1953

I was sent the most unexpectedly moving gift a few weeks ago when my aunt mailed me a box containing some of my paternal grandmother’s diaries and cookbooks. Grammie died when I was very young, so I really didn’t know her at all. I didn’t give much thought to the books before they arrived; I expected that they might hold some of her favourite recipes and notes about important village events. I wasn’t expecting anything quite as delightful or moving as what I received. I opened the first diary in the pile to September 1953. My father was a year and a half old and had already survived meningitis. The TB bus visited the school. A department store had a fire. Some people would absolutely find the entries dull at best - borrowing Florence’s upholstery cleaner to clean the couch, washing everything in the dish cupboard, so-and-so stopping in for the evening, the day’s weather.

I had the most magical feeling of sacred time travel as I read through pages of births, deaths, and illness alongside the more mundane details of daily life. The sense of community life in a tiny fishing village, and the joys and sorrows of being human are all captured in these two or three lines per day. A couple whose baby died at 3 months old later adopted an infant. After someone’s house burned down, a relative was collecting door-to-door to help them out. A relative who, now in 2019 recently moved to a nursing home was mentioned on the day he left for university. Family picnics and visits with friends. Funerals and Christmas church services when my grandmother took her Christmas cactus to the service to sit beside the decorated tree. And then there were the other things that Grammie did - “trimmed'“ birthday cakes for friends and neighbours, was vice-president of the sewing circle (oh, I would love to hear those conversations!), and cut everyone’s hair. People I remember and know from growing up in the community, preserved forever in those words.

Maybe it’s informed by her relatively sudden death when I was very young - the overwhelming sense of life being so very short and meaningful is what makes reading these so special.

I became interested in capturing the details of daily life around the time we moved into our first house and shortly before Phillip was born. Sites like Flickr (the Habit group in particular) and 3191 Miles Apart felt so important to me somehow - I felt this deep sense of the meaning of the moments that were making up my days. As Annie Dillard wrote, “How we spend our days, is, of course, how we spend our lives.” It sounds so obvious and maybe even trite, but it is all we have - these days, these moments here. Somehow, capturing them and giving them attention helped me to pay attention to every other moment, too. And as the wonderful Mary Oliver wrote, “To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work".

I will leave you with a recipe for bran muffins that was heavily used, judging from the layers of dried batter on the pages. I haven’t made it yet, but think I will this weekend.

Bran Muffins

2 cups white flour

2 cups bran

1 cup sugar

2 tbsp molasses

1 egg

2 tbsp shortening

1 tsp soda

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups sour milk or buttermilk. If sweet milk is used, use 3 tsp baking powder in place of soda. Bake at 375 for about one half hour. Helen Wetmore

What makes up our days makes our lives. And I am so grateful that Grammie captured these moments.

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A special note to my niece, who reads my blog and has requested a new post: these diaries and recipe books that I have were your great Grandmother’s! Maybe when you’re here to visit we can look at some of them if you want, and make one of her recipes together? xoxo

Solstice Cake

We’ve celebrated the winter solstice in our house for many years now. The return of the light is such a thing to celebrate (literally and metaphorically) as are the beautiful rhythms of this planet. What we do is a bit different each year, but always involves light. Our plans mostly depend on the weather, really. Some years we’ve had bonfires, some we’ve enjoyed entire evenings inside by candlelight. For the past few years, we’ve played Waldschattenspiel after supper, which the boys look forward to.

Beeswax candles are the physical light and sweetness of summer, literally captured and preserved by the bees. Isn’t that just so wonderful? It seems fitting and magical that during the darkest night of the year we celebrate with beeswax candles, reminding us that summer will return. These ones, I actually dipped, which was so much fun - I hadn’t made candles this way before, and I will absolutely be doing it again.

I was looking up different solstice traditions over the past few weeks, specifically looking for food traditions, and came across solstice bread, made in a wreath shape to echo the shape of the sun. I didn’t have the time to make bread this time around, but settled on a few changes to my usual (simple and delicious) gingerbread cake recipe to make it round and seasonally beautiful, and included a bit of honey to once again remember the bees. I was so delighted with how it turned out that I thought I would share the recipe with you - it would easily be as perfect as a Christmas dinner dessert or served on New Year’s Eve, studded with sparklers.

Solstice Cake

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 egg

3/4 cup molasses

1/4 cup honey

2 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup hot water

Steps:

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a bundt pan really, really, really well. (See the lumpy bits of my cake? It didn’t release from the pan properly.)

I use a stand mixer - if you don’t have one, no worries - just do the rest by hand or with a handheld mixer. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, molasses and honey and mix well.

If you want to be proper, whisk together your dry ingredients before adding them (I almost never do, and it turns out wonderfully every time.) Add dry ingredients to butter mixture and mix briefly, being careful not to overwork the batter - you don’t want a tough cake. Add hot water, mix until uniform, and pour into bundt pan.

Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean.

Allow to cool for 15-20 minutes, and release from pan. Dust with powdered sugar - shaken from a fine-mesh sieve is the trick - and garnish with pomegranate seeds and sprigs of greenery. I used dried rosemary from this summer’s garden, but if I hadn’t had that on hand I would have cut sprigs from our Christmas tree. This cake is even better the next day, so it’s a great make-ahead dessert. Just cool and cover well, then add the icing sugar and pomegranate seeds and greens before serving. Enjoy, served with whipped cream. Happy Holidays!

November golden hour

Tonight the wind is howling around the house, countless shingles have blown off of the barn roofs, and the temperature is well below zero. The chickens and barn cats were inside all day, and I brought the heated waterer back into action for the chickens yesterday. It feels like January. There’s a special weather statement issued for Friday when another storm is headed our way, and there might even be a slight glimmer of a chance of a snow day in November - almost unheard of. The boys were dismissed early from school today because of a power outage. I actually really love this kind of weather - extreme wind makes me feel invigorated and alive. And as Adam’s Nana used to say, “it’ll blow the stink off of you”.

On a much calmer and sunny day last week after work, I took the camera for a walk back to the lake and captured what to me feels like the best of November - low golden light, golden grasses and the sense of soaking up the last shimmering warmth of the year. It was magical.

For Adam and I, September and October are the months when we are both incredibly busy with work. Unfortunately, this coincides with when the garden needs attention, the boys begin activities and life just gets to that level of hectic-ness that is a step beyond what we prefer. The potatoes are still in the ground. Adam graciously says that they’re just planted extra early for next year. And at this point, I’m wondering if I should in fact just leave them there. That’s my favourite thing about gardens, truly - they are endlessly forgiving. (Except for the bindweed. Oh, the bindweed.)

Along with this wild change in weather, my skin is protesting, and I need to think back to all of my winter-skin tricks. We’re almost out of my soap, and I usually make a few Christmas-y batches with cinnamon and orange for us and to give as gifts. I’m having a hankering for something rosemary-ish, too - doesn’t that sound lovely? I’ll be making up a bottle of body oil soon; I wrote a bit about it in this post. Even simpler than lotion - and I love simplicity. Now that would make some useful gifts.

I’m off to make a cup of tea - I’ve been skipping caffeine for the past several weeks, and that agrees with me. I’ve found a few new-to-me teas that I love! Yogi Chai Rooibos, Stash Gold Cup Chai (LOVE this one, and so warming on a cold morning thanks to the ginger), and this Chocolate Orange one. May you stay warm, moisturized, and tea-filled as winter arrives.

September

Well, hello again! I spent little time on my phone or online this summer, and it was so good. I got caught up in my daily lists of productive projects around the house (more on that below) that I somehow tricked myself into always being otherwise occupied instead of looking at Instagram. And before I knew it, I’d realize mid-afternoon that I hadn’t looked at my phone or even brought it downstairs all day. It was lovely, and freed up so much brain space to think! And now, we’re back at work and school and the fall routine. It’s starting to feel fall-ish in the mornings. The angles of the sun have noticeably changed and there’s a light party around noon in the kitchen when the sun hits the string of disco balls. Dusk comes sooner, and the chickens are in for the night just after 7:00. It’s dark when we get up for school and work, but light when the boys catch the morning school bus. Afternoons are hot and sunny.

