The Firefly Files

Creative Endeavors

A most unusual occurrence this summer... I kept knitting!  I typically find I lose the motivation to knit in summer months; there are just too many other things to do.  But for some reason this year I've kept up with it and as a result I think I'm actually going to do really well with making gifts for loved ones this year.  See, every January I sit down and make a new "Project" sheet which lists birthdays and things I might like to knit for each  person.  At the bottom I create another list called "Yule" where I jot down people I'd like to knit a little something up for for stocking stuffer type gift, as well as bigger gifts for family members.  Finally, I make a smaller list of things I just want to try for the fun of it or to make up for myself.  Naturally, after all that work (setting up the list is half the fun )... I suddenly find myself in October with 5 different birthdays and the holidays (and yet more birthdays) looming just beyond... and I've hardly knitted a thing!

Anyway, I won't find myself in such a plight this fall.  Though I may not get to everyone and everything on my list, I won't be left so woefully behind.  So far I've knitted:

1. Another pair of the Alice In Wonderland fingerless mitts for my mother-in-law.  She specifically mentioned how much she liked them when I showed her the pair I had knitted up for myself.  She's a composer and her hands get chilly in the winter when she's working at the piano.

2. A toddler blanket for my nephew (see photo)  When he was up visiting this summer, he LOVED the 6-hour throw I made.  So I decided to make him a smaller version, using a different yarn (I despise Homespun!!).  I used the Jiffy yarn, because although I don't like acrylic, I wanted it to be wash and dry for ease of care.

H's Toddler Blanket

3.  I also made a pair of fingerless mitts for my father and brother, who share the same birthday.

Fingerless Mitts for R

4.  I'm currently working on something NOT on my list, as I just found out recently about it:  an Owlie Sleep Sack for the my new niece/nephew who is expected in February!  I found the pattern at Ravelry (of course) and it's adorable.  My very first cable project!  I finished that part last night and am very pleased with how the owls came out.  I find it's a little tricky maneuvering the cable needle, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it.  I really, REALLY wanted to find a nice yarn for this project; for it to be an heirloom piece.  I was loathe to knit with acrylic again, but I was worried about wool being to scratchy and/or too difficult to care for.  Lo and behold, I was ecstatic for find a very soft, hand dyed,  100% superwash merino wool that can be machine washed gentle and machine dried on low temperature at my LYS!  It's called Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted and the colors are fabulous.  I tried to pick something gender-neutral and came up with a beautiful blue/green/purple mix.

Owlie Sleep Sack

Next up for September I have my mom, who I plan on knitting slippers for, and my neighbor, who I'm going to make a calorimetry for.  I guess that's all for now.  Happy Knitting!

Summer Vacation

Just getting back from a week at DH's family's beach house.  It was a lot of fun, as usual, but I'm left feeling a tad exhausted (that whole need-a-vacation-from-your-vacation thing) and shell shocked that August has snuck up on me so quickly.  Where did the time go!  I need to get crackin' with school planning, which I intend to do next week.  I also need to play a bit of catch up in the garden.  A week away and WOOSH all the weeds I took care of just days before I left appeared to have not only returned but tripled in size!  Egad.  But enough about that... I'll write some garden updates in another entry.  I mainly wanted to post a few pics of vacation before I forget!  So without further ado...

The top photo really says it all... beach feet! 

The second is a shot from the front porch, which faces west.  This is a million dollar view and I can't seem to take enough pictures of it that really capture the scene in all its glory.  This was one of the better ones; I'll spare you the multitude of similar shots! 

Photo number three:  YUM!  Need I say more?? 

Four:  The Peeps (Peep #1 sporting his new hair cut) play a game of chess while waiting for dinner.  Seems like all we do is kill time between awesome meals there! LOL 

Pictures 5 & 6:  Peep 2 and 1, respectively.

