Heralds of Spring

You can put the girl in the princess dress, but you can't put the princess manners in the girl.

I am not sure anything could herald in the spring time more beautifully than the bright yellow trumpets of daffodils.  Bright, sunny, cheerful yellow is the perfect color to first set your eyes upon after the gray and colorless months of winter.

It's been a bit of a tizzy around here lately.  I cleaned off the porch and readied it for the many months of porch sitting ahead.  (I can't wait!)  We ate our first porch supper on April 10th and I marked the occasion with a photo.

I saw baby plants fighting their way through the debri of their deceased ancestors in the flower circle and spent time before Easter (when I should have been cleaning for the company to come) clearing out the old to make way for the young'uns.   But I couldn't help it!  I couldn't pull myself inside on such a glorious day, trading the glorious task of baby flower admiring for cleaning a house.  You wouldn't have, either.  It felt invigorating to get my hands dirty and more so, to see new life popping up here and there, promises of the future.

Then there was the winter/summer clothing shuffle, which is always a monumentous task...and the sorting through bins to downsize since I am already out there- and the cleaning of the Granary that somehow once again became a dumping ground through the winter.

Then of course, Easter!  Prep work, cooking, cleaning, dying hardboiled eggs florescent colors, welcoming, refilling, hiding eggs and finding and then the cleanup afterwards.  Hosting an event is always so busy and so I took no Easter pictures of all the children together.  No homemade clothes this year- just hand me downs or secondhand clothes.   The closest thing that came to it was me adding a bit of a higher neckline to Corynn's dress and using a crocheted tiara for Ineke that I had made a month or so ago.  I can tell you though, they all looked spiffy.  They shine up nicely.

We've had several occasions of fancy clothes that would have been wonderful opportunities to take some family pictures- including a prom! this winter (hence the tiara) and I am just too busy right up until the very minute (and all throughout) to take nice pictures.  A quick snap is all I get IF I am lucky.  It's a regret...but I guess not a big enough one to warrant change.

I sent a box of cheer with a bunny on the package and the children started making bunny after bunny after bunny and lining the whole house with them.  Bunnies...EVERYWHERE! And at the very moment that box of cheer was mailed. a box of cheer was serendipitously sent my way too- brown paper packages crossing in the air to send hugs from kindred friends.

Among all of these things, puppies are growing and people are claiming them.  (You should see how big they are now!  I must post pictures soon!)  A chicken has a new little hatchling.

Now that the clothing exchange is done and the house has been put back into some semblance of order, I feel able to breathe a bit easier.

Hope your Easter was lovely!

Around Hopestead

The main garden two weeks ago

The main garden on Saturday

Thanks, all, for your many well wishes for my surprise appendectomy.  Indeed, I am back up and running now and feeling quite well.  I am surprised how little I was on the computer while semi-laid up and supposed to be resting.  That would have seemed a perfect time for blogging but, as is evidenced by the lack of noise on this blog, you and I both know that didn't happen.  The porch, you see, was calling to me.  I would sit out there among the birds and flowers and the breezes (we don't have air-conditioning, you know) and I would convalesce.  The porch is the best place to keep an eye out for children as these days they don't stay in the house for very many minutes of the day and when they are out, they scatter to the four winds.  I am pretty sure I did nothing of substance for a good three days except crochet oodles of dishclothes for the kind people who brought us snacks, meals or flowers.  I used up plenty of cotton yarn remnants!  The porch was a perfect place to rest all except for one bit...

The children wave at every car that passes by, which means the cars have begun to look around for us as they pass, which means everyone who passes by always looks up onto the porch to see if there is anyone there.  This is a bit embarrassing for a girl laid up for a day or two- out in the open.  I did wonder about the people passing by the house- what they must have thought of me sitting out on the porch when they went past in the morning and when I was still there again in the afternoon.   A road crew was working our road on one of those days, the men driving back and forth, back and forth, all day long.  They waved every time they passed and I did too... but inwardly I groaned and thought how it must look to them- a girl sitting on the porch and doing nothing every time they passed by.  I felt I should paint a sign in big bold letters I AM NOT LAZY, I AM CONVALESCING.  

The garden has gone crazy- but in a good way.  The children and I are keeping on top of the weeds and garden chores better this year than ever (45 minutes right after breakfast and chores) and they look beautiful.  The first picture with little baby tomato bushes, taken a few weeks ago, look nothing like that now.  The tomato plants have reached the top of the wire fencing at this point and Matt got to taste the first ripe tomato just this week...a little orange cherry.  I am so looking forward to those first delicious bites of garden tomato- and judging by all the little green orbs dangling down, it shouldn't be long.  Along with the lone tomato, we've harvested quite a few zucchini, a few hot peppers, garlic scapes, radishes, kale, swiss chard, chamomile flowers, basil, dill, yarrow and beet greens.

A little tidbit- if you procrastinate long enough on thinning the beets- you'll get baby beets to eat with supper instead of just greens.  Pairing those delicious baby beets with homemade feta.  Nuthin' betta.

My flower circle is looking pretty sad right now- many of the flowers bloomed prematurely due to the heat and the plants look haggard and old because of the lack of rain.  Rain, or lack thereof, seems to be a topic of discussion around here lately.  Drought is whispered.  Heads shake, and people have begun checking their well levels and springs.  I know of a couple of families that had to move in with relatives because their wells have run dry.  I haven't watered the gardens or flower circles because people and animals are a priority here- but everyday I wonder how much longer we have until rain.  A cow drinks a lot of water.  Four cows drink even more.  And cooking, drinking, washing, and laundry for a family of seven takes a fair amount of water too.  So the flower circle stays parched and I (and our neighbors) pray for rain.

I have a ton of photos on my camera~ I hope to be a more regular visitor to my own blog in these coming weeks.  A watermelon eating baby, summer swims, blooms and blossoms in every room and the delicious feasts of summer.  Lots of beauty these days, lots of abundant living.  It's so, so good.