Happy Halloween

Oh boy, we got a snowstorm alright...and I couldn't be more excited!  We're spending our first Halloween as homeowners passing out candy and continuing to work on our mini kitchen renovation.  I'm finding that being a homeowner and doing all the things homeowners do (like handing out candy on Halloween and doing renovations) adds a new level of feeling like a "grown up"...I think I like it.

More on the storm tomorrow.  I hope you all have a fabulous Halloween!!!

Our Forecast...

WINTER STORM WARNING NOW IN EFFECT FROM 4 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 8 AM EDT SUNDAY...

* HAZARD TYPES... HEAVY WET SNOW.
* ACCUMULATIONS... 6 TO 10 INCHES OF SNOW. 12 INCHES OF SNOW IN SOME HIGHER ELEVATIONS.
* TIMING... A MIXTURE OF RAIN AND SNOW WILL OVERSPREAD THE REGION FROM SOUTHWEST TO NORTHEAST FROM THIS AFTERNOON. THE PRECIPITATION WILL CHANGE TO HEAVY WET SNOW BY THIS EVENING. SNOW WILL FALL HEAVY AT TIMES TONIGHT. 1 TO 2 INCH PER HOUR SNOWFALL RATES ARE POSSIBLE AT TIMES SATURDAY NIGHT.
* IMPACTS... HEAVY WET SNOW WILL RESULT IN TREE DAMAGE AND SCATTERED POWER OUTAGES. THE DAMAGE COULD BE QUITE EXTENSIVE WITH THE POTENTIAL FOR AN AREA OF WIDESPREAD POWER OUTAGES. UNTREATED ROADWAYS WILL BECOME SNOW COVERED AND SLIPPERY.
* WINDS... NORTH 10 TO 20 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 50 MPH.
* TEMPERATURES... IN THE LOWER 30S.
* VISIBILITIES... ONE QUARTER TO ONE HALF MILE AT TIMES

We better go buy a shovel......

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

To Keep the Vampires Away...

Garlic is a big deal in my family.  We savor the scapes, pickle the cloves, and put it in almost all of our cooking.  We pretty much inhale it.  So not even 24 hours after my garden was tilled this weekend, we got to planting the garlic.  My dad (the unofficial local garlic go-to man) had saved me some of his garlic from this past year to plant and walked me through the steps.  We planted 127 cloves of German White garlic, which next summer should become 127 heads (my dad plants close to 400!!).  His red garlic didn't do as well this year as it has in the past, so we decided against propagating undesirable bulbs, but I plan on ordering some red next year as I like the slightly spicier/stronger flavor.  I'd love suggestions of other types of garlic to try if you have them!

Itty Bitty Nest and Eggs

Oh man, what a day its been...I meant to get to this space earlier, but from 3-7 am I was very unsuccessfully bat hunting in our bedroom, then work where I got an email from the hubby that a mouse was casually chilling in our bedroom this morning when he got out of the shower and it was in fact a terrified mouse screech not a bat screech that we were hearing, then this afternoon I went to the hardware store to continue the mouse hunt tonight, this time with the correct tools.  I can only imagine that poor mouse must have been thinking about me coming at him with a pointy stick from a cat toy and a towel at 3am dressed in my rain boots, garden gloves and with my sweatshirt hood scrunched so only my eyes peeped out...I hope we'll have better luck tonight.

Anyways, I found this little abandoned nest over the weekend.  It had two itty bitty blue eggs inside, both broken.  I originally thought it could be a hummingbird because I have never seen a nest or eggs so small and we have a huge hummingbird population at this house, but a google search proved that this nest is FAR too big for a hummingbird and their eggs are white not blue.  So I'm stumped...I'm thinking it is probably a bird around the size of a chickadee, but don't know any that size that lay blue eggs...any ideas?

Fall Outtakes

I'm feeling quiet today after a weekend of so much goodness.  Happy Monday! :)

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

We Went to Camp

Almost two months ago I mentioned heading up to the North Woods of Maine to my husbands family camp and never got around to sharing it here.  The camp was built by my husbands great grandfather (who my husband is named for) in the late 1800's and finished in 1901.  He was worked in the lumber industry and shipped timbers from his home on the Maine coast to the deep, Northern woods where he built his camp on the edge of a lake.  Throughout the years the camp has stayed in the family, and is now owned by my father-in-law's cousins.  For the past decade the family has wanted to get up there, but schedules and the chaos of life always got in the way, until this August. 

