we just love them. that’s all there is to it.

ranunculus;

magnolias;

flower pressing;

i wander’d lonely as a cloud
that floats on high o’er vales and hills
when all at once i saw a crowd
a host of golden daffodils
beside the lake, beneath the trees
fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

from Daffodils - William Wordsworth

we scored A Child’s Book of Flowers by Janet Marsh at the thrift store last year and in addition to the sweetest illustrations there are little poems and verses;

buttercups and daisies
oh, the pretty flowers;
coming ere the springtime,
to tell of sunny hours.

-Mary Howitt

yesterday we were out with some new friends; beaching, wandering, flower searching and snapping shots. C and her gorgeous belly are due 1 month before me….exciting times! and our kiddos got on pretty nicely too! (i hope you don’t mind i’ve posted this C. i really love it. of course i’ll remove it if you wish)

Our Spring break has begun and what gorgeous sunshine we’re having. We’re taking the opportunity to explore some favorite places. This time of year we tend to focus on the birds, their nests, their eggs and their habits. Last year we found ourselves in exactly the right place at the right time to witness a goshawk capturing duck for lunch. Recently we happened upon a heronry right in Stanley Park, a place we’ve driven past several times each week and only just noticed.  After some googling, we’ve learned that the Pacific Great Blue Herons do not migrate. They live in the marshlands and shoreline of our beaches feasting on frogs and stickleback and nesting from March through to July. Their eggs are pale blue and there may be up to 3 chicks in a nest. The park raccoons have taken a liking to the chicks as a meal and so you’ll find that most of the tree bases containing nests will have metal sheets wrapped around to prevent the raccoons from climbing. The young birds are still prey to bald eagles, hawks and great horned owls. oooh if only we could go owling. I’d love to see one.

Some favorite bird books have been pulled out, our crow mobile is hanging in the front window and the little one is keen to do more activities…like build a bird box. Any other activity suggestions are gratefully welcome.

There have been so many playful days lately. i love seeing the imagination and games unfold. So often the little one comes to me saying “i don’t know what to do” and if i just give him time to be in those moments of unknowing or boredom he ends up coming up with these brilliantly creative ideas and he’s off playing for hours. i love it. it makes me feel even more sure about our lifestyle and decisions to limit or eliminate television from our days ( i admit that during my 3 o’clock crash time i have given into the tv about once a week).  i’m inspired by Kim John Payne. i was lucky to attend his lecture a couple weeks ago on Simplicity Parenting. i thought the lecture would save me having to read his book but now i want to devour it more than ever.

At the beach and in proper attire (especially those mitts!) he could play for hours. Grandma P collected stones (even found a crystal) and i knit (i’m so addicted);

The teepee is getting some great use these past weeks.  i hear him chatting away in there with his stuffed friends and there’s almost always some mess to tidy away at the end of the day.

The request for play dates is near daily and you have no idea how this thrills me. Seriously, i waited years for this time to come. He does well one on one or in small groups. We had such a fantastic afternoon with these guys the other day. i couldn’t help giggling along. i was so curious to watch them play together;

School can be challenging. There are rhythms that flow and then there are not. Little A told me, ” School could be really good if there were only 5 kids”. i get it. 14 kids during some of the transitions can be loud, overwhelming and sometimes disturbing. Outside is quite a different experience. There is a new water pump at the Waldorf school this year which gets used by most of the kids every single day.  Between that and the “cupcake shop” (sand box) it’s becoming increasingly difficult to end the day with his school buds.

We’re establishing a fine balance of active outdoor element play with the more quiet and thoughtful indoor play. While Willie was meant to be a special puppet brought to life by me only, the little one is smitten and so very curious to have a turn and so i let him sometimes. Grandma P is an attentive audience;

i’m trying to love this little guy up in our last few months before newbie arrives. i’m also happy to see him grow a little more independent leaving me with my own time and space. Things are pretty great right now.

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.

it is such a fascinating time of discovering, this pre 5 age, being hungry for life and learning with so many questions and wonder. i can’t say that i’m terribly thrilled to play ALL of his games but in nature is where we most easily connect and are most deeply satisfied. he still won’t touch pages of books with spiders or crabs or other creepy crawlies but his curiousity is aroused by the ever so curious snail.

and worms, well, they’re like treasures and there are plenty to find. at preschool one child asks, “can that worm be my worm?” another child replies, “the worms belong to all of us.” they are utterly enthralled.

 there are ample egg projects going on at the moment.

saving some and  crushing some;

still life and new life;

some natural dyeing - we boiled a pot of red cabbage for blue eggs and a pot of yellow onion skins for brown. i did try to dye some of these in cold water so that i could blow the eggs out afterward  but the colors were not as vibrant. i was surprised that the play silk i tossed in with the cabbage mix came out purple instead of blue. it’s a perfect shade for Easter. i like it. i also made a brownish orangish one in the onion skin mix that suits Autumn more.

some Easter love in the mail from Kiki. we love this sweet and soft little egg cozy/wee nest/mousie hat;

Twice a week we drive through Stanley park to and from preschool.  it’s the part of the commute that makes it all worthwhile. Of course the Waldorf school is worth it but i’ve never commuted so far for a job even. The first day to school i drove the typical route bumper to bumper from one bridge through downtown to another bridge. Little A asked if there was a festival that there were so many people awake in the morning? There damn well should have been. Traffic and commuting is soooo not my world and i was quite ready to let Waldorf go and commit entirely to homeschooling but then i discovered the park route. i think it must be longer in distance but it knocked 20mins off our time to miss all the traffic and lights. Now it is a beautiful and relaxing morning drive. Anyhoot, it was gorgeus out yesterday; blue skies and the forest steamy with sunshine drying dew. We made a stop at the beach and lost track of time. it was the day’s highlight writing letters and playing games in the sand.

