Signs of the Season: Seed to Harvest Awe

The work that I started last month continued in earnest today. Leaden skies and mushy snow aside, it’s planting time for me. Onions and celery, at least. In fact, I’m about half a week behind my planned schedule. But a visit to NH for some celebrating was worth the seed starting delay.

L4 and I prepared the seed soil this afternoon, and I pulled out the last of the 2009 onion harvest so that she and I both could marvel at how these tiny black specks could become something so very different in their maturity and something so good in so many of our meals, too.

This rhythm of planting, tending, harvesting, and eating is comforting to me. Admittedly it isn’t always peaceful–there are worries over lack of germination, dampening off, temperatures, too much rain, too little rain, critters wreaking havoc in the carefully tended beds…  the list could go on and on.  The point is that even with the knowledge that gardening is not perfect bliss, I keep at it.  It is intensely satisfying, connecting, grounding.

How are your garden plans going?  Or are you beginning to harvest where you live? What are you excited about for the upcoming season?

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So Long, Farewell

This week we’ll be bidding adieu to L1’s car.  The repair costs for it to pass inspection are greater than what the car is worth at this point. We are embarking on the adventure of becoming a 1-car family. I know people do it every day, but I have to admit I’m a little scared. It’s going to require an adjustment to our lifestyle and frame of mind.  If we lived in an area where public transportation was more convenient and available, I don’t think I’d be so nervous.  (In grad school I rode the bus frequently and enjoyed it.)

In the past we’ve discussed having only one car as something we’d like to happen “someday.”  We just didn’t know that someday was going to be so soon!  At this point we simply can not afford to buy another vehicle.  Thankfully L1 has his ebike and we’ve recently acquired more storage capacity for it when he rides.  I joked with him this evening that soon we’d be getting a windshield for it.  In the end, I’m glad we can joke about the situation.  I’m sure I’ll update how this situation pans out for us. Presently we’re looking toward the bright side–what we hope will be less consumption on our part in terms of resources.

If anyone out there is in a one-car family and has advice for us, we’d love to hear it!

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Knits, Gifted

Pictures of the birthday knits, completed.  First up, Kerry’s present, which I called “Hodgepodge Mittens” because I used elements from three different patterns to complete them.  See all the notes here.  My hands don’t fill out the mittens properly in these pictures, but you get the idea, right?

I’m glad to say they fit her just right.

As for the little red bit on which I was knitting away, L1 and I had a fun photo shoot with it before I wrapped it up for his mom, on whom it looked just lovely. Here it is on me (knitterly details here):

Not sure that I can pull off the Little Red look, but it was fun, nonetheless.

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Shop Talk Friday: Sneak Peeks

I am basking in the glow of accomplishment.  As of Friday afternoon I have FIVE shirts finished for my shop.  I thought I’d share a couple of sneak peeks of them here:

Only one in this color, sadly. And I’m very tempted to keep it for my own it’s such a lovely shade.

The bright edge of color with this navy makes me very happy in the gray of February.

Soon will I list, yes.  (Sorry, I have Star Wars on the brain at the moment, apparently.)

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Valentine Inspiration

Today is L4’s Valentine Party at school.  It’s been on the calendar, including the snack we signed up to bring.  Despite the fact that I’ve been thinking about the valentines for weeks, it dawned on me yesterday morning that I had not done a thing for them.  Eek!  Thankfully Jennifer of JCasa *handmade was more prepared than I, and gave me the inspiration I needed.  Over and over I’m thankful for the craft blog community and all of the sharing, support, and inspiration in it.  Today L4 is thankful, too, I think.

I had everything, down to the marbles and magnets, on hand. (I made the marble magnets a couple of years ago as holiday gifts.) My girl picked out the paper for the hearts, down to who would get which color rose.  I printed out the message on cardstock we still have from our homemade wedding invitations 11 years ago.  The hearts were stitched on with my sewing machine and a needle that will never see fabric again.  L4 colored little hearts or initials inside tiny circles, L1 cut them all out, and I glued them to the magnets, then glued marbles to the magnets, too.  Each magnet was then stuff into the heart pocket once it was dry.  Voila!