Much of my summer was spent purging and deep cleaning those places that had just not been dealt with since moving here (I’m looking at you, garage) or had just been gathering things that we didn’t really need to keep (hello, storage closet). I managed to purge things from all of the places, selling a few things, giving away many and leaving all of this beautiful, free, open and usable space. And it has been the smoothest transition back into the fall routine in recent memory. (I’m quite confident those things are related.) Every morning when I open my purged and tidied drawers to find clothes for the day I’m delighted all over again. My rational brain tells me that external things shouldn’t make such a difference to my internal workings, but they absolutely do. I could go on and on - just clean one drawer (take everything out, get rid of whatever you don’t use or like, put what is left back neatly) and see how delighted you are next time you need something from that space. It’s like magic, I promise.

The bees. I’d been feeling a bit guilty about not doing a whole lot with the bees this season. One thing I did earlier in the summer when I suspected that the one hive we had at the time was going to swarm was to set up the empty hive next to it as a cozy new home (narrow entrance, solid floor, a bit of beeswax and lemongrass oil under the cover). You cannot imagine my stunned and euphoric surprise when I discovered that it had worked. I jumped, fist-pumped in the air, and whooped. I couldn’t believe that they had taken up my offer. So we’re back to up two hives, which makes me so very happy. (Ecstatic, really.) I sat with them for awhile this morning, and they are looking so healthy and active. I’m hoping to maybe harvest a bit of honey soon - we left it all for them last fall, since we had lost one hive, and we wanted them to have plenty to get them through. But I would really like a few jars for the pantry.

One thing I’ve recognized about myself over the past few years is my methodology for learning about things, and it’s captured perfectly in my new-recipe method. When I’m looking for a recipe for a new-to-me dish, I will intensely read all of the things about that dish and what it should ideally be. I will them read many recipes for that thing, sometimes dozens. I will then “ignore” everything I’ve read and make something up. Which, of course, isn’t ignoring at all, but letting my brain work it all out in the background. This connects back to the bees - I couldn’t explain to you exactly why I knew they were going to swarm. I haven’t done much bee reading over the past year or so, so whatever knowledge there is, tucked away in the depths of my brain, is not at the forefront and ready for me to slow down and explain in words. I do think that much of it from the many books I have read is in there, though, along with all of my previous experiences with them, and I can unconsciously and efficiently do the processing when I get out of my own way. Fascinating. The process of writing this out reminded me of listening to something (a radio show? podcast? not sure) on this very subject. Which then led me to do a quick search and come up with this concise article on the subject. In part:

“Intuition or gut feelings are also the result of a lot of processing that happens in the brain. Research suggests that the brain is a large predictive machine, constantly comparing incoming sensory information and current experiences against stored knowledge and memories of previous experiences, and predicting what will come next. This is described in what scientists call the “predictive processing framework”.”

Isn’t that just the most fascinating thing? Your gut might just be right for a thousand reasons your brain has just filtered through without you even realizing it.

Happy September to you - I hope that the seasonal transition is going smoothly for you, too.

Doe, a deer

I had a stomach bug a couple of weeks ago. Which was decidedly unpleasant, and I wouldn't recommend it - however, it did give me a bit of slow time at home that I wouldn't otherwise have had. On the day that I started feeling better and could look up from the couch, I did my usual morning peering out over the back field, which was just the slightest bit hazy with morning fog hanging low. Our property has a steep slope down behind the house, bottoming out at the brook that crosses the width of our land, then the field slopes back up again and is backed by the treeline. That's where we see our sunsets, swinging from left to right as the year progresses, and then back again. It's also where the sun first hits the ground in late winter, skipping over the shadowy lower field, the brook, and the barns. It's where there are often deer, grazing just out of the protection of the trees. That morning, there was a deer visible, but its colour looked odd. I used the binoculars for a better look, and saw that it was more grey and less brown. Something moved just to the left of the deer, in the trees. I waited. After a moment, a doe slowly walked out from under an apple tree. Deer one suddenly made sense. It was a fawn; its size was just skewed by distance and fog and my not-quite-functioning post-illness brain. I kept watching the pair as the doe calmly walked out from the trees and went about her cervine breakfast. In stark contrast to her peaceful grazing, the fawn started leaping, skipping, kicking its back legs out behind it, and rubbing its face in the grass. Then it would run around some more in a wide circle, stop dead, and then start all over again. The exuberance of spring was so perfectly captured in that fawn.

It was truly one of those moments where time stopped and I was completely in harmony with what I was observing. I would not have had that moment if I hadn't opened my eyes and looked for something to be happening. There is always something happening.

That evening, tired out and on my way to watch another episode of Murder She Wrote (my sickbed show of choice), I passed by another window that looks out to the backyard. I checked the hummingbird feeder for the millionth time - it had been up for a few weeks, but there had been no sign of the hummingbirds' yearly arrival. Lo and behold, a flash of red, a shimmer of green, and a beautiful male ruby throated hummingbird was perched and feeding.

In those moments where time stands still, "it is". And I am in and of "it". (It's more than "it is as it should be", because then it becomes about what it should be, and the mind takes over with all of the shoulds and the moment is lost. And of course it always "is", but I'm not always attuned.) There's no logical explanation, no definition or words. It's not like everything is okay, or good, or right - it is layered, and visible, and invisible, and dark and light and good and evil and every shade of every colour in between and so incredibly vast and incomprehensible, and yet somehow contained in a fawn dancing and skipping and playing, and in a hummingbird whizzing around the backyard.

These are the things that life is for. Being human. Feeling the tiniest part of it all and knowing that there is so much more depth and mystery and wonder than we can possibly take in. (Insert praise hands emoji here.)

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This all ties in to all kinds of things I enjoy learning, reading and listening to about mindfulness, meditation, and those sorts of things. I find that I am at my best when I have that sense of being attuned to the world around me, but it takes a heck of a lot of effort to lift up my head from the tasks of daily life to pay attention and connect. (It is so difficult!) I am also endlessly pragmatic, so I sometimes struggle with practical applications. But I have found that yoga (I love Yoga With Adriene!) and meditation (Insight Timer App!) bring me closer to my best place of operating from - where I feel open, flexible, and receptive and not so caught up in my thoughts.

To sum up hours spent listening and reading: you are not your thoughts.

 This episode of Super Soul podcast (also available as just audio through your favourite podcasting app) sums things up nicely if you're into this sort of thing. And if you're not and think I'm rambling like a tree-hugging hippie, no worries! I kind of am.

Speaking of magical, Mamawatters on Instagram has a family of doves nesting on a windowsill in her house, and she's documenting it in her Instagram stories. 

I came across this channel on YouTube the other day, and their work is so, so great. 

Happy June! I hope that it's a beautiful month wherever you are. And the June episode of my podcast is up! Enjoy!

Rhubarb Custard Squares

I printed this recipe for rhubarb squares several years ago, and it was an instant favourite that we've been making every year since when the rhubarb is up. It's tart, sweet, buttery perfection in every bite, with a rich custardy layer and bursts of juicy rhubarb. It's similar to a rhubarb custard pie, but much quicker to put together. The original recipe is here; I adapted it slightly and have modified it for maximum efficiency of time and fewest dirty dishes. It's one of those things that should only be made when company is coming, or else if you're like me, you'll have to fight yourself not to eat the entire batch.

Rhubarb Custard Squares

Makes an 8x8 pan, approximately 12 servings.

Preheat oven to 350.