Happy is for Birthday Grandma D (she’s a beach gal herself).

it’s been so gorgeous these past few days and today was no exception despite less blue and more clouds. Little A and i packed a snack tiffin, some beginner bird books, a little wild bird feed and headed out to the duck pond again in search of hungry ducks;

the ice has melted since last week.  i think the ducks were happy to see us and they seemed to love the feed much more than the few crushed up and stale cheddar bunnies we had to offer last week. i know i know but it wasn’t bread right?

hello handsome;

“mommy why are they all splashing away?” it was quite a mud splash that  reached me and my camera;

and then right before my lens - a juvenile goshawk with a duck in tow. wow.

amazing to watch so close;

i knew little A would be totally cool to stay and watch as he had seen grandma’s cat catch and eat an entire bird in close proximity and found it utterly fascinating down to the crunch of the bones.  i was completely surprised by his cool. i didn’t expect it. yay for grandma telling me to back off that time.

So hawks prey on other birds. A juvenile goshawk has yellow eyes. A female is much larger than a male. Goshawks were extinct for awhile in Britain.  a pretty cool learning experience - much more than we had anticipated.

we also saw a blue heron but she didn’t want us to get close to share some of our bird seed;

i’ve posted a number of out door snowy December shots which are now beginning to all look the same but no, i just couldn’t resist little A’s red coat in white snow and his big fat smile playing out there. We have spent just as much time in our coop, busying ourselves with playful projects… This little tomten’s cottage was part of a trade that i made with Sandra of WinterwoodToys some time ago ( over a year at least). it took me a long long while to find a fabric stiffener to turn this flattened woolen home into a standing structure, which, alas, we are more than pleased with.  i love it. it was intended to be a gingerbread home to decorate. Instead i chose to keep it plain and simple so that we may use it less seasonally but rather throughout the year in our puppet shows.

At various times my sitting space has been invaded to build a nest or den or cozy reading space (of course now it is occupied by our lovely tree). i do indeed have plans to sew a teepee for this sort of play but no pressure this New Year…right? i’ve been puttering about, painting wee tomtens and a wee family for a friend with a new wee one in a sling. Little A has been following suit with the painting, doing his own thing which makes me happy. He’s also becoming more interested in costume design and dressing up. Below is his sometimes witches hat that he is so very proud of (even though i mostly made it under his direction). We continue our collaborative “doe and fawn”project which we intended to gift away to many more of you readers than we’ve actually been able to. The intention was there but the follow through more challenging (and costly due to postage fees).

We rearranged the kitchen play space and it’s been getting a lot more action.  it’s amazing how a little mixing will stir up forgotten games and make them new again.

an old bus full of kids and a new bridge add to his game of “box car derby”

Last month we went to see Seussical the Musical and it proved to be an inspiring event for the little monkey who now puts on variations of his own interpretive performances. “Rainbow fun” “Scissor Sky” “Baby Bear’s Birthday” … some of these are highly entertaining but i’m beginning to get my fill as i am usually on stage clean up duty.

From our coop a short distance to the library…we have spent some time here, reading and borrowing;

it’s been fun. we’re looking forward to a new month and a new year.

Little bear has joined our collection of friends by way of the elves, along with sweet Eloise’s Hide N’ Seek stickers. “mom this is the friend i told you about”. There is nothing short of adorable about this gals artwork and her attention to packaging detail was a great treat - a totally exciting package to open. loved it.

In the Waldorf Advent celebration there is great attention, recognition and appreciation of the natural world.  Each week recognizes the strength and beauty of the 4 Kingdoms; Mineral, Plant, Animal/Beasts, Human Beings.

i read and copied this from a Waldorf site that i can’t recall but here it is;

“Advent can move us toward a deeper understanding of our place in the universe, of all that supports us, and all that we aspire to, as well as all that needs our protection and support.”

and so in attempt to incorporate some of this into our own Advent-ure i felted some river stones for the little one and we have been felting more stones together since “the elves” delivered these.  i was a bit stumped on the mineral week.

Little A’s loose wrapping of the roving led to this wonderful mistake and discovery of a pebble cozy. you can’t see it at this angle but there is a line/crack in the rock in red which looks like a mouth. we call this one baby beluga in a sleeping bag. Little A is so proud of it. The happy accident happened again with my brown one tucked in there on the right - not enough wool i guess. i sort of like the rock cozies. it makes a good toy for curious little ones.

This next week we will consider more of plant life. i hope to set up our tree, string some berries, do some apple star painting, a little baking… does anyone know how to make apple slice decorations? is it as easy as slicing them thinly and hanging them? We got messy with paint again as Little A added layers to his watercolors with some potato stamping. good times as long as i backed off enough to let him go for it.