We really lucked out with the weather... not a single rainy day the entire time we were there!   The Peeps played tennis, swam, and enjoyed the freedom of being able to ride their bikes all over the place.  We don't have any good spots for biking right around our house-- we have to drive to go biking-- so this was a huge treat for them!

As for me, I got a lot of reading in, including my latest, Foreign Correspondence by Geraldine Brooks. (thumbs up)  I also got quite a bit of knitting done, including some felted items that I've been wanting to experiment with.  But that is something else I'll save for another post, once I get the photos uploaded!

So, after some much needed R&R (the summer has been crazy busy, as usual), we're settled back home, and I'm am really looking forward to August.  It is usually quieter as the summer winds down.  I love knowing my favorite season is right around the corner, but still enjoy the warm summer days and bounty of fruit and vegetables from my own garden as well as those from the Farmer's Market.  It is a season of plenty!  The hot days are tempered by cooler nights, where I find myself reaching for the thin wool blanket at the end of the bed in the wee hours of the morning.  Great sleeping weather!  This is a brief respite before the bustling days of school, honey extracting season, and putting the garden to bed for the winter starts.  But, I have to say, I am truly happy to greet each endeavor as it arrives.  It's a good life!

First Foods

It's still early in the season in these parts, but I've been enjoying lettuce (as well as wild foods-- dandelion, chickweed, and violets) for a while now at least.  Now, at last, I'm starting to get some of the really good stuff!  This is a photo of one morning's worth of strawberries, organically grown and freshly picked.  We had the best strawberry harvest we've every had this year.  I even got to make a little jam!

Strawberries

Could be a very good year for fruit in general... this is the first year that I have fruit on my dwarf trees that survived the "June drop."  I have little pears and apples, though none of my nectarines made it (it's only in it's first year, so that is to be expected).  Of course the giant old apple and cherry are producing like mad, as always.  The blueberries aren't quite ripe yet, but we have lots of fruit this year for such small trees (they're only in their third year).  I think we'll have enough for pancakes and smoothies, but probably not enough for pie... we'll see.

At the moment we have a steady stream of peas, which we like to eat straight off the vine.  I keep a bowl on the kitchen table for snacking but it never stays full very long.  I look forward to seeing what will be debuting next!

Wonderland Wristlets

We saw Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland when it came out a few months ago and really enjoyed it.  But, being the knitting uber-geek that I am, I couldn't help but notice the beautiful, delicate wristlets Alice wore.  So when I got home I went to straight to Ravelry and downloaded a pattern from Tiny Owl Knits (love her!).  I made three pairs, they were so quick and easy (one for me, one for Peep #2, and one for her friend).  It's also the first time I have bought the actual yarn that the pattern calls for!  It's really gorgeous yarn... light and ethereal, like knitting with spider webs.  I purchased a few more color combos and plan to make some more for gifts... everyone who sees them wants a pair!

Wonderland Mitts

School's Out! (Almost)

I probably should post an update about school, since we are wrapping up for the year. Let's see... this is where we are:

Grammar-- Finished FLL4 with both Peeps, while Peep #1 supplemented with a grade-level grammar workbook.

Math-- completed Saxon 5/4 and 7/6.

SOTW-- finished through chapter 40.  Still have two more to go.

Spelling/Vocabulary-- Peep #1 is finishing up Vocabulary from Classical Roots; Peep #2 is working on Spelling Workout E, but probably won't finish the book by the time we wrap up the first week of June.

Latin-- both peeps continue to do Latin with my Dad.  They are almost finished with Minimus (Peep #2) and Learning Latin Through Mythology (Peep #1-- he's completed Minimus and Secundus)

Science-- we didn't do a formal curriculum this year.  We finished up a semester-long unit study on the human body in the fall/winter, and concentrated on life sciences the second part of the year.