On the stovetop in a medium pot, melt 1/2 cup butter. As it's melting, line an 8x8 pan with overlapping parchment paper, to make removal from the pan easy. Remove melted butter from heat and stir in 1/4 cup icing sugar and 1 cup flour. Spread evenly in pan with a wooden spoon or hands and bake for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine in same pot (to save dishes!) 2 beaten eggs, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 tsp salt. Mix well, then fold in 2 cups diced rhubarb.

When the base comes out of the oven, pour the rhubarb mixture on top and bake for an additional 45 minutes, or until set and slightly golden. Cut into squares or bars and enjoy! You can double the recipe and use a 9x13 pan. 

Dusting things off over here *sneeze* *cough*

Hello again! Oh, it has been far too long. After four separate people told me lately about how much they've enjoyed this blog, and a couple of others asked questions about my cleaning posts, I decided that the time had come to jump back in here and start writing again. It seems like a bit of catching-up chat is called for.

Since my last post here, I've been posting over at Nova Scotia Kitchens each month, and over on Instagram. The Green Arrow peas are in the ground (the best peas for eating fresh!), the boys are growing (and eating) at a remarkable rate, and we're all healthy and keeping well. I continue to pinch myself - life is full and so good.

Things I've been enjoying lately:

Watching:

Detectorists on Netflix is hilarious and charming, the episodes are short, and completely fantastic. (One of the main actors played a particularly evil character on an episode of Sherlock, so it took me awhile to get over that, but it's great.) Can't recommend this highly enough.

Lulastic and the HippyShake - Lucy is a yurt-dwelling mama in New Zealand who doesn't use shampoo (#lifegoals) and has a thriving YouTube channel.

Clematis shoots. (Pictured above.) Because I couldn't control myself, after buying one beauty last summer, I bought three more. All of them are coming up, and I couldn't be more excited.

Tiny House Tours (my oldest loves watching these with me). Living Big in a Tiny House is a fun channel to start with. I have no plans to live in a tiny house, but they're just so darn fascinating, I can't stop watching.

Listening:

Brains On! podcast with the boys - we all love it.

Oprah's Super Soul Conversations podcast. Thought provoking, meaningful conversations - I don't listen to every episode, but most of them are really, really great. (Who couldn't listen to Oprah's voice all day, every day?)

My all-time favourite that I never miss and which is like a soil-scented hug every week, the Gardener's Question Time (aka GQT) podcast.

Kelsey and Erica have thoughtful, funny, insightful conversations about everyday life over on The Girl Next Door podcast.

Peepers! We can hear them loud and clear through our closed windows at night. I love it. (Maybe I should start the Peepers podcast. All peepers, all the time.)

Not doing:

Chicks: in an effort to save myself unnecessary work, we're not raising chicks this year. Our flock of 26 is quite happy, healthy, and productive, which I'm delighted with. And although they're cute, chicks are a royal pain to raise, at one of the busiest times of the year.

I am in a volunteer position related to work which has taken up a lot of mental bandwidth and time over the past several years, and I will be finishing up with that in a few months. I've learned a lot and have enjoyed it, but I'm also looking forward to the reprieve.

Doing:

Fostering creativity: The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron was recommended by a few people lately, and I have it out from the library. My weekday mornings are too full to incorporate morning pages, but I love the idea - just getting three pages of writing (no matter what it is - that's not really the point) down on paper, and I try to do it on weekend mornings. I have a few other writing projects that I'd like to tackle over the next few years, and I've been working on those, too.

And of course, a million other tasks of daily life are also getting done. I am constantly reminding myself that there will always be more things to do, but this moment will only be here once. Sometimes it works, and I can set the list aside without guilt or anxiety. Sometimes it doesn't.

I'm so happy to be here and writing again! It makes me feel more like myself - the same experience as puttering in the garden, cooking, or collecting eggs and hanging out with the chickens. That alone is worth the effort - but I'm glad that you're here, too.

feed the birds, tuppence a bag

Edited: Since I posted this in June, all feeders in this neck of the woods have been taken down because of the trichomoniasis parasite that has been spreading. I have no idea how long it will be until we'll be able to put them up again (one year? two?). We're still seeing finches and other songbirds around the house; we just don't get views quite as close.

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We've added some bird feeders to our life over the past few months. We hadn't had any since moving from our previous house, and I had no idea how much they would improve our experience here! Of course, chickens are my first feathered loves, but woodpeckers, chickadees, purple finches (they're clearly red - why are they called purple?) and goldfinches are so delightful! We also have a pair of "funny birds" (as of yet unidentified - some kind of thrush?) who sing the prettiest songs and appear to find us really interesting when they crane their little necks to look into the dining room, cocking their heads from side to side. We also have ducks visit the pond regularly, geese and herons fly over, there is a pair of bald eagles at the lake, and occasionally turkey vultures or hawks glide over (prompting the rooster to round up the hens and whisk them off to safety).

The feeder setup that we have is small and manageable, but does attract the birds without making much mess. It probably also helps that the chickens sometimes wander up to the house and clean up any stray seeds lingering underneath.

We have a clear plastic feeder on the dining room window, which I fill with black oil sunflower seeds. This one is great because somehow the suction cups don't lose suction, and we can get a really close look at the birds. We have a hanging wire suet block feeder a bit further from the house, which we often see woodpeckers at, and another small feeder holding black oil sunflower seeds. The most recent addition is a pretty glass hummingbird feeder - and the hummingbirds have found it! I caught a quick blurry picture one evening when they were here, bathed in golden sunset light.

The chickens love sunflower seeds as an occasional treat, and we can buy the seeds in bulk at the feed store. I like the simplicity of buying one thing and sharing it amongst all of the birds, and I also love that if a seed falls and makes it to the blooming stage, it's so very, very cheery. (Remember this post from a couple of years ago?)

Standing at the window and watching a tiny little hummingbird relaxing onto the perch and having a drink totally triggers that feeling that all is well. (I wrote a bit more about this awhile back.)

Practical notes on hummingbird feeders: if you're not able to clean it well and refill it often, plant some hummingbird-friendly flowers instead! Bacteria quickly multiply in dirty feeders and can make the hummingbirds ill. Also, I think it's better to feed them clear solution made at home than solution with artificial colouring. Homemade solution is simple; I just dissolve 1/2 cup sugar into 2 cups warm water, and it fills my feeder perfectly. The hummingbirds will still come to your feeder even if the main part is clear; it's the red flowery looking bits that they feed from that attract their attention. Enjoy!

*No one has paid me for any links I've included in this post!*

A new project!

I'm excited to share a new project that I've been working on this past winter and into spring. It's called Nova Scotia Kitchens, and it is the main reason that I've been less present in this space for the past little while. It is many of my favourite things all wrapped up in one nifty package!

In a nutshell, I visit someone who is gracious enough to have me visit their home. They make a favourite recipe while I record the audio and take pictures. Then during the first week of each month I share the new content over at the Nova Scotia Kitchens site, and the audio is also available to subscribe to as a podcast in iTunes or your favourite podcasting app!

It's been a steep learning curve with the audio piece - I've been blogging since 2004, so the pictures and writing aren't too challenging to wrap my head around, but the audio piece is. It is so much fun to learn something new, and I'm so delighted to include some terrific people in my new project! (Check out my friend Alana's amazing vintage pink Kelvinator fridge and her delicious recipe for Lobster Cakes!) It really is a lot of fun, and I have SO many ideas for it! I need to pace myself.

In other news, here at home on the farm, it is spring. The snowdrops have come and gone. I transplanted some to our front beds, so on either side of the front door, dwarf white hydrangeas are underplanted with sweet woodruff and snowdrops. White and green - my favourite combination. The daffodils have just passed their peak and are on their way out, and the tulips are starting. I have a beautiful catmint that I bought at Spencer's in Shelburne last summer which is coming in beautifully, and this spring I bought a new heather for the bees - a nice early flower source for them. The dandelions are opening, and our bees are all over them.

