the garden was a neglected project. still, some carrots grew and the tomato plants have grown more green and healthy than other years - not sure why they’re only ripening now.

so it was buttered carrots for teatime today. woohoo.  oh and the tea was homegrown chamomile - enough for only 1 pot so it was pretty special.

It’s been an emotional few days with much drama and next to no eating or drinking to the wobbly point of no energy for play - he refused, claiming it hurt too much. aiii. instead he wanted to be in bed cuddling where he fell asleep, exhausted. Finally, day 3, and after much imploring, he let papa take the tooth out which was really just sitting there in his mouth. Whew. We were all relieved and much happier but he was still not interested in eating or drinking much. He said he wanted more than just money from the tooth fairy. This is our tooth gnome from Ketti.

Recently my mom came across an old note that my sister wrote which read, “mom, the fairy is not coming. Could you please take these 5 teeth and leave some money (or not leave money). ” I had such a good laugh about this but it also made me think that soon my little one’s  teeth might be falling out one after the other and so I’ve been making a rainbow of tooth fairy bags to have on hand. They’re perfect to hold both tooth and treasure as well as a small scroll note. For those of you with little ones yet to lose their milk teeth, i love this little poem. Please share other sweet poems if you’ve got any.

Well done my sweet! It was a really hard tooth to lose.

We’re on to the next milestone already as we’re supporting some chills and fever. He always comes out of it just a little bit stronger and wiser.

Making butter from raw milk cream makes me feel more like the mama i often assumed and still somewhat aspire to be…the kind who lives on the land, grows her own vegetables, mills fresh grains, jams berries, churns butter… it feels so good to slow down and wonder and experiment and follow through with some real good intention. As a result, the butter is creamy delicious and we’ve also got some buttermilk to add to our biscuits later. i think we’ll do this often (i look forward to the developed biceps after all that shaking too).

(editing in those buttermilk biscuits);

We followed the directions from this video and while he says to shake the cream for just a few minutes, ours took much longer, more like an hour. We wandered around the hood this windy morning gathering freshly fallen chestnuts, all the while shaking our jar of cream.

i just have to add some words that Alice from Home on the Range  sent me about making butter;

couple of hints:  when the cream is so fresh, it will take longer to
churn....2nd...if you put a marble in the jar, it will churn quicker (don't
shake too hard to break the jar..or find a stainless container, like a
thermos...then it doesn't matter how hard you shake.  You will feel the
difference when the butter breaks, so you won't need to see it during that
time.

After much humming and hawing about what to do i finally followed through with the day’s original plan to return to the island for more delicious berries. Is Summer passing all too quickly for you?  I can hardly believe there’s just 1 week left of picking these delectable fruits. I better call grandma for some recipes  or another jamless year will pass me by. Oh she’s more than generous with her bounty but it’s one of those things i’ve always wanted to learn and do all on my own. I’m sure it’s not difficult and i know i’ll have to suck it up and put sugar in (i am notorious for skimping on sugar when i bake and then wishing later for something sweeter) but i best get on it….raspberries are next in season and that is my most favorite jam of all time.

“Follow me” he says. “I know a short cut.” For weeks i’ve rather followed than carried. His walk is gimped but he’s walk hopping and last night he put on a “walk dance” show. Woowee (or yeehaw as he says wearing this hat) he’s on the mend.

rest your eyes a little. sigh. lavender has a good effect on me. these cotton and linen eye pillows are filled with organic flax seeds, organic buckwheat and organic lavender that is grandma grown in the sunny Okanagan from seeds i brought back from England about 12 years ago. Now there’s a story to dream of while resting your eyes a little.

sleeping babushka;

rust;

corn flower blue;

sepia;

goldenrod;

wheat;

available here.

we’ve finally given the hand mill a whirl and while i regret to say that “whirl” makes it sound easy when really it’s tedious hard work, the end result is quite satisfying. i found myself less wasteful of the precious flour, still feeling the work in my right arm. this is good. i doubt that i will grind all my flour and i still have a schnitzer on my wish list but i’m feeling good and proud (and grateful for Alistair’s stronger arm that relieved me half way through).  Little A wants so badly to get his hands in there, to do the milling. oh my heart leaped when he exclaimed, “i’m making flour” in an excited voice bordering on disbelief. it put a big smile on my face for him to experience a little basic back to roots milling.

(ok so pretty funny that Little A is wearing his owl shirt in the evening when we milled the flour and his night owl pjs when we woke to bake bread. it ties right in with the darker days. geez it’s hard to take naturally lit photos in late Autumn and Winter.)

i’m being nagged to do a puppet show…bye bye computer i’m off to toddler land.

i fell asleep early and didn’t wake to mix the dough to rise in time for Tuesday morning’s bread baking day and so we made simple biscuits instead, substituting spelt flour because we love it and currants to make them cute. The fun Halloween cutters and the token sprinkle of sugar made them cookie enough for our group of littles.

note - the day’s feature costume, “red apple rock star” was heavily influenced by the Beatles and other performers (we’ve been enjoying some record shopping).

it was such a  gorgeous day today and i’m afraid this sun and warmth are nearing an end. i do love that crunch of leaves beneath my boots. sigh. Autumn you’ve been so good. i think i love you.

oh and a recipe…well it’s basic biscuits really.

