crowns. we are all pretty excited. it's really just a small patch of earth, between the old blueberries and new asparagus (and on top of many many earthworms), but we have big hopes for these guys. ok, so we will most probably have to wait until 2010 to harvest our first berries - but i'm pretty sure it will be worth the wait. and until then we'll just keep tending to this newly planted little spot of earth in the corner of our yard - as well as the rest of what surrounds it.

and here's to a happy earth day tomorrow! 

do you have any simple, fun plans to celebrate the day?

sea foam and sea dwellers

lofty piles of tiny bubbles everywhere along the water's edge today... being swirled and carried about by the incoming waves, blown about by the spring winds, and scooped up by little hands.

...........................................................................

back home... some paint swirled and layered all along the paper's surface by margaret... to create a happy mermaid wearing a pearl-topped crown.

happy weekend!

on monday

wearing panda ears... in the new garden bed... while "replanting" some spring forsythia blooms... one by one.

coloring

that time of year when our living room closely resembles a small, warm, sun-lit, wind-protected polytunnel

plus or minus a few amenities (and gardening tools). the seeds we sowed for our garden several weeks ago have sprouted, grown and once again taken over a good share of the living room floor each night & morning... this is the time when during the day they are in the attic, under a light set up that gives them adequate rays to grow and due to the early spring cold at night, they get brought down into the warm air of the living room until we bring them up again the next morning... so this is the time, while we're amidst these 40º overnight temps, that mornings find us somewhere between the coffee table and craft baskets doing lots of lots of watering, observing and anticipating (ie: how will all eight of the heirloom tomato varieties fair and where will we put them all??). giving us a scene so similar to the same time, same place as last year.

 

oooh look, that's the savoy cabbage. a first for our garden this year... umm, yeah, for real, we need to make a bit of a garden plan and think about where everything will end up... because on top of these thriving indoor seedlings, there are still plenty more seed packs waiting for their time to be sowed directly outside in their garden beds!  perhaps it is time to re-read this one?

ahhh, no question that the gardening season is here and underway, even if we're not fully getting out there yet, there is plenty happening in here. and hey—with all this talk of gardening here (and everywhere it seams)—if you have an interest in the revival of the victory garden's popularity, or if you just have a love for all things vintage, you may want to check out this informational movie i came across. i felt like i was transported to 1943 for a bit — loving the simple times, the knitted sweater, and huge backyard plot (however not so loving the pest control method)... here's to gardening and it's sweet beginnings! 

Watch Victory Garden Movie USA in Educational  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com