I had 74 eggs in classroom incubators with teachers, and the hatch went poorly. There are only a few chicks to add to our flock. I was hoping to have extras to share with friends, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen this time around. The ones that did hatch are pretty darn cute, though! I can't wait to see how they feather in.

We have garden expansion plans! We use Lee Valley fencing, which is inexpensive and does the job beautifully until we build our dream permanent fence. I have dreams of a garden space like Martha's,  (ambitious or what?) or like this one by BC Greenhouses. Swoon! With those raised beds and the brick pathway! Oh my. We're adding eight raised beds (I loved our raised beds that we had at our old house) which will significantly increase our growing space. We're expanding the fenced area, and I'm super excited about that. It may take quite awhile to get it all done, but it will be so great when it's finished!

Oh, spring! So much to do, and only 24 hours each day. And now I'm off to tuck in the chickens for the night.

spring, from the archives

I was browsing through some old pictures while working on another project (more on that very soon!) and I stumbled across this one, taken on this day, in our old garden, in 2012. 

I love being reminded of how much goes on in the natural world, all of the time, without my input or even knowing. Mother Nature takes care of it. She knows what she's doing. I find that so comforting. At the same time, it spurs me on to do what I can to preserve and protect the earth, and foster a sense of respect and awe of nature in my boys.

Winter weekend

We enjoyed a gorgeous February long weekend, with snow on the ground, sun in the sky, and ridiculously warm temperatures on Sunday. I spent time outside and doing some form of exercise every day, and I am definitely feeling the mental boost - despite having only 28 days, February can feel looooong! But there is beauty in today, and the hope of a few things coming up very soon (ha! literally!) - the snowdrops will appear (come up, get it?) in a few more weeks, we'll be adjusting to daylight saving time and enjoying more light in the evenings, and before we know it we'll be putting away winter coats and boots for another season. I most definitely do not want to wish away my time here on earth, but sometimes looking forward to things can make the current day more enjoyable.

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I haven't mentioned it here, but we drilled a new well just after Christmas. (The very best imaginable Christmas gift). It was pricey, but much less than we anticipated, since they found water at a relatively shallow depth. I am still absolutely delighted every day to be able to wash laundry here - we had to take it somewhere else for seven months when the old well was dry last year. That is a loooong time to orchestrate laundry-lugging, with a washing machine sitting in the porch, unused. Looking forward again, I am so glad that I won't have the dread of the well running dry hanging over my head this summer. And we'll be able to water the garden! Oh, the possibilities and plans - this is the best time of year to garden - everything is possible in my mind's eye, without reality to get in the way.

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At dusk on Sunday, the boys wanted Adam to throw snowballs at them from the top of the hill as I was putting the chickens in for the night. So he did, and much shouting, and many attempts to catch them, ensued.

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 I have been reading Rural Free by Rachel Peden for the past week or so, and I am completely smitten. Her writing is beautiful, her observations insightful, and I so wish that I could have met her. She died in 1975, so unfortunately, I can't - but I want to tell her that the joy her book has brought me must definitely offset some of the effort she expended in writing it. I love it so much that I simply had to do some highlighting and underlining, so it's become a sort of reference book for me, and that does not happen often.

Along with being on a reading streak, we're also on a self-imposed pantry and deep-freezer cleanout mode of menu planning lately, and we've had some pretty delicious meals. (A few mediocre ones, too, but such is life.) The freedom imposed by limits is an interesting concept that Gretchen Rubin talks about a fair bit, and I can definitely appreciate it in this context. Not only does it save money by reducing food waste, but it forces us to be creative and resourceful, which just feels right. It's tidy and efficient, and it turns out that I DO like strawberry rhubarb crisp. With cream, in an ideal world. Now we just have a few more layers to get through to reach the bottom of the freezer... wish us luck!

Underway

With all of the noise that's been going on out in the world as of late, I've been feeling pretty quiet over here. It's kind of like when you're at a party and there are so many people chattering that it just seems sensible to have a quiet conversation off to the side. (Maybe I'm not much fun at parties?) I do have a few fun things that I've been doing so far in 2017, though. But a few things before I get to those.

I've been thinking a lot lately about our society's obsession with self-improvement, and all of the pressure we put on ourselves every day. I am always in favour of fresh starts, new beginnings, and taking on new challenges. Any day at all. And a year is an undeniably tidy, manageable, and comprehendable amount of time within which to set goals. No doubt about it. Without setting goals, I've found, life just continues along and things don't change. At the same time, I don't think that we need to be on a perpetual path of self-improvement and constantly feeling the weight of these things that we've set up for ourselves to do, or the weight of them if we don't meet them and "fail".

I think that there are a few keys to goal setting in a healthy way, to avoid them becoming obsessions or rigid things that make us stressed and unhappy. First of course, is having grace with ourselves, when we inevitably make mistakes. We're only human, even you. (And me - I am writing this to myself as much as anyone.) That grace can sometimes look like having the flexibility to roll with life and what it brings, which brings peace. Rather than seeing life as a linear series of improvements upon ourselves with a perfect end "product" in mind, seeing it as the messy, beautiful, tangled web that it is, with us circling back to learn the same lessons over and again, detours around paths we thought we would take, coming up against the same struggles over and over - together it forms the beautiful, messy substance of our lives. There's nothing neat and tidy about it, despite what our culture would have us believe. 

That said, here's what I've been up to so far this year:

I started Yoga Revolution with Adriene but was derailed for awhile by some pain I was experiencing; I've been to physiotherapy and am back into it after a little hiatus.  She has hundreds of free videos on YouTube, of all lengths - if you're totally new to yoga, she has a 20 minute practice  for complete beginners. 

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I'm definitely reading more so far this year. As I mentioned at the end of last year, I love to read. I have an account on Goodreads where in the past I would sometimes remember to input a book when I finished it, but more often than not, I would just move on to the next one and seldom give that one another thought. I saw on Tsh's Instagram that she drew a little bookshelf with blank book spines, and I thought that was perfect - exactly the simple, visible way to be reminded of the books I'd read that I needed. I made one and hung it just above my dresser, where I see it at least twice a day. I have absolutely thought more about the books post-reading, which was certainly part of the point, and it turns out that I am super motivated to fill in those little blank spines, which I wouldn't have thought.

I'm also trying to watch more documentaries this year, specifically about people / places / issues that aren't familiar and comfortable to me. There's always the temptation to just sink into a cozy fictional story, and there's definitely a place for that (hello, Cabot Cove!). But I usually leave a documentary feeling like I know a bit more about the world, and even if they're about a difficult subject, it's always well worth the discomfort to understand more about the world. What Happened, Miss Simone was one that I watched last week, and it was so very well done. It's about Nina Simone, a black pianist and singer from the southern US, born in the 1930's - I had heard some of her music before, but didn't know anything about her life or her activism. It showed up in my recommended titles on Netflix - timely for sure, as it ties her life in with the broader picture of the civil rights movement of the 60's. And her voice! Her music and video from performances is pieced throughout the documentary - I could listen to her all day. Definitely worth watching!

All of this said, I hope that 2017 has been good to you so far, and most of all, that you're being good to yourself! (If you're struggling through this whole winter business, there are some nice things you can do for yourself over here. And a few more ideas over here.) 

2016 book recommendations from our house to yours

At our house, we love to read. I mean, really love to read. We're definitely at the library once a week, and often twice or three times. Despite my perpetual reducing of stuff, books (usually from thrift stores) keep making their way into the house and onto our bookshelves. Probably at least half of the gifts under our Christmas tree are books each year. Adam's in a book club, I'm in a different book club. Both boys were reading before they started school, and it was definitely the way I spent a lot of my time when I was growing up. (The Anne of Green Gables (Rilla of Ingleside, especially) and Emily series' were my favourites as a kid.) Books are the main thing that need to be picked up from every possible surface as we're tidying. We love books.