2c flour (the original recipe calls for unbleached white flour but i substituted 1 of the cups for spelt. i have tried whole wheat in the past but it’s really too heavy)

2tsp baking powder

salt

there’s no call for sugar but i often let my son sprinkle a teeny tiny token of it some brown or cane sugar because he loves the idea of sweet and will more likely eat something that has “sweet” in it.

i don’t really measure the butter but in my books it has to be butter because butter is good fat!! got that all? good for you fat. so i cut it in cold and keep in mind that the less handling the flakier the biscuit. i haven’t got a pastry blender despite it being on the “to get” list for ages so i use a fork.

make a well and add 1/3c milk (i’m loving our raw milk. mmm good for you too.) mix it just enough to bring the flour/butter mixture together.

dump it out onto a floured surface. pat it together and cut out your shapes.

what am i forgetting? oh right, brush the tops with milk so they look all shiny and brown and bake at 450 degrees for 10-12 mins. eat them hot with more good fat butter. coffee is always good at this time too.

the nutritional value is piddly really but they’re warm, comforting, easy to bake when you forget to let the bread dough rise overnight,  my little one loves them and  they’re better for you than a cookie and if i can pass this off as a cookie, well then put them on the baking list.

i’ve been reading my old Tassajara bread book and feeling inspired to get back into the bread baking. i’ve had my eye on these since i took a tour to the grain room at our school to see the mill that they use for their breadbeaking. Then last week Alistair came home with a cast iron hand mill that i’m super excited to crank the wheel on. We just need to anchor it to a heavy wood block and away we go. Ready or not spelt berries… Little A loves the spelt bread we bake at school  and, since i will soon and regularly be taking care of another wee one in my home on Tuesdays, i thought it would create a good rythym to include her in our weekly bread baking. it’s quite something to see the little ones getting into it; first drawing pictures in the dry flour with their fingers, then kneading the dough and working it into creative shapes just their size. so fun. for all ages. oh and yummy! Hopefully the novelty of eating so much homemade bread will wear off by next week because i’m super full. Oh and that little guy in front - that’s “Super Boy” He designed this bread baking costume on a whim.

Spelt Bread Recipe from our Waldorf school;

8 cups spelt flour (freshly ground)

3.5 cups warm water (i used tepid water)

1 tsp. yeast

2 tsp. Sucanat sugar (i used honey)

1 tsp Himalayan salt (i used some other sea salt)

2 tbsp xtra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup freshly ground flaxseed ( i omit this for lack of some but i’ll try it another time)

First dissolve the sucanat and yeast in a cup of warm water and add it to the rest of the dry ingredients + the rest of the water and knead. For added benefit, you can add a bit of whey or yogurt. Leave the dough rise for at least 6 hours. Bake at 350 for 1/2 hour (every oven is a bit different).

So those were the directions shared with me.  The first batch i halved the recipe and used warm water. The 2nd batch i used 3/4 the recipe and used tepid water. i liked the 2nd batch best. i’m certain there will be variations and experiments. Happy bread baking. Serve it up warm and buttered. Delicious.

This post is late for Tuesday but that’s because i’ve just spent hours eating cakes, drinking late night coffee and chatting with a friend.  We decided that if we were going to be nice mommies in the AM that we had better get to bed and so there i go. sleepy.

This is what i’m on right now - along with oil of oregano, homeopathic aconite, extra zinc lozenges and cups full of miso with spring onions. A couple days ago i went shopping at the mall!? which i despise for a number of reasons, one being that i always get a sore throat in heavily air conditioned environments. This time was no exception. i was awake in the wee hours trying all sorts of good tricks i know to kick this before it progressed but still, i found myself in a bit of a bubble today. We made it only so far as the City Farmer and community gardens where these cone flowers gave me hope of better health. Indeed we did have a little tincture left when i returned home. fingers crossed.

me oh my the sun did shine all weekend. We hit 2 farmer’s markets. Just because. i’m sad to say that the strawberries came and went all too quickly this year and the peas are soon to follow though we do have some of our own growing in the yard. i hold a sweet childhood memory of my mama sending us off to the garden to pick lunch into our skirts. Peas were my absolute favorite garden delight. The fields are ripening now with raspberries & blueberries. Okanagan cherries seem abundant despite odd Spring frosts…Alistair found some sweet wee zucchinis and well, the market is just getting exciting now. Petunia and the Loons put a big fat smile on my face . i’d like to hire them to play at my porch party (tba-ha!).

Though i usually save ocean adventures for week days when other beach combers are at a minimum (i am a super beach hog. i want it all for myself) we wanted to go on some sort of exploration with out committing to a big drive out of the city so we hit trail #3 out at UBC with our good friend S. The stairs to and from are as exciting as the rocks we long to bring home.

Hope you all had a swell weekend.