All this in addition to piano lessons, book clubs, karate, tennis, art lessons, and various monthly homeschool programs offered locally over the year.  I feel really good about what we've accomplished.  The Peeps worked really hard, and it is so worth it to be able to finish up a bit early and enjoy the nice weather.  We're doing real world math activities now, as well as math based games; science is mostly nature journaling/plant and insect identification as well as some kits; grammar is journaling, letter writing, and history reports from SOTW.  It's a great way to wind down the year! 

I'm planning on doing something really different next year... I'm a little nervous about it but think it's time:  we are going to try a year of unstructured learning ((gasp!!))  (I hesitate to use the term "unschooling" because it won't exactly be that.  For example, I do plan to do some workbook type activities and will expect some written reports on what they're doing, lots of outside classes/activities.)  But generally, I'm going to let the Peeps choose the subject matter and the pace for the year.  When else in their lives are they going to get the opportunity to take a year and study what they're passionate about?  I'm really so excited about it.  I feel like the time is right;  we've covered all four blocks of history with SOTW, the major branches of science as outlined in WTM,  and have achieved a solid foundation in grammar and mathematics.  Now I want them to apply what they've learned... write about it, use it in everyday life (in the case of math).  For instance, we haven't done a lot of writing.  At all.  Well, this will be the year.  Writing writing writing... whatever they want-- stories, poems, letters, essays, letters to the editor, etc etc etc. but WRITING.  The math acumen they've acquired... they will USE it.  Budget for groceries, balance a check book, figure out how much oil we use in a year, travel schedules and so forth.  They are also interested in taking our soon-to-be plethora of excess eggs and having their own little egg business.  They would be responsible for operating it, including factoring costs/labor and that kind of thing.  Along those same lines, we will be covering a lot life skills areas.

I can't wait!  I've always wanted to do this, and have admired unschooling/unschooling-type learning from afar, but didn't have the confidence to try it.  I was so afraid of them getting behind.  Well, a couple of friends went back to school this past year, and I have seen clearly that that simply is not an issue.  The kids catch up--quickly! 

Additionally, we struggled a bit with motivation in terms of school work this year.  Maybe it's the age-- but I've been hearing similar stories of dissent from their friends' parents (homeschoolers).  For instance Peep #2, who previously loved math, began to complain about doing it.  I got moans and groans about the length of the history reports, that writing wasn't "fun" anymore... that kind of thing.  RED FLAG!!  The whole point for me in doing this homeschool gig is to raise people that love to learn.  That never stop questioning and critically thinking about things, that never stop wondering why things work or happen the way they do.  With that in mind, I'm hoping to rekindle a little bit of what I fear we've lost this year.   

Now, Peep #2 is going to THRIVE with this style of learning.  She is my little butterfly, flitting around constantly finding things to discover and learn about.  Curiosity is one of her greatest assets.  However, Peep #1... he is much more like me in personality **cough** Type A ** cough**.    He loves his little check lists, finishing workbooks, making corrections, getting grades, and most of all -- knowing exactly what needs to be done.  (And not only with school... this is the kid who has been asking me every single night since he could talk:  "What are we doing tomorrow?"  He wants to know the what, the when, the how-- everything to be lined up for him.)  He is going to find it challenging to fill his own time and being in charge of his own scheduling.  This will be a real opportunity for growth for him! 

We'll see... we're going to run with it for a year and see how it flies.  We may go back to the more structured style next year.  Or, if it's working for Peep #2 and not Peep #1, I may let just her continue to do her own thing and go back to our usual MO with Peep #1.  I don't know... I don't know what to expect or what the next year will bring--only time will tell!