We love books so much that if we're not actively reading them, we're talking about them. As we were eating supper the other night, Adam asked the boys what their top three books of this year they would recommend to other people and why. And I thought it would make great fodder for a post, and possibly even be helpful if you're looking for a last-minute gift.

And so, may I present the Grahams' 2016 book recommendations, in their own words!

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Thomas (6):

• Missile Mouse - The Star Crusher (graphic novel): "I like it because Missile Mouse has to rescue a GSA (Galactic Security Agency) scientist named Ulrich. He gets sucked into an energy black hole and gets drawn into dark plasma so that he fuses with it and he destroys and entire RIP (Rogue Imperium of Planets) fleet."
• Treasure Hunters : Danger Down the Nile: "I like it because there's the Kidds kids who need to find a certain type of vase. At the end there's boars that are going to charge but a group of lions comes along and pounces at them."
• Avatar - The Last Air Bender (graphic novel): "I like it because there's the Avatar Aang, and he's the Avatar can earth bend, fir bend, water bend, and air bend."

Phillip (9):

• Land of Stories (series): "I like The Land of Stories series because it's funny, and there's magic in it. I also like this series because the author makes it so you think one thing's going to happen, but really something else happens."
• The Adventurer's Guide to Successful Escapes: "I like this book because it has magic in it, and dragons. The dragons can shoot fireballs at you to transport you to a different spot. I got to meet the author yesterday; he's from here in Yarmouth! (In a whisper) And we bought a copy for my brother."
• Treasure Hunters (series): "This book is a) a really good book because the author is a good author, b) because it's funny c) because it's kind of like a journal or d) all of the above. Answer: d."

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Adam:

• Birdie: "Every year my book club reads the Canada Reads finalists and I always end up with a new favourite. This year it was Tracey Lindberg's Birdie. It tackles some of the very difficult topics in First Nations communities in a really beautiful and often humorous way." 
• Between the World and Me: "This podcast episode was my introduction to Ta-Nehisi Coates and it made me want to read some of his writing. Written as a letter to his teenage son, this book is a moving look into what it means to grow up as a Black man in America. I highly recommended it as a guide to help give background to so much of what has happened in the last year."
• Just Mercy: "If you borrow my copy of this book, you'll have to ignore any water stains from my tears. With incredibly touching humanity, Bryan Stevenson tells stories from his work as a lawyer helping inmates on death row. It's made even more timely by the recent votes on capital punishment in some States. You can check out Stevenson on this podcast or see his Ted Talk here."
• Bonus: Big Magic: "I actively avoided reading this when it first came out (mostly because it was popular) and had really low expectations when I picked it up. It didn't take very many pages of reading, though, before I changed my mind. This book (and the accompanying podcast) have changed the way I think about both my work as a photographer and my personal creative projects." 

Sherrie:

• 3191 A Year Between Friends: My favourite non-fiction book of the year. I had been eagerly anticipating it since the beginning of 2015, and it didn't disappoint. It's the perfect gift for a friend who lives far away, and is full of inspiration for creative projects all through the year.
• The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny - Armand Gamache series #8. This series has been my primary fiction reading for about a year, and this book was my favourite in the series so far. This is kind of a trick recommendation, though, because you really truly need to read the entire series in order in order for things to make sense. So start with Still Life, the first in the series. (And for a festive mystery mood, The Mistletoe Murder by PD James, pictured above is perfect. I'm really managing to squeeze in some extra recommendations here.)
• Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear: If you are in any way involved in any kind of creative project (and that would be everyone, I believe), this is a book that you should read. (And I am reluctant to tell people what to do.) The list of ways that fear stops us was so helpful to see in print. I actually listened to the accompanying podcast, Magic Lessons before reading the book, and you should listen to that, too. Adam read it, too, and we're now encouraging each other on in a few creative projects. 

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Happy Reading!

and speaking of cozy...

For the past several years, we have enjoyed advent candles from December 1 through Christmas Eve. We burn through each day's number as we're having supper, and we all really enjoy it. I found several for really cheap in the middle of summer a couple of years ago, so I bought every one the store had left - they can be really hard to find. You can also make them yourself; I think it's what I'll do when I've used up all of the ones I have on hand. This is the only candle I burn that's not beeswax; I would love to make some with wax from our bees. How gorgeous would those be?!

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And speaking of candles, it's pretty darn cozy over here tonight. The wind is roaring around the house, and the sky is spitting snow, but it's warm and cozy inside.

embracing cozy

Daylight hours are so very short right now. It seems like one of us will go down to the barn to let the chickens out in the morning when the sun has finally risen and it's time to go to work, then we turn around, go back down at dusk to close them in for the night. Chickens' egg-laying is partially regulated by their pineal gland and daylight hours, so their egg-laying slows down at this time of year, along with so many other things in nature. And yet somehow, we funny humans try to convince ourselves that we aren't affected by it - we just keep on going with our electric lights and screens and heaters, eating produce grown on another continent to try to keep everything the same all year round.

There is such comfort to me in doing what I can to really embrace the seasons. It reminds me of my place in the grand scheme of things, and how little I really have control over. Of course, this is real life - kids still need to be fed, work needs to be done, lessons need to be attended, and not every day is a perfect hygge experience - some days just feel short and dark.  There are some small ways to embrace the darkness and winter that might just make it a bit more bearable, though. I've been working on this for a decade, I just realized, and somehow that makes me feel like I just might have something worthwhile to share. I am writing this list as a reminder to myself as much as anything - I think I need this prescription too, especially at this time of year. Once I've watched the last Gilmore Girls new episode (no spoilers! I thought the third one was weak, though) I promise I will do something non-netflix-watching most evenings this month.

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• Make it cozy. What are you doing, and how can it be cozy-fied? Cleaning your inbox? Driving your car? Wrapping gifts? Shopping for gifts? You can cozy-fy ANYTHING. Make a cup of tea to drink while you're cleaning your inbox. Driving? Use a few drops of essential oil in your car (cinnamon or orange or something seasonal - if you don't have a car diffuser or clay ornament (which you can very inexpensively make for yourself and all of your friends from air-dry clay) you can put a few drops on a cotton ball by the air vent. Wrapping gifts? Employ the tea tactic and add a candle or two (but not too close to the wrapping paper). I use beeswax candles all winter - they're my favourite. They have the loveliest sweet soft scent, burn cleanly, and don't overpower food if you're burning them at a meal. The only other candles I burn are TNT candles made here in Nova Scotia - Spiced Orange is nice. Shopping for gifts? If you're not buying online, with your cup of tea and cozy candles nearby, and you're going from store to store, plan it out with a detailed list (which can also be helpful for your budget) and plan a tea break or meal so you're not all shaky and exhausted.
• Special seasonal treats. Is eggnog your jam? Candy Cane ice cream (YES, please!)? I tend to feel crummy when I indulge too much, so making an event of the special things while on the whole eating food that I know makes me feel good is the way to go. Pomegranates and clementines are perfect because they're both healthy AND seasonal treats. Be intentional about it and really savour the special-ness of it.
• Move your body. Yoga with Adriene, twinkle lights, a candle, and coffee or tea brewing. Or a walk, bundled up against the chill. Or just a bit of time outside puttering around the yard - you'll feel better, guaranteed.
• Warm socks! Thanks to my mother-in-law, I now know that Merino wool socks are amazing. Costco sells the ones that I wear (because she gives them to me) - they breathe so that your feet don't get damp and cold and they're super warm and lovely. Really - they have been a game-changer. No more immediate sock change needed as soon as I come home from work!
• After the kids are in bed, instead of watching something on Netflix every night (soooo tempting, I know!) maybe grab that book club book, and settle in with it, a cup of tea or hot cocoa (about 1 tsp sugar and 1 tsp cocoa powder in a mug, add a splash of milk and use a spoon to mix, then top with hot water) and you're snug as a big. Lighting makes a difference - have a few smaller lamps on rather than one bright overhead one. Bonus points for a lap cat and a soft blanket. Super extra bonus points for fairy lights. (These ones are on sale at Canadian Tire and I love mine, year round.)

