honeyflake

a.m.

this morning i was up extra early. i was helping chuck and margaret smoothly get out the door and on their way for their own adventure that they had planned. once margaret's hair was braided and details like her cardigan were packed up (in case it got chilly) and they were off, i took advantage of the early hour and headed down to the beach with a latte and my camera. a quick storm had just rolled through so the entire ocean front was pretty quiet. that is except for the sound of the sea... especially right at the little spot i had found... where there was a deep thick accumulation of stones, broken shells and beach glass... as i waded around up to my shins, sifting through the odd bits, searching solely for pieces of smooth, tumbled glass i listened to the sound of the atlantic... especially right below my feet... loving each time the waves trickled out, over and through this cluster of treasures from the ocean's floor causing them to happily chime and clink together... a sound like no other. a sound i'll gladly listen to any hour of the day, no matter how early. 

happy friday! may you enjoy all nature's sounds that the weekend may bring.

welcome stranger

remember all those varieties of tomatoes that we started indoors this past winter? the rainbow of heirlooms, big and small... well this rogue, first-to-ripen-red-cherry-tomato-growing plant is not one of them. a spontaneous garden surprise. most likely grown from some cherry tomato seeds that made it into our compost bin — something that we've witnessed happen here in the past... what happens is, when we disperse out the compost onto the gardens in spring, we are also dispersing out random seeds from food or flowers that have made it into the composter... sometimes the seeds flourish and sometimes they don't. sometimes we see strange stray seedlings emerge and we might pluck them thinking that they are just weeds. however when this volunteer tomato plant emerged, smaller and way behind our already started tomato plants, we recognized it and let it be. thinking for sure it would never make it and catch up to the others. giving it a chance and some space because you never know... then it started to flower and get buds right along with the rest of the tomatoes... how about that? i began guessing that it would be a sungold plant since last year the sungolds were abundant. but as it ripened we saw otherwise... turns out it is red cherry tomato — something we've actually never grown here in our gardens before. a stranger in these parts. and with all the rain we've had this spring & summer, the growing seems to be a little later than normal, making our other plants out there have a few green tomatoes on them (which we are checking daily for signs of ripening) so the fact that this new one is here, ripe and ready to eat? well that is a nice welcomed surprise.

many quilts

orange fabrics from beth.

since the onequilt project began many many months ago, my mailbox has received bundle after bundle of amazing little fabric swatches. each one chosen by a different member of the project with their own wonderful vision and personal style... natural linens, orangey cottons, vintage flour sacks, crisp reds, etc... it is always very exciting each time i've received a new package. turns out, no matter how eager i was to create a newly sewn square with these materials, i somehow let them slide, and have now found myself quite behind! so lately i've been organizing. and sewing. and completing a few new quilt squares to mail. woohoo. 

 lighthouse from a sweet linen bundle for rashida.

catching up with nanette's denims & flour sack.

planning my own fabric bundles - still in the sketching phase

and as for my bundle of fabrics? the ones i should have sent out to all? well i'm quite behind on that too. let's say it is very much in progress. very much in progress from sometime in spring!  i had some pretty grand ideas — including the whole family, since it will be for the family room — which i'm still trying to work out... above which you can see... hopefully that will finish up soon too. if all goes as invisioned there will be some silkscreen or perhaps stamping and some lovely hemp fabric... but the fabric printing process is is still evolving so well have to wait and see what actually unfolds. it might take its own turn and end up as something completely unexpcted... until then, i've got a few completed quilt contributions to mail out.

purply

these are so very july to me. when these hydrangeas are at their peak is when we have blueberries for picking, buzzing cicadas buzzing, and a strong desire to just be bobbing and swimming in the ocean or pool... so very july. so very lazy-summer-day... off to grab our suits.

hope you are having a happy weekend!

outdoor fare

no matter how long or short our stay in the woods will be, i inevitably find myself putting a lot of time and thought into the camp friendly foods that we'll be bringing along with us... breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks. i flip through clipped magazine articles, cookbooks, scan a few websites — jotting down ideas old and new, doodling image after image of simple and dreamy eats to be consumed  out under the trees and sky... and always appearing on these brainstorming lists is the iconic sketch of a marshmallow on a stick over a few flames... you know, for smores: good chocolate, good fire-toasted marshmallows and good graham crackers. 

before we left i baked up a batch of graham crackers using this amazing recipe. so much better than from the box -  these are softer and more cookie-like and they travel just as well. i protected them by wrapping them up in a little parchment paper and a recycled piece of a brown paper bag....

and kept on going... by then stamping the sweet parcel... and tying a little cotton twine... (and i wonder why it was that i forgot to pack any socks for margaret. but i think the smores we ended up having outside our tent may just have made up for that little fact. and thank goodness we did remember the winter hats)

a bit of the tent life

sometimes in the summer

you find yourself and your family rising early and heading down to the beach to start the day with some fresh air, yoga/meditation, coffee/tea, bagels and sun...

and sometimes

you find yourself and your family with a few hours left of sun in the weekend, unanimously deciding to head down to the beach to end the day with some salmon wraps, roasted beets from the garden, berries, surf gazing and fresh air.

sometimes you find yourself simply treasuring all these special seasonal sometimes of the season.

swell

• making castles

• digging holes

• reading the latest issue of yoga journal

• eating snacks from the beach bag

• drawing pictures in the sand 

• perfecting a beach inspired playlist

• watching the recent full moon's tides and waves rise and fall

• laughing as they crashed on top of us

a holiday weekend

tea time