The Birds and the Bees... and Garden Things

Our chicks arrived on Mother's Day.  I am so excited about our new arrivals!  I ordered a couple of Rhode Island Reds to replace the ones we've lost over the years.  They are just the best winter layers; we have never had a winter without eggs, and I don't use an artificial heat source.  This winter we were down to one Red ("Mrs. Cluck", as she was named by a 7 year old Peep #2) and felt the pinch.  We never had to actually purchase store-bought eggs (gasp--the horror!) But there was a time there, especially around the holiday baking rush, where I felt a little panicky. LOL

So anyway, I also ordered a few Buff Orpingtons, because they are supposed to be sweet, friendly, and good brooders.  It would be nice if in the future I could just get some fertilized eggs and let a hen do the work of chick-rearing for me.  I also got, at loooooong last, my blue egg layers!  I've been wanting these for so long and it just never worked out. (Once the hatchery was out of stock, and another time a lady was giving some away and then changed her mind.)  These Ameraucanas are beautiful and it's going to be an exciting moment the first time I find a blue egg in one of the nesting boxes!  (These are good times on the homestead, people.  You know, we don't have any cows to tip over.) 

Chicks 2010

Meanwhile, all of my seed starting is done.  I have flats in various stages set around the property.  Out in the garden and ready for planting this week are my tomatoes, peppers, calendula, and sage.  In the hardening off stage outside the greenhouse are the nasturtium, beets, and radishes.  Under the lights inside the greenhouse, just to give them a head start, are pumpkins, squash (acorn and butternut), cucumbers, and zucchini.  I also am starting a few more nasturtium and trying some Chinese lantern flowers this year.  The last bit to do will be to direct sow the corn and sunflowers, which I hope to get to this weekend.

I was so excited to see little fruit on my fruit trees this year!  I've had a terrible time getting my fledgling orchard started up.  Fortunately I have the established apple trees to fall back on, but I really want the ones I've planted to get going!  This year my fig, nectarine, pears, and dwarf apples all have little fruit!  If they only survive the June drop I will be ecstatic.  And, the blueberry bushes just get bigger and better every year.  I long for the day when I pick a big colander full ... but I am still a ways off from that.  Finally, the strawberries are taking over my vegetable garden.  I hate to move them though, because they are really thriving there.  The trick is to keep the chickens, birds, and chipmunks away so that the humans can actually enjoy a decent crop.  I'll have to rig some sort of MacGyver-esque contraption to suit that purpose.

This week I split my hive and re-queened.  I had mixed feelings about that.  Most beekeepers re-queen every other year.  Mine is in her third year and I didn't want to get rid of her.   You know, there just is something wrong about getting rid of an old queen to replace her with a new young one, KWIM??  And, of all the hives that my mentor manages, mine was the only to survive this year's winter.  They are just going gangbusters and the population had exploded.  So, reluctantly, I split the hive and gave the existing queen to a friend to start their own hive. (At least it wasn't, off with her head!!)  My "old" queen and a small band of her subjects have been exiled to the Fair Lands of the North where hopefully they will prosper with a new colony.  A few days later my "new" queen was introduced and so far all is well.  And that is that.  Like the bees we are busy busy this time of year, and are really looking forward to being able to put the books down for a while so we can be outside!  (Just a few more weeks left!)  More on school in my next post...

Signs of Life

Signs of life are popping up all over the garden, heralding the return of spring:

First Crocus

Peonies Rising

Pussy Willow

Apple Bud

Meanwhile, the hens enjoy some sunshine after I've corralled them in the run for the evening...

Busy Chickens

Good Reads (and Eats)

A friend of mine at our knitting group gave me a couple of books recently that were excellent.  Neither of them were my usual reading genre but I wound up thoroughly enjoying both nevertheless.  The first is called The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood (a local author to boot!).  

The Knitting Circle: A Novel

Ann Hood

It was a sad, sweet story about how knitting can bring people together and also be therapeutic in times of tragedy.  It was so much more poignant than the banal Friday Night Knitting Club (*blech*) with multi-dimensional characters and a refreshingly unpredicable plot.  In addition to the compelling story it really made me want to try to knit a couple of different things I've never tried before (including my first sweater! But that's a topic for another post...) 