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• A project! If you feel better when you have something to work on, start something new to focus on. Cheesemaking? Conquering the popover? Knitting? Or all of the things that need to be done for Christmas - but instead of rushing through to get them done, make them events! (I am emphatically talking to myself here.)
• Take your vitamin D and fish oil capsules to keep your skin happy, and use liberal amounts of hand balm (equal parts beeswax, coconut oil, and olive oil, melted together and poured into a container or mold) or lotion. (check out this post from awhile back for some more deep-winter tips).
• Treat your senses. Soak in this time of year. Evergreen branches, clementines being peeled, cinnamon oil in a diffuser or a few drops on a cotton ball in the vacuum cleaner or in a jar in the kitchen. A soft sweater. Baking. An audio book narrated by someone whose voice you enjoy. Think warming, comforting, calming, and quiet.
• If you're looking for some screen-time cozy, search "cozy" on Pinterest. Or on YouTube, search for Martha Stewart Christmas to find old gems like this one. Equal parts hilarious, inspiring, and definitely cozy. You're welcome.
• A walk in the woods on a weekend morning. With warm mittens, a thermos of tea, preferably. (I'm going to try to fit this one in this weekend.)

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Bring on the cozy!

Rainbows

There isn't really anything that I can say about this past week that you haven't already read or seen or heard or felt. Even though I don't even live in the US, it's definitely felt here, and if you're American, please know that there were definitely some Canadians ugly-crying in despair this week. And yet, there is hope - there is always hope.

In lieu of that topic (which is extremely important and I am not dismissing it in general, just for the moment, here in this space), here are a few things that felt like a balm this week. 

Rainbows on the dining room walls. (Above.) I bought a little suncatcher last year and it delights me to no end when I walk into the dining room and it's covered in rainbows. (The hexagonal tiles are made by Umbra, the candlesticks on the piano are brass from Frenchy's, and the gorgeous beeswax candles are from Charlo, New Brunswick.)

Listening to Oprah reading What I Know For Sure to me in the car. (Not everyone loves Oprah, but there are definitely some gems in this one. And her voice is like a hug.)

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Saving the best for last: you know how sometimes when you're doing just the perfect thing at just the perfect time, you can take a deep breath and feel a release in the very centre of your torso? Yes, that. It's a rare feeling to come by, and I definitely experienced it while holding and reading and savouring A Year Between Friends, the latest collaboration from SCB and MAV at 3191 Miles Apart. I've been looking forward to this for so long! It's fantastic, filled with great projects and ideas. And I just love the collaborative element of two friends working together on so many projects over the past decade, despite the distance between them. I've been following them for almost that long, and the book was worth the wait. Two thumbs up!

Wild and Free

The garden is a really forgiving and patient entity. Despite all of my best intentions each year, it inevitably goes less tended than I plan, and we somehow always manage to eat from it. With this year's drought, I really didn't expect anything at all to produce, but we harvested garlic, peas, a few tomatoes, a bit of kale, potatoes, some tiny onions, a handful of radishes, some butternut squash, and one giant cucumber that I didn't find until the leaves died back and it had already yellowed. (The chickens enjoyed it.) I've said it before, and I think I will for the rest of my days - growing food is the COOLEST THING. It is completely amazing.

And as if that wasn't cool enough - growing things on purpose to eat, I mean - you can also find things growing in the wild, for free! The apples, above, are really lovely and tart cooking apples which are excellent with pork. We ate pounds and pounds of blackberries on walks in August. I harvested wild mint several times this summer for tea through the winter, and dehydrated rosehips and teaberry for tea, too. All right there, and free for the taking!

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One afternoon in August, when the boys and I were picking blueberries in the back field on our way into the woods, I noticed that Thomas was walking on some sort of plant I hadn't noticed before - smallish white beads caught my eye. I'm sure I whooped out loud when I realized that we have cranberries. I love cranberries. Tart and sweet is my favourite combination in a dessert, which means that lemons, rhubarb, and cranberries have my heart. And with a turkey dinner, cranberry sauce is both the visual and taste contrast that really makes everything else sing.

I made cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving almost entirely from our berries, but there were still a lot a few weeks ago that weren't quite ready to pick. Before the rain started this morning - as they have been all summer, my fingers are crossed for the well to finally fill - Thomas and I made our way to the field to see if we could find enough for a batch of muffins. Mission accomplished. And the muffin recipe above, from the fantastic and adorable 1977 The Cranberry Connection cookbook is pretty good! The texture is perfect, but I think next time I'll add a touch of cinnamon and a bit of orange zest for a bit more flavour. (Although to be fair, I *may* have eaten a bunch of party mix yesterday, and my taste buds may be suffering a bit while they recover.) As always with muffins, overmixing is the main mistake that results in rubbery, chewy, dreadful pucks, so as soon as the ingredients are incorporated, put them in your muffin tin and get them in the oven.

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Other things I've been enjoying lately, in addition to free food:

The Great British Bake Off. So many people have told me that I would love it, and I finally watched a couple of episodes. Should I happen to get sick this winter, I know what I will be watching. I love that everyone is so genuinely wishing the best for everyone else, it really is all about the baking, and there's a generous dose of food history. L-O-V-E. Three thumbs up.

What Should I Read Next? Podcast. The only problem is that my TBR (to-be-read) list is getting a little out of hand.

Blue cheese. With roasted pork or beef steak, or on salad. Even better with meat on a salad.  I love it so much.

My fall staple with black tea. (I have heard positive reviews of it added to coffee, too! It only takes 30 seconds to make.)

There's one week left in October to soak in all of that good October-ness before the November drear sets in. I'm hoping to make the most of it!

Cleaning House, Part 4: Laundry!

This is part four in my Cleaning House series, because I seriously love cleaning. Part One (clean air) is here, and Part Two (washing the dishes) is here. Part Three (homemade cleaner recipes) is here. Since this is part of a series, I will take a minute to restate my principles of house cleaning. (I say this in complete seriousness, but I also see the hilarity and luxury in having principles of house cleaning.)

• Clean does not have a scent.
• Cleaning does not need to involve separate purchased products for every possible eventuality.
• Perfectly simple and effective ingredients that you probably already have on hand in your kitchen can clean your whole house effectively.
• Reusable is better than disposable.
• Soap and hot water will take care of pretty much everything.  

I started washing all of my own laundry when I was in grade 7. I had an ivory silk blouse (I know!) with ruffly things like a poet's shirt that had been a back-to-school purchase from my mother. For some reason, I vividly remember the day - they also had white t-shirts by the Reitman’s entrance that said in graphic rainbow letters “I’m too sexy for this shirt”. (You're welcome - enjoy having that song in your head all week.) The details of the exact washing incident are less clear, but I do remember being extremely resistant to advice (I may still be, just a bit) - one thing led to another, and when my prized blouse was pulled out of the washing machine, it had dark pink streaks all over it. I was so disappointed.

I also remember one weekend afternoon in grade 8, talking on the phone with my friend Erin after I had washed, dried, and put away all of my laundry, and tidied my room. I felt so satisfied, comfortably lying on my bed with so few other responsibilities, (and probably the prospect of a good book lying ahead) and I remember describing that feeling to her over the phone. 