It was my first trip to camp.  Stories over the years had built it up in my head as an amazing place, so I thought I knew what to expect, but it was so much more.  It was magical.  I have never felt so strongly attached to a place so quickly as I did here.  It was everything a camp should be.  There was yard games, wild blueberry picking, a picnic by the lake, and the most well-fed ducks in New England.  There was a cozy night by the fireplace playing bingo, card games, and ping pong by lantern light.  There were old photo albums to explore and camp registers to read [every.single.trip. to camp from the time the first timber was put into place up to our trip had been documented, it was pretty amazing.  There were the names of the people and animals attending, references to dances held with the neighboring house, number and size of fish caught in the lake, animals seen, all types of weather imaginable (hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, hail), national news, family anecdotes, its all there...writing in the log was so daunting to me, knowing that those words would stay with that house forever and could be read a hundred years from now.]  There was fishing and an early morning canoe trip on a fog filled lake where the silence was only broken by the chilling call of loons surrounding us.  Oh, the loons.  I had never been so close to loons before or heard their call in the wild.  That morning, sitting still as a statue in the canoe watching the loons, listening to their call, and seeing them dive down under the water, I will never forget it.  I didn't have my camera at that moment, but I'm almost glad...I was so conscious and involved in that moment that I think a camera would have taken away from it.

Our trip was cut short by Hurricane Irene, but now that we've made it up there, we're making it a priority and hope to be back next year.  I hope so.  That place is in my bones now.

Cranberry Bog Booties

My knitting tends to ebb and flow with the seasons, but there was some knitting this summer.  It tended to be mostly of the baby variety, not because I have any news to share (not for awhile anyways), but because baby knits are so stinkin' quick and cute and can be made from leftovers in the stash.  I also am a planner by nature and am thinking ahead to the day when there will be a baby on the way and there are 10,000 things I want to make and only time enough to make 5 of them.

So, that brings us to these booties.  They are just about the cutest thing I've ever seen and were whipped up within a matter of a few hours of work spread throughout a week.  I loved the construction of these. While knitting I couldn't figure out how the pattern could come together and possibly make a bootie, but it did and it's brilliant.  My absolute favorite thing about these has to be the color of the yarn, it is beautifully rich and reminds me of cranberry bogs in the fall and my great grandmother's homemade cranberry sauce on the Thanksgiving table. Anything that can be tied up in nostalgia is fabulous in my book.

Ravelry details here.

Autumn in My Favorite Corner

Rounding out the seasons in my favorite corner of Vermont.  The first picture was taken on the side of the road next to my great grandmothers house.  I get to live in one of the most beautiful places in the world.  Sometimes I feel like I need to pinch myself.

See this place in winter, spring, and summer.

{this moment}

Linking with Amanda Soule for {this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.



A Little Handwork

Last winter or the winter before, I can't remember now, I English Paper Pieced a Dresden Plate.  I loved the portability of the project and it was nice to have another option in the evenings if I didn't feel like knitting or sitting down at the sewing machine. 

This past week I started a new handwork project on a whim after seeing a picture of an antique rhombus quilt in a book.  My plan is to make a quilt of stars/snowflakes, with the stars being a red and white print with red being the predominant color and then the stars will be separated by solid white diamonds.  It will be all handstitched, and in my mind it is also hand quilted...but we'll see what my enthusiasm level is when I get that far. 

So far I've made stars in bed while down with a cold and in front of my parents fireplace with my family while the hubby was away on a business trip.  I brought it with me on the car ride to visit my great grandmother this week, but couldn't tear myself from the gorgeous scenery outside the window long enough to sew a stitch.  Though it is only three stars big so far, I'm loving that it is slowly growing a story of its own.  There is no end date goal, just something to stitch on when the mood strikes throughout the months? years?...but someday, eventually we will wrap ourselves up in a quilt that has our lifes stories tied up in every little stitch.

For the Love of a Compost

For weeks it seems I haven't talked about much other than compost.  [I know, my poor, poor husband...I make it up to him with good food. :)...but seriously, if dirt makes me this happy, he's got it easy ;)].  I have been so excited to be able to have my own garden and a compost, that I don't want to "mess it up" and as a result have been looking at every option for everything...well apparently my dad had tired of the ready made vs. self made, plastic vs. wooden pallet vs. wood and mesh compost conversations and delivered this little beauty to my doorstep this weekend.  It is currently holding a 6" layer of leaves and awaiting the garden space to be tilled next weekend so I can spread some dirt on top to start the deterioration process.  After that it is ready to take scraps and start making sweet, sweet soil.  Anyone out there have a compost of their own?  Any tips?  I'd love to hear them!

Autumn at Lowell Lake

My mom and I had today off from work and decided to make the trek up to visit my great grandmother.  On the way there my mom veered off the route to show me Lowell Lake, a lake she discovered over the summer with my dad. 

The warm sun was starting to burn through the morning fog, allowing the bright, fall colors to reflect on the smooth as glass water.  Off in the distance a flock of geese honked, the pine needles made a thick carpet under my feet.  I wish every morning could start with a few quiet moments completely submerged in nature.