The other book, given to me by the same person, is a memoir written by Gesine Bullock-Prado (Sandra Bullock's sister) called Confections of a Closet Master Baker.  Talent must exist in spades in the Bullock family because Gesine is a superb writer who made me feel her passion for baking so palpably that I actually am planning to try several of the recipes (yes, the prose is dotted with recipes!).  I'm not a big cook, and certainly not any kind of baker, but seeing the world of baked goods through her eyes has inspired me to try my hand at whipping up a batch of Savory Rock Scones (scones are one thing I CAN do) and maybe

Confections of a Closet Master Baker: One Woman's Sweet Journey from Unhappy Hollywood Executive to

Gesine Bullock-Prado

even the Maple Pecan Sticky Buns.  Mmmmm....  And as an added bonus, the book was unexpectedly and downright hilarious.  The author is funny, witty and doesn't mince words, especially when dressing down the shallow, self-absorbed Hollywood types.  Very few books have me laughing out loud like this one did.  Intrigued by the book, I had to go check out Bullock-Prado's blog over at blogspot and was so glad I did.  More anecdotes to enjoy, as well as many more recipes.  

Ah, I love a good read!  Now the only question is, what to move on to next?  I'm considering re-reading Mists of Avalon since it's probably been a good decade since I last read it and I've been feeling in a very Morgraine mood (I'll leave that one to your imaginations).  Or I may try to find something else by Ann Hood...  Then there are always my herbal tomes I like to dust off and peruse for more concoctions to whip up, my garden books to look for inspiration for this year's cornucopia of herbs, flowers, vegetables and fruit.  Or, I could just find comfort in the pages of my trusty ol' sci-fi/fantasy fiction... oh I dunno, what to read?

School Update

I haven't posted an update about school in a while, so here goes...

Things have been moving along pretty well, despite the fact that we've had several days this month of field trips and playing hooky!  We took a Monday off and went with some of our homeschool friends to see Avatar in 3-D at the iMax theatre.  (But, we made it up another day... that's the beauty of homeschooling )  The Peeps were so cute, they kept trying to reach out and grab things, like they weren't quite convinced it wasn't actually right in front of them, even though they knew better.  Gotta love kids...

We also took a field trip to Boston to see the Harry Potter exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science.... it was awesome!  I wish they had allowed pictures.  We loved seeing all the props and sets up close.  I'm such a knitting geek that my favorite things were getting an up front view of Ron's sweaters and other goodies knitted by Mrs. Weasley. LOL  But, the best was the gorgeous knit blanket on the end of Ron's bed!  I soooo wanted to snap a picture to reference later but I didn't want to embarrass the kids by getting thrown out of the exhibit.    It inspired me to start working on my own patchwork blanket; it'll be a great way to use up leftover yarn!  Fortunately the Harry Potter Lovers Group at Ravelry had some great screen caps (page down) of said blanket.  *drool*  Anyway, we spent the whole day, had lunch, and got to look around other parts of the museum as well.  Fun day!

Our book work is moving along on schedule and I hope to be finished with the bulk of it by late April early May.  The exception is history--Story of the World has 42 chapters and we do 32 weeks of school, so that means that even if we double up a couple of weeks we will go right into June with history.  Which is fine since we really enjoy history and with our other subject finished up we can really sink our teeth into the topics.

Speaking of history, we are spending the next few weeks studying WWII and the Holocaust.  Ugh.  I truly believe there are things worth fighting for.  I'm a peace-loving gal but seriously, sometimes people need a little ass-kicking!

Cool Head Wrap

I have been spending these cold winter days and evenings sitting by the wood stove knitting instead of being here at the computer! This past weekend I knit a couple of head wraps (Calorimetry) and thought I would share them here. I love this wrap! It knit up in just a few hours, and is the perfect solution to wearing my hair up in the winter when I go out. My hair is waist length now, so normally, if I want to wear a hat out, it has to be down. Then when I get where I am going, I have to put it back up. So I was thrilled to find this pattern on Ravelry!

Calorimetry