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All of that to say that I've always enjoyed doing laundry, despite the occasional mishap. It’s the starting point if I have a long list of house to-do’s on a weekend, and even if that’s the only thing that gets done, it still feels so very satisfying. It’s an easy way to get that cleaning momentum going, hands-on time is minimal, and clothes go in dirty and come out clean! What’s not to love?!

Laundry over the past two summers has been a bit more eventful, since our well was dry for the end of last summer, and most of this summer. We’ve been having it filled, and we’re lucky - firstly, we can afford it, which not everyone can - and many, many local wells have been dry this summer - and we can go for 8-9 days using it for all of our regular household water needs except for laundry. Since June, the boys and I would pack up the laundry and spend an afternoon at my parents’ house to get it washed. When their well got low, we got creative and spent a bit of time at the laundromat (which the boys absolutely loved), and I started asking friends what their water situation was before I would go to visit, bringing a basket along too. I can’t wait to be able to wash the laundry at home again. It’s supposed to rain a fair bit this week, which is making me very hopeful!

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Detergent: My favourite from the grocery store is Down East Liquid. It’s unscented, works really well on just about every stain and type of dirt, and is inexpensive. Only 2 tbsp are needed per load in a high efficiency washer, and so a jug lasts us about 4 months. For around $12 from the grocery store, I’m pretty pleased with that and have been using it for a decade. It’s also EcoLogo certified (safe for our septic system and biodegrades) and is made right here in Nova Scotia. Recently, I've been using my own detergent from a recipe in The Hands-On Home, and I like it a lot. It’s even less expensive, and I get the satisfaction of making something from scratch. (There are a million and one recipes online to try, too; I think I'm going to try this one next.) I like that I can customize the scent a bit depending on the oils I add. They texture is a bit strange (kind of a goopy slop, but not as bad as that makes it sound.) I keep it in a cleaned empty cat litter plastic bucket (Compliments brand from Sobeys) which does the job perfectly. A scoop of about ⅓ cup goes in per load, and I add it directly in with the clothes, rather than putting it into the detergent compartment. The clothes come out clean, aside from the occasional spot which needs a bit of pre-treatment before another wash (I like Ecover Stain Remover, pictured below). For grease spots, I have a bottle of cheap dishwashing liquid that works well as a pre-wash treatment. 

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When the boys were babies and in diapers, we primarily used cloth diapers. Our old gifted washer died when Phillip was just a few months old, and we splurged and bought a fancy one. It is now 9 years old, and we have not had a single issue with it. It has the option of setting custom cycles, so I created a sanitizing super hot diaper cycle with an extra rinse, which I would always run with a small scoop of OxyClean (least expensive at Costco, by far). Stripping the diapers every now and then in a super hot load with vinegar and hanging them on the clothesline in the sun was one of my favourite tasks when the boys were little. Small victories with little ones underfoot go a long way.

To light loads, and to loads of our white towels, I usually add a small scoop of OxyClean powder to the wash. It’s a habit that I started when the boys were really young and their clothes were always covered in food bits, grass stains, and everything else imaginable. It is sodium percarbonate, which breaks down into borax and water. There are also “green” brands available, like Nellie’s and Nature Clean, which don’t have the blue specks throughout. But the price of the OxyClean brand at Costco combined with the amount of laundry that we do makes that my first choice. (Also since my in-laws have a membership and will often very generously pick up things for us, sometimes it’s even free.)

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Drying time! We definitely use the dryer, but I love my clothesline. Our line isn’t super long, so I can’t hang out a ton at a time. It is also generally very humid here, so sometimes it is just not practical to spend time hanging the clothes out for the day, only to have to put them in the dryer after they come in. I don’t use any fabric softener. It’s an expensive, unnecessary bunch of chemicals that you really don’t need to be putting out into the water system, and if you buy the fabric softener sheets, they just go into the garbage. What a waste! I’ve tried a few types of dryer balls, and my sister actually gave me some gorgeous New Zealand wool ones not long ago that I sometimes remember to put back in the dryer. I don’t find they make much of a difference in the amount of static, but they do help to separate the items as they bounce around, which is helpful for sheets and larger items. I sometimes put a few drops of essential oil on them for a bit of gentle scent. Oh, and please don’t forget to clean your lint trap every time you use the dryer! Not only will you prevent a potential fire, but it also allows your dryer to run much more efficiently, saving time and electricity. Cleaning the outside vent and the dryer hose every few months is one of those boring but necessary little jobs that just takes a few minutes, but could absolutely prevent a fire, so be sure to get that done, and especially during the winter when the dryer is being used more often.

Used clothes washing/drying tip! Anyone who shops at thrift stores might be familiar with that smell. At our local chain of thrift stores, Frenchy’s, bales of clothes are sprayed with something before they are shipped to stores. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but it has a very distinct scent, and I was told that it’s to prevent insects and/or mildew, etc. from damaging the clothes in transit. Gross, I know. But in the grand scheme of things, I’d rather buy used clothes with that in mind rather than new with all of the environmental impacts associated with clothes manufacturing. Over the years, I’ve found a system that works for me: washing items in the warmest water they’ll tolerate, an extra rinse with a bit of vinegar, and hanging items out on the clothesline overnight (bonus points if it’s foggy or snowing) goes a long way to help get rid of that scent. It will fade over time anyway, but I like to get rid of it as quickly as I can.

Well, who knew there was so much to say about laundry? I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I really do enjoy it. Happy laundering!

Preserving methods and recipes

Preamble: this is by no means an exhaustive post with everything you need to know about canning and preserving food. Because I absolutely don't know even close to everything, and I rely on people who do this sort of thing professionally. So I'm going to direct you to some of my favourite sources for information, recipes, and inspiration, and share some of the recipes you requested. Because canning is the best of the best. Also, I haven't been paid in any way by anyone to share the links below! You can find the items you'll need at many, many places. And I always borrow books from the library first. 

I love canning. It was in 2010-11 that I made my first canned goods, and it was one of the most satisfying things I had ever done. Not to mention one of the most beautiful! I was on maternity leave after having my second son. I canned ALL OF THE THINGS. Peach Lavender Jam, cranberry sauce, rosehip and lemon syrup, salsa, dill pickles, rhubarb jelly, meyer lemon jelly, ground cherry jam, plum jam, green tomato chow (chow chow) and on and on it goes. (Those links are to my old blog where I posted all of these things back in the day. Poking around back there makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and nostalgic, especially when I see the pictures of the boys when they were little. Oh, my heart!) Right now, my heart is happy every time I look in the pantry or fridge - there are sweet pickles and blueberry jam from our neighbour on the fridge door, and grape jam, gooseberry jelly, and an assortment of other beautiful delicious foods made with love from friends. That makes my heart grow three sizes. 

Edited to add: I somehow missed including the following two paragraphs when I first published the post last night - that should show me not to publish posts before bed!

Where to begin? For those of you who have never canned before and don't know what any of the terms mean, this is the first post for you: Water Bath Canning over at Food in Jars. Marisa also has an online jam making class that you can purchase for $9.99 and watch to your heart's content, if you prefer video! Most canning books will include instructions for preparing your jars, etc. - read that section carefully. Food in Jars is great, as is the Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving. Absolutely check them out from your library and go through them with a cup of tea! 

You will need a few things that you should be able to find easily at your grocery or hardware store. Canning jars. 250mL (1 cup) jars are a good place to start, especially if you'll be making jam (which I think is a great place to start.) They have specific lids that are safe to can with, and are made with glass tempered to handle temperature changes. You'll also need a jar lifter (I have this one and love it - it's much more secure than the one that comes in the starter kit, but that one's fine to start with), a lid lifter (makes it so much easier!), a canning pot and rack. You can buy beginner sets with everything, and you can sometimes find the items at yard sales or thrift stores. Even better if you can borrow everything from a friend to see if canning is for you! (And maybe they'll even help you out your first time.) You will reuse everything except for the flat disc lids that go on the jars, so although the initial investment costs a bit, everything should last you many years. There! Now that you have a starting point...