Sadly, my knitting mojo was completely thrown by this project and other events from yesterday. The new Citron is probably going to be a shorter version, like the first. There’s plenty of yarn, but not time. *sigh* Grace and harmony require flexibility, yes?

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Birthday Knitting

Every February I knit for two special ladies’ birthdays, my mother-in-law, and my friend Kerry.  (Sometimes Kerry gets handmade other than knitted goodness.)  Their birthdays are literally only a few days apart, which generally means my hands are very busy at the beginning of the month.  This has been the case.

I’m making another one of those. The yarn is kettle-dyed and has lovely subtle shading. I’m at the larger parts of it now, which means one row takes quite awhile to knit. It will be finished in time to gift!

The second birthday project? Here it is:

Hah! I can’t share what it looks like because she reads this blog. You’ll just have a wait a few more days (my readers and Kerry!). (Though MIL does read on occasion, too, I’m banking that she won’t before her birthday!! And if you have, Peggy, sorry for the ruined surprise.)

Countdown to Ravelympics, 4 days and a few hours. Birthday projects will be off the needles by then.  🙂

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Snapshots of an Ordinary Day

The way the log pile looked, blanketed in snow today, made me happy. There’s something a bit awesome about looking at the tree rings, thinking about their life and the warmth and comfort they would someday provide my family.

More small delights in a dog who just can’t get enough of the snow. He leaps and bounds through the white landscape with abandon, so happy and free. Oh, to live in my body that way!

Another happy snippet today was finally getting a shot for Braid Wednesday again! I haven’t worn it up like this in awhile, and it was a nice change. It was also fun when a group of students in class today wanted to examine it and ask how I did it. 🙂

The day wasn’t outstandingly good or bad, just a day in a life with sweet little moments.  What sweet moments have you found lately?

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Signs of the Season: Seed Disarray

It’s cold, there’s snow and ice, and we keep a fire merrily burning most of the day and night.  And yet, have you noticed that the sun is setting later and rising earlier?  Have you seen the tight buds on the trees, the promise of life wrapped snugly within?  There is no holding back the cycle of the year.

The Wheel turns, and thus I pull out my trusty garden excel file, I find all of my seed packets where they have been stashed in the freezer, and with them I remember the past and dream of the future growing season.  A small part of me finds the task of cataloging my seeds and making my list to order a bit odious.  Why?  Because I just shove all of the seeds away when I’ve planted them, with no organization making it time-consuming and dull to sort through all of the packets to see what I still have, weed out seeds that are too old, and then find them all again when it comes time to start the planting in a few weeks (eek!).

This year I took the “clear clutter, create space” adventure to my seed packets.

Exhibit A: The packets strewn all over my couch, and believe it or not, they are actually organized by plant type here.

Exhibit B: The packet now organized not only by plant type, but by how many weeks before last frost (BLF) they are to be started in the flats or simply planted outside.

This is going to make sowing time so. much. better.  I won’t be scrambling to find the seeds needed according to my spreadsheet.  Once again, I feel like I can breathe deeply anew.  I hope this lesson stays with me this year!

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Back in the Saddle: January’s Energy Report

For those of you who have been around awhile, you may have noticed that I haven’t done an energy report in months.  That would be because we stopped taking regular measures for no other reason than life. (July, for the interested, was the last month of regular recordings).  Despite not keeping track of our usage until January, we had good news when it came to re-instituting our budget billing with the utility company–our budget decreased by over $50/month!  Looking at last January’s usage, we are slightly lower for the gas and the electric.  But the water!!!  It is higher by a bit.  We’ll have to watch our usage and see what is happening with that. After discussing it briefly L1 and I already have some ideas, but we’ll see in February.

The Averages

Electric: 10.85 kwh/day(2010) vs. 11.45 kwh/day (2009)

Gas: 4.04 ccf/day vs. 4.81 ccf/day (2009)

Water: 73.7 gallons/day vs. 54.2 gallons/day (2009)

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