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If it's your first time canning, start with a simple jam that you love. It's an easy way to get the hang of it, and fresh and frozen fruit and berries are easy to come by at most times of year. Pick a recipe from any of the sources I listed above, and you'll do just fine - promise!

The Basic Tomato Salsa recipe that I make and love is from Food in Jars by Marisa McLellan, my favourite canning book. You can find that recipe here. It's really acidic and fresh tasting, which I kind of love; the boys find it a bit too vinegary. You can make the recipe and serve it fresh, if you like. When it's cooked a bit and canned it still has that fresh-ish flavour, waaay better than anything on the grocery store shelves. (Although if you're not going to make your own and want a completely delicious option, Garden Fresh Gourmet makes a terrific fresh salsa that's often in the deli at many grocery stores. It's pricey, but sooo good. And if you were sneaky, you could take it to a potluck in one of your bowls, and no one would ever know that you hadn't made it. Unless it was me.) In fact, if you were not planning to can it, you could certainly make a batch fresh and use a bit less vinegar.

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The refrigerator dill pickle recipe that I made two weeks ago is from here. I omitted the garlic initially, but just tasted them and I think they'll be better with it, so I'll toss in a couple of cloves. I love the texture of a refrigerator dill vs a regular canned dill; they're just fresher and crunchier, but still tangy and pleasant.

The whole canned tomato recipe is also from Food in Jars (am I sensing a theme here?) and the recipe is available here. Super simple, but it is a 45 minute water bath processing time to take into account. We use a lot of canned tomatoes as a base for soups, etc. so I love having some of these on hand.

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And this pepper relish recipe from my sister-in-law's mother (thank you, Carol!) is amazing. AMAZING. Rather than use the paraffin, I used regular canning jars and lids and did a 10 minute water bath in the canner. I also added two finely diced jalapenos. It's sooooo good. With cream cheese and wheat thins, it's perfect, and it's also really nice on thick salty nachos. This was one of those recipes that I just had to get the recipe for after I tasted it. And peppers are readily available right now!

There are a few other things I do to preserve some of our favourite summer foods. We freeze a lot of berries, which we can then use in smoothies, for baking, to top oatmeal or granola, or to put into jam if I'm feeling like doing some mid-winter canning. That's also a great tip if you're super overwhelmed with produce right this minute - you can freeze fruit and berries, and just use them as though they were fresh to make a batch of jam. If you're super keen and on-the-ball, you can even check your recipe beforehand and measure them out into just the amounts your recipe requires.

I use my dehydrator a lot through the summer, mostly for herbs. We haven't had a glut of cherry tomatoes, but I would like to try dehydrating some of those sometime. I did dehydrate a LOT of rosehips last summer, which I use to make teas. Doesn't that just sound so romantic, and competent of me? A friend of mine has given me some rosehip jelly (a very popular traditional jelly around here, since the rosa rugosa loves our salty coastline) which I'm looking forward to opening. 

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If you have never canned anything, take heart! It does not require all day, you can make small batches, and if you follow some basic steps and learn a bit about the science behind canning, you will not kill anyone, and even better, you will be confident that you won't. I have a few recommendations for more information.

Theresa Loe has an excellent podcast that outlines in detail all kinds of recipes for canning and preserving. She hosts an online canning academy a few times a year, and I completely trust every word from her mouth. She can break anything into completely manageable and understandable instructions for a beginner without making it sound dumbed-down.

Food in Jars - the book, and the blog. Gold.

Small Batch Preserving - another great book!

If you've never canned anything, I hope that this inspires you to take a step toward it, even if it's just borrowing a book from the library. Even if you aren't ready to do the water-bath canning to preserve something long-term, you can try lacto-fermenting vegetables in your kitchen! Or refrigerator pickles! Or you can make jam and freeze it instead of canning it. It is soooo satisfying. And you'll be glad you did when you open that jar of salsa in February and taste late summer. Have fun!

Bring on the questions, and late summer is all about the food

1. I get the best assortment of questions sent my way almost every day about everything I love, including but not limited to: cooking, baking, gardening, canning, appliances, natural cleaning, soapmaking, chickens, bees, painting, essential oils, plant identification, renovations, antiques, natural remedies, herbal remedies, organizing, home decor, photography, and eggs. I LOVE IT. I really, really love it. And it turns out that the past 15 years of reading and learning everything I can about all of these things has made a few things stick - I really do know quite a lot of practical things! And there's nothing I enjoy more than spreading that around. Want to know what I would do with that cabbage? Sauerkraut! Easy-peasy, and I can direct you to the simplest, most delicious recipe. How to wash eggs? Book recommendations for preschoolers? What colour to paint your house? How you should beautifully store that collection? How to use essential oils in your house? (Nope, I don't sell them!) How to make lotion? I get such satisfaction from making daily life and its routines meaningful and enjoyable, and if I can pass that along to someone else even in the smallest way, I am glad to.

2. I haven't been posting terribly frequently to the blog over the past while, for a variety of reasons. I have plenty of ideas, but sometimes it feels like I'm just chattering away into the ether, so I'm not terribly motivated. Over the past few weeks, though, several people have told me how much they enjoy my posts, and *that* is what I find motivating and fun - connecting with people. Also, I love organizing my thoughts into posts and sharing photos - it's good for my brain and heart.

3. So: I just put 1 and 2 together and... if you have a question about any of the things on the list above, leave a comment or send me an e-mail! I would LOVE to answer. I'm hopeful that it will answer questions you might have, inspire someone else through the answers, and keep me motivated to post!

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Late summer really is all about the food. Despite the almost complete lack of rain this summer, the garden somehow managed to produce. Our well has been dry since June, which makes me appreciate water so very much more. (We're planning on drilling a new well. Ooof, it's pricey, but needs to be done and will be well worth it. (Pun intended. Heh heh.)) The potatoes did very well, tomatoes not so much, the kale has been decimated by slugs (maybe we need some ducks...) but the garlic and peas produced a lot. The onions didn't get very large, and neither did the carrots, but we did get a few massive radishes. I found three cherry tomatoes from one of several volunteer plants we had amongst the peas. I'm letting the pea vines dry again this year so we have seeds to plant next year; it worked perfectly this past year and I was pretty pumped. And I discovered that our back field is full of blueberries! Slow picking, but delicious.

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Although these tomatoes weren't from our garden, I did get some canning done, and I have a bit more planned. I hadn't done much the past two summers; two years ago we were moving, and last summer I just didn't get into it. The one thing I did can last summer was a batch of dill pickles, and they tasted awful. They were inedible. That's never happened to me before, but it also happened to a friend of mine, also last summer. Strange. Hopefully this summer's endeavours will be more successful. I made several batches of salsa, I canned some whole tomatoes (which we use a lot through the fall and winter), made some refrigerator dills, and strawberry and raspberry jams. I have a few more things I might whip up if the mood strikes (peach lavender jam, blueberry rhubarb jam) and one more absolute-must (a new-to-me 1970's spicy pepper relish which is incredibly delicious with cream cheese) but on the whole, I'm pretty satisfied with what I've put up so far. 

We go back to school and work this week. I had the boys look at some cookbooks and lunchbox ideas books from the library and make lists of things they would like to find in their lunchboxes, which is nice to have posted when it's just hard to think of what to buy that they will enjoy. (Fruit, cottage cheese, pitas and hummus, leftover chili, and egg salad sandwiches are on the boys' lists.)

I have my new Moleskine planner and set of Sharpie pens at the ready. The boys' supplies are packed and ready. As they do every summer, they've just recently settled into a routine of waking up one hour after they'll need to be up for school.

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I hope that you're enjoying the long weekend and these beautiful late summer days. It's definitely one of my favourite times of the year. And don't forget